> People had vastly higher standards of living in the good old days.
As a percentage of spending on groceries, people used to spend 25% and now it's 10%; for clothing it used to be 10%, now it's 3%. In 1900 people used to spend over 40% of their budget on food:
Compare the Mustang (and Charger) in the 1968 movie Bullitt compared to today: more horsepower, more torque, better fuel mileage, better safety and comfort (air conditioning!).
As a percentage of spending on groceries, people used to spend 25% and now it's 10%; for clothing it used to be 10%, now it's 3%. In 1900 people used to spend over 40% of their budget on food:
* http://archive.is/https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archi...
Transportation and and telecommunication costs have plummeted over the decades:
* https://transportgeography.org/contents/chapter1/what-is-tra...
Compare the Mustang (and Charger) in the 1968 movie Bullitt compared to today: more horsepower, more torque, better fuel mileage, better safety and comfort (air conditioning!).
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Mustang_(first_generation...
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Mustang_(seventh_generati...
The main thing that has changed is that housing has gotten more expensive: just about everything else has gotten less expensive.