Our parents and grandparents often keep telling us how easy it was to live and work back in a day. How living costs and groceries were not this hard to afford. We have been witnessing increased pressure at work, and we try not to break under that pressure. However, the work is not very rewarding anymore when we keep struggling to keep up with living costs and it is not very fair to us. The economy of the United States has been soaring when we compare statistics of today to those of 1973. The costs of food, living and accommodation have still been increasing, and an increase in salaries since then has not been sufficient to keep up with the same standard of living over the years.
Statistics shows an increase of about 400 percent in our salaries since 1973. The situation seems quite favorable yet we are still struggling to make ends meet. The reason is the other side of this claim; which is the expenses. The costs of housing has increased by 461%, cost of groceries by 450%, buying a new car costs 8 times more in 2013, the prices of gasoline since have increased by 937% and average cost for rent has increased by 580%. We have had all these changes to keep up with, and an increase in salary since then was only four times. In addition, these figures only reflect the average cost. People living in classy areas of the cities have had a greater gap to catch up on. There, of course, are also those who have limited their costs to within their budget. They may not be under as much stress; their living standards however have become more meager. Planning a family is a step that greatly helps deal with the issue of cost of living and abortion is another cost that becomes inevitable. Looking at the trends of abortion cost since 1973 to 2013, we can discern that the cost to get an abortion was $200 in 1993. Today, the cost of abortion ranges between $300 and $3,000. The added cost is one more reason, which makes abortion a hard choice; a choice that families are forced to struggle with because of ever-increasing costs.
Some trends suggest an improvement in the standards of living since the 1973 and those trends are not lying. Entertainment is one aspect that has become quite affordable with the prices of cellular phones, laptops, iPads etcetera becoming more and more affordable. The problem however lies in the very basic costs that are essential for survival. The entertainment could become as cheap as possible but we are still going to rely of food, clothes and shelter with the same intensity and how rich and poor we really are actually determined by the extent to which we can afford these necessities.
Work Cited
CULP-RESSLER, TARA. By The Numbers: Why Most U.S. Women Struggle To Afford Abortion. 8 May 2013. <http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/05/08/1979831/women-struggle-afford-abortion/>.
valley, Little house in the. Cost of Living Comparison-1973 versus 2013. <http://www.littlehouseinthevalley.com/cost-of-living-comparisons>.
Wood-Harvey, Darlene. How Much Does An Abortion Cost? . <http://www.priestsforlife.org/how-much-does-abortion-cost.aspx>.
