"So how about sources then?" Are you kidding me? You must be young :). Don't you have grandparents? Ask them. Look at their photos. Are you too young to rem

"So how about sources then?" Are you kidding me? You must be young :). Don't you have grandparents? Ask them. Look at their photos. Are you too young to remember a time without smartphones, internet? Have you ever driven a car from the 1960s? Would you dare say that a Nintendo 64 is 'the same as' an XBox one? You do realize that commercial air has exploded since the 1960's - it was once a 1%-er activity? You do know that the number of people attending post-high school education is about tripled, right? Do you remember a time when 'open heart surgery' was extremely rare and probably meant you died? It's common now. They can do hip replacements with a little slit. If you can't get a hard-on - there's a pill for that. Do you realize that 'there was no TV' in the early 1950's for all intents and purposes? That a large number of people, on farms and rural areas did not have plumbing (i.e. toilets?). My eldest uncle used an outhouse until he was 16. And they were the 'rich' family in town - with the first colour TV! Do you realize that this very discussion could not even happen in the 1970's? And that basically nobody envisioned that it could have? Man - not even long ago - about the late 1990's - 'cell phones' were still a 'rich person' thing. Zero kids had cellphones. There was a meme of 'rich dicks' on their large cellphones talking loudly to brag that they had them. Life expectancy is way up. Almost every measure. You have to be very young if you're asking that question. Every single facet of material life has improved, except maybe 'time spent in traffic' and 'debt load'. And since 2008 the average home size and cars/person ratio has gone down a little bit.