Economy

and the line to pick up the checks stretched all the way around a city block. Nobody asked what jobs you'd applied for because there weren't any, not even fast food and diners were hiring.

We were young and unencumbered. It was a nightmare for people with mortgages and kids and it went on for months and months.

We started to take it on the chin when the jobs came back and a bunch of corporate types thought double digit inflation was a dandy time to hold wages down. And they did. Wages have never recovered the purchasing power they had in the early 70s, not even close. The minimum was a thrifty but living wage in 1970. It's far below bare subsistence now and Congress is sitting on its hands.