[citation needed]
It is possible to do other ways. They demonize those ways. But back then that is how it was done previously. Redlining, not being eligible for the GI bill and thousands of other slights kept and keep minorities disadvantaged.
Combined with women entering the workforce. Basically doubling it, often while still getting paid less. It wasn’t coincidence that single income families started to falter around them. But rather than supporting people, we chose to enable the corporations taking advantage of them and siphoning up the wealth.
*Edit
At least we in the United States. YMMV in other places.
I mean, minorities got screwed over hard back then, both socially and economically, but making a living as a single income household as a minority was still much more viable than it is today.
The core issue isn’t that we’ve stopped subsidizing white males only, the core issue is that we’ve shifted gears into hyper-cannibalistic ultracapitalism since Reagan.