Great article! But I'm wondering about the low pay stuff. In Michigan where I live, the average police officer makes $54,000 per year. That's more money than the average resident makes, and because cost of living is pretty low here, it's actually a pretty nice salary.

If a spouse were making the same, or even quite a bit less, the family would still have enough money to comfortably raise children, own a home, drive more than one vehicle, and afford vacations.

Plenty of working Michiganders make a lot less than 54k per annum, and they do fine.