“Chicken Wings, Nobody Should Be Paying $2 Per Wing”: 30 Things People Can No Longer Afford

To find out how this conversation started in the first place, we reached out to Reddit user Dash_Weh_Dat, who posed the question, "What was affordable 50 years ago that now only the rich can buy?” They were kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda and share what inspired them to start this thread. 

"Well, I was having a discussion with some millennial and Gen Z friends at a housewarming party (it's a rental by the way)," the OP said. "A friend showed us pictures she took while she was on vacation in California with her parents at her grandparent's country home. We noticed that they were extremely well off."

"Someone asked her if her family had always been wealthy. She said her grandfather worked as a factory manager, and his grandmother was a housewife," Dash_Weh_Dat continued. "They managed to save up for a house and a vacation home 5 hours away. Eventually they moved to the country home and sold their first house for six figures."

"One income managed to get them all that. While we are struggling to make ends meet, we have to sometimes take out loans. 50 years ago, it seemed you only needed a regular job, save up for 2-5 years and pay for a house in cash. Try doing that today even on a manager's salary," they told Bored Panda.

We were also curious what the OP has noticed has become unattainable today. "Owning a home or an apartment seems like something only wealthy people can purchase, unless it's an inheritance," they shared. "Buying a car is quite expensive nowadays, the maintenance, insurance, taxes that come with it as well."

"Food such as vegetables, meat, dairy and fruits that used to be cheap back in the day and abundant are now quite expensive. I see why people opt for junk food to save money," they added.

Sadly, Dash_Weh_Dat doesn't expect any of these things to become affordable again in the future. And as far as the responses to their post, they said the replies were "on the nose."

"I agree with most of them apart for the 'trolly' ones," they added. "None of them surprised me."