People made less money back then too, why does everybody forget that?
Did they, really, relative to the cost of living ?
I'm not saying this to diminish the achievements of the generations before us, or anything. On a very large number of accounts, current generations (first class citizens in the "first world") have lived peaceful, prosperous and exciting times. Economy-wise though, I'm not sure, and a lot of people of my father's generation actually agree with that.