A 1967 TV interview asked a family what they spent. The numbers are hard to look at now.

In 1967, an Australian television crew sat down with Kevin and Heather Conway and asked them to account for their money. The Conways had four children and one income. Kevin brought home $41 a week after tax. With child endowment (the government payment to families at the time), it came to $45.50. Heather spent between $7.50 and $8 a week feeding six people. A couple shopping in the 1950s. Photo credit: The Oregon State University Collections and Archives via Unsplash. Yes, really They lived in a housing commission home (Australia’s public housing), and paid $9.80 a week in rent, not counting electricity and gas. When asked what he’d consider a decent wage, Kevin named a figure well above what he was earning. ABC Australia (@abcaustralia) resurfaced the interview recently with the modern equivalents laid alongside the originals, and the clip has been circulating since. Kevin’s $41 becomes roughly $656 a week. The $45.50 with endowment becomes about $728. The grocery budget goes from $8 to around $128. The rent goes from $9.80 to about $157. Everything is in Australian dollars, then and now. Viewers can’t believe it The comments have been less about the math and more about what it implies. “No travel, take away, tattoos, video games, new cars, four bed, two bath with media room, no nails, eyelashes,” one viewer wrote. “They lived very humbly.” Another was blunter about the comparison. “Modern families with two incomes can’t afford to have four kids. I think that says enough.”