In 1982, the American economy was in recession: 30-year fixed-rate home mortgage interest rates were 16 percent, the unemployment rate was at a post-WWII high of 10.8 percent, and construction and manufacturing, already declining from the collapse of the automobile industry, plunged deeper into decline. America’s adult males were hit particularly hard. That is precisely when my father, young and married with two toddler boys and a newborn (me), bought a house and decided to start his own business.
Read MoreCommentary: The Class Divide Is Killing the American Dream
