I heard that 94% of the laptops/notebooks in the world are now made by a handful of companies (mostly ODM companies) from Taiwan. Also, a single semiconductor company there, TSMC, has 50 to 60 percents of the semiconductor foundry market share and manufactures all of iPhone’s AP chips now. The founder of that company is a US citizen, who was kind of “abandoned” by a US semiconductor, TI, in early 1990 (?) Most high-end Android phones’s main AP chips were made by them. It manufactures most of the high-end fabless chip companies in US, like Qualcomm (and also Nvidia.) It was among the top 3 semiconductor manufacturing companies: Intel, Samsung and TSMC. (Note that two of them are in small countries in the east Asia.)
@notrichenough, You must have been doing very well. My 30 yo’s first job pays more than the salary in my peak earning year during my whole life time. Should I pity myself or congratulate my son?! 
@mcat - You should plan to aggressively spend down your savings during retirement … you son won’t need it 
Haha, my first job out of college paid $26K per year. Was that good for 1983? I guess so. I graduated with an engineering degree, and I am still technical today.
I’m not sure exactly what company I was working for when I was 30. Now that I think about it, I’m probably making closer to triple now then when I was 30, although when you take almost 3 decades of inflation into account, it doesn’t look nearly that good. 
I think that’s a pretty normal progression for an engineer.
I remember when, if you made $1000 x your age, you were doing really well.
I also remember (quasi remember, I might have details wrong) when the lottery first started, and the payout was $50,000 for 20 years, and people felt that they would be “set for life.”
My first job out of college paid $22,400. Big 8 (back then) Accounting. This was mid-80’s. I also got a $750 bonus when I passed the CPA exam. So, per @IxnayBob ‘s factor I was doing “really well.” I wonder what a good benchmark factor would be today? I think it’s hard to say given the difference in COL across the country.
Hey, that is exactly what my starting salary was in 1980 with a new MBA. It was a little on the low side at the time, but I got to live in San Francisco! My first job in 1975 was with the federal government, and I think it was $8500 or $8900. I remember thinking if I could make $10k a year I would have it made!
Re health systems and rationing: One of my colleagues who used to be CEO of a hospital says, “All health care systems ration. The only question is what the basis for the rationing.” The US system rations based upon employment and ability to pay. I work as a consultant to companies in many industries around the world including health care (insurers, hospitals, pharma, diagnostic labs, etc.) and so have been able to learn about the performance and political economy of health are in different countries. The US has the most expensive healthcare system in the world, while leaving a substantial portion uncovered. Different countries have different mixes of public and private but generally produce better health care outcomes at lower cost. Many (UK, Australia, Canada), but not all, systems are challenged financially. Nonetheless, the US pays more than 18% of GDP (much higher than other countries) for incomplete health care coverage and not great health outcomes. Nothing to brag about.
I would think many people would want to stay employed until Medicare kicks in.
I’m in London for the opening of a one-person show of my wife’s paintings at a very nice gallery. Her first show in London. An interviewer asked her if she was nervous about her first one-person show in this iconic city. I could see her trying to figure out how to answer. I counted and this is her 21st one-person show including in NY and Toronto. She was very tactful. I’m very proud.
@shawbridge - Congratulations to Mrs. Shawbridge!
As far as wanting to stay employed until Medicare kicks in - We have witnessed many a 50-55-year old get laid off after long-time service. Many have had a difficult time finding employment. I have a friend who works for a local (county level) government agency. He says any job with benefits that gets posted gets well over 100 applicants.
Fancy!
Is the goal of a show like that to sell paintings? Get commissions? Get more widely known?
I know nothing about the art world. It’s a strange place, from what I’ve read::
[High End Art is One of the Most Manipulated Markets in the World](High-end art is one of the most manipulated markets in the world)
Good luck to her!
LOL. Polka dots seem to sell clothes, too. D&G polka dot collection items fly off the shelves of preowned clothing websites even at those astronomical (for used pieces) prices.
My first job out of college paid $7,000 a year. Yes, a year. It was 1970.
I very quickly got a $10-a-week raise, so I was earning $7,500 a year. I thought I was rich. Hah.
