One of the narratives that the right wing likes to trumpet is that if you work hard, work smart, and work right, you'll be promoted into positions of power where you can make a much better living. Or, with a good idea and a little ingenuity, you can start you own business and turn yourself in a proper, wealthy Job Creator (tm).
Never mind that getting a small business loan is nearly impossible these days. Nevermind that venture capitalists, burned out by a decade of dot com bust, only go for experienced entrepreneurs. And never mind that these days, most companies would rather fire the expensive, experienced employees and go for the younger, cheaper crowd, in the most blatant display of ageism the market has ever seen.
Until every single person in the country is self employed, we will always have the manager and subordinate dynamic. That's just the way our businesses have worked. Not everyone gets to be the manager.
But why should only the manager make a decent living?
The average median wage has fallen to its lowest levels since 1999. The benchmark for the ratio of managers to employees is generally considered 1 to 10 - for every ten people working, there should be at about one boss. (I had a hellish time as a supervisor once when I was trying to managed 15 people... it was a juggling act and I dreaded coming into work every day.)
Since the median income is based on the middle by numbers, it probably doesn't include the managers salaries (since, based on that 10 to 1 ratio, and using the logical assumption that most managers are paid a little bit more than the regular workers, the managers are probably somewhere in the 90th percentile for the median, as opposed to the 50th which would be solidly workers.)
The national average salary for 2005 was $42028. (It seems to have dropped in 2010 by a few hundred dollars.) Quite a bit higher than the median income, no? That's because the managers are skewing the average, apparently to the tune of $15,000 more.
But not everyone gets to be the manager. Some people aren't cut out to be managers - wrong personalities, wrong skills, wrong mindset. And even if every person technically had the qualifications to become a manager someday, the magical 10 to 1 ratio would ensure that the majority of them would stay at the lower runs in an organization until they were just about ready to retire.
Sometimes all the hard work and great ideas in the world can't get you promoted.
There's no reason you shouldn't be able to afford to raise a family despite this.