>And why does it take both parents working in some families to make it? Excessive Government taxation for one. About half our family income goes to taxes in some form or another. Just think, a 10% Federal tax cut to many Americans is worth more than a 15% pay raise.

OK, let me get my last paycheck to see how we compare:

Tax: 29.25%

Employment insurance: 2.25%

Pension plan: 3.5%

Insurance: 1.25%

That leave me 63.75% of my money gained in my pocket. Now, everytime I buy something, I have to add an extra 15% in tax. I roughly estimate that to about 11% of my week pay before the deductions. So I really get about 53% of my pay left in my pocket. Now, I'm depressed :(

The amount of taxes you pay surprise me, because nearly everybody here will list "Less taxes" has their #1 reason to go work in the USA. Here in the province of Quebec, we are often told that we are the most taxed in America and near the top in the world. I guess that the amout of taxes you pay depends on the state.

>A contributing factor is people wanting [not needing] to live at a more luxuriant level than is necessary.

This is a stronger reason IMO to explain why both parents work. Never underestimate the power of marketing...

>I would guess that if I were taxed at 1960s levels, my take-home pay and disposable income would be at least 75% more. Now that is significant.

Part of the reason we pay more taxes is because the tax was not high enough in that time for the standard of living at that time. Here in Canada, the governement put the country in deep deficit for many years in that time. Now we pay astronomic interest fees and we are not done yet with that deficit. Add to that that the population is getting older with all that means (less tax payers, higher medical needs, etc.) and the youngs will have to work hard to meet both ends.

>More funding for education is not the answer either. In the US billions of dollars are syphoned out of our school districts by the Federal gov't to fund the Department of [no]Education. This Dept does absolutely nothing to further education in this country. All it does is line the pockets of thousands of non-educators in gov't jobs. This Dept was created in the late 70s by then President Jimmy Carter as a payoff to the Teacher Unions who helped get him elected. If that Dept were abolished today and all funds used to support that Dept were then given back to the school districts, then we would have radical change in our schools. The hidden bonus to this is the sudden wealth districts would have because the burden of Federal administrative crap would be gone as well. Can you say significant and meaningful teacher pay raises?

Now that suck. Hello governement transparency...