I started at $25k in the late 80s at a soon to be Big 6 accounting firm. Don’t recall a bonus or raise for passing the exam but I think they reimbursed study costs. I don’t recall ever saying as a single person with that income “I want to do X but cannot afford it.” Add a wife and 2 kids almost a decade later and even with a lot of additional gross income, I said that all the time. LOL
@Hoggirl, You were talking about me! I lost my job at 55 after I had been working for that company for almost 20 years. At that time, I decided to “stay put” in that state because, by doing so, I could keep my son’s residency status in that state - and this could be important for him. (When a child is in college, his/her residency status is the same as the parents’ state.)
That company still provided pensions to its employees as a part of the benefits and somehow it allows an ex-employee to start collecting pension as long as he is older than 55 (at a huge discount though — 50% discount.) So I started to collect my pension from that company at 55. A year later, my son did not need the residency status from our state anymore so I moved and landed a job in my (new) state where there are more job opportunities in my field. (It turns out he did not need the residency status of our (old) state in the end because he ended up not attending a public school in our state.)
I almost had to cash out my 401k and IRA in that year. Fortunately, I did not have to because I was out of job for slightly less than a year only. It was my most stressful year. BTW, I believe that a special IRS rule would allow a person who is older than 55 to start his 401K distribution without a penalty as long as the annual distribution amount is equal to the total 401K amount divided by the number of years he is expected to live after 55.
Two points here:
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If your state is a “favorable” one when your child is pursuing a medical career, you should keep your state status as much as you can. I even heard that some parents choose to relocate from an “unfavorable state” (like California) to a “favorable state” (like Texas) solely for this purpose. But the catch is that the parents can find a job in this favorable state.
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In a financial crunch or hardship, a person can start early 401K distribution without a penalty as long as 1) he is older than 55 and he loses the job from this company which provides this 401K, or 2) he could prove the hardship and he is still employed by this company. In the latter case, he borrows the money from his own 401K account.
Could it be higher because it would soon be a big 6 accounting firm?
If my memory serves me well, I started at $33k-$34k for my first job after the graduate school, in 1984, in Silicon Valley. (The company is Intel.)
I started at $23K as a tech writer/editor in Chicago in 1981 with just a lowly English degree. DH was making a bit less, but our combined incomes were sufficient to live comfortably on the 30th floor of a highrise on Michigan Ave overlooking the lake. Good times. 
At the time of the offer, I am not sure how many people knew the Big 8 was about to become the Big 6. Offer was from Big 8 firm and mergers happened after I started full time. I was working in the non-Chicago Midwest. Lots of cows and goats in an office in a cornfield. LOL Probably didn’t have to pay us as much.
I started at $36k or so in 1982 with my new law degree. I believe I got a raise and bonus after passing the bar exam.
H was making much less than me at his fed govt job, despite having been at the job for over 15 years.
I started at $17.7K in 1985 in finance at the big aerospace company in town. It was about 60% more than I had earned at the big bank. Getting to $30K by age 30 was a big darn deal; I thought I’d hit the jackpot. H started somewhere around $26-27K in engineering in ‘82.
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=26000&year1=198307&year2=201903
$26,000 in 7/1983 = $66,158.68 in 3/2019
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=26%2C000.00&year1=198007&year2=201903
$26,000 in 7/1980 = $79,918.40 in 3/2019
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=8500.00&year1=197507&year2=201903
$8,500 in 7/1975 = $39,865.63 in 3/2019
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=7000.00&year1=197007&year2=201903
$7,000 in 7/1970 = $45,626.00 in 3/2019
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=33000&year1=198407&year2=201903
$33,000 in 7/1984 = $80,582.77 in 3/2019
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=23%2C000.00&year1=198107&year2=201903
$23,000 in 7/1980 = $63,828.01 in 3/2019
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=36%2C000.00&year1=198207&year2=201903
$36,000 in 7/1982 = $93,859.20 in 3/2019
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=17700&year1=198507&year2=201903
$17,700 in 7/1985 = $41,738.18 in 3/2019
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=26000&year1=198207&year2=201903
$26,000 in 7/1982 = $67,787.20 in 3/2019