Of course not. But that's not at all what the survey was about. The topic is the "Percent who believe they and their families will be better off in five years

Of course not. But that's not at all what the survey was about. The topic is the "Percent who believe they and their families will be better off in five years’ time" when asked now, vs. in an earlier survey. 50 years ago it was also true that working really hard as a janitor for 5 years generally would not have as meaningful impact on your life compared to working really hard as a lawyer for 5 years. But the point is that 70 years ago, in the post-war boom, a janitor probably believed their life would get better. Even if never as good as a hard-working lawyer.