Whenever you see someone posting about novel theories about causes of depressions, alarm bells go off. Usually, they're selling something, maybe just clicks.

The consensus on causes of the Great Depression include: https://www.history.com/articl...
- Nations reluctance to trade with each other after WWI.
- Unrestrained speculation.
- Fed blunders
- The Gold Standard
- Tariffs (Smoot Hawley)

The author you cited, thinks he has found some new correlations that economists had missed. That's pretty bold. And as we hear around here a lot, correlation is not causation.

My other son makes *less* money, and has $12K in the bank.

Sounds like you don't have children. They tend to have a mind of their own.

You're right, in California and New York, it takes a lot more than $135K to be upper middle class.

In about 45 states, you're doing just fine on that income.

I have a son who's in this category, unable to pay a $500 emergency expense. It is *NOT* because he doesn't make enough money. It's because if there's money in his account, he thinks he has money to spend. Therefore, his account is always below $500. He and his wife have $400 smartwatches, streaming subscriptions galore, two cars, and gadgets everywhere.

I suspect many Americans who can't pay for a $500 emergency expense are in this category. They haven't learned how to budget, or the importance of setting aside money for a rainy day.

Grandma's advice about money is still good. People have just forgotten to pay attention to her.

*Device manufacturer* apps are all like this.

Dell and HP (and all the other PC brands) think they can put a face on Windows better than Microsoft. ALL of their little add-on apps suck.

Every phone brand wants you to see the world through their little front end, and they all suck.

I use Motorola phones because they give you the closest thing to plain-old Android that you can find anywhere.

OSes (and basic apps) are hard. Leave it to the OS companies.

Well, to be fair, Apple users had problems sending and receiving RCS until Google made a huge stink. But of course that was not a standards issue, it was a marketing issue.

Yes, Windows 1 sucked. Windows 2 sucked. And Windows 3 sucked, and 98, and Me, and quite a few others. What does that have to do with this subject?

You didn't actually address any of the points I made. I guess you accept them then.

Yes, I'm very, very embarrassed.

Oh wow, maybe YOU should be doing your own research on this, since you know so much about it!

My quote was from the lead author of the study, Matthew Campen.

Do you suppose he came to a different conclusion than his study? He said, quote:

Maybe he didn't read his own study as carefully as you did?

Houses in every developed nation have gotten bigger, not just in America.

Want to include undeveloped nations where houses haven't grown so much? Go ahead! Tell me how well off *they* are compared to Western civilization.

No, not equivalent. That's not what your AI said. It said "Today, the average U.S. home price is well over $400,000." That average home is not equivalent to the average 1950's home. Today's average home (2400 sf) is 2.5x larger than the average home in 1950 (980 sf).

So you've updated components of the Android or iOS operating systems, through an APK or IPA? Impressive!

Hey, you can use AI! Good for you!

I don't disagree with what it said. Housing has inflated faster than overall inflation. Yes, this is true! It's also true that our standard of living has increased since the 1950s. Your premise was that people in the 1950s could afford to "live better" than we do now. This is simply false. They had a lower standard of living, and therefore required less of a job to maintain it; i.e., a clerk could afford rent in a typical home. Today, the standard of living is much higher, and it takes a better job to afford it. But that does not mean life was "better" or "easier" back then! It just means we just expect more now.

I see you've run out of intelligent things to say.