{"id":20052,"date":"2025-12-20T19:28:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T03:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/social.coldstreams.com\/?p=20052"},"modified":"2025-12-20T19:28:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T03:28:24","slug":"media-can-you-live-on-one-income","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/2025\/12\/20\/media-can-you-live-on-one-income\/","title":{"rendered":"Media: Can you live on one income?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here’s a news story summarizing the online meme <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

You\u2019ve probably seen the meme online: An attractive, happy family from the 1950s with the headline, \u201cOnce upon a time, in the \u201850s, a family could own a home, a car and send the kids to college, all on one income. But now that one-income dream is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea is that, today, it is basically impossible for a married couple with children to get by on less than two full-time incomes and live a comfortable lifestyle. That is, unless you have Ballerina Farm<\/a>-level money.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Putting families first: You shouldn\u2019t need Ballerina Farm money \u2013 Deseret News<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the data – since 2000, roughly 1\/3 of households have zero wage earners, 1\/3 have one earner, 1\/3 have two wage earners, and a few have 3 or more. The proportions have been nearly constant except a slight decrease in one wage earners offset exactly by an increase in zero wage earners (not two or more). This is likely due to the large baby boom cohort retiring – and moving from the wage earner category to the zero wage earner category (as seen in the numbers).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcca Percent of U.S. Households by Number of Wage Earners<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(From Census Bureau CPS Annual Social & Economic Supplements and BLS household data)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year<\/th>Zero Earners<\/th>One Earner<\/th>Two Earners<\/th>3+ Earners<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
2000<\/strong><\/td>~31%<\/td>~29%<\/td>~34%<\/td>~6%<\/td><\/tr>
2005<\/strong><\/td>~32%<\/td>~28%<\/td>~34%<\/td>~6%<\/td><\/tr>
2010<\/strong><\/td>~35%<\/td>~28%<\/td>~31%<\/td>~6%<\/td><\/tr>
2015<\/strong><\/td>~33%<\/td>~27%<\/td>~34%<\/td>~6%<\/td><\/tr>
2020<\/strong><\/td>~36%<\/td>~27%<\/td>~31%<\/td>~6%<\/td><\/tr>
2025<\/strong><\/td>~34%<\/td>~26%<\/td>~34%<\/td>~6%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau CPS ASEC household tables (2000\u20132025), Bureau of Labor Statistics CPS household data<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udd0e Key Trends<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Three or more earners (5\u20137%)<\/strong>: A small but stable group, usually multi-generational households or families with adult children working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zero earners (30\u201336%)<\/strong>: Includes retirees, disabled individuals, students, and households relying on non-wage income. This share spikes during recessions (2008\u20132010, 2020 pandemic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One earner (26\u201330%)<\/strong>: Often single-adult households or families with one primary breadwinner. As this decreased, the zero earner category went up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two earners (31\u201335%)<\/strong>: The largest category, reflecting dual-income families. This proportion dipped during recessions but rebounded in recovery years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The proportion of households living on zero, one or two incomes has remained nearly constant for 25 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,362,25,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everything-is-awful","category-gen-z","category-internet-meme","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}