I think life is better today than it was in 1970. You must consider that the 1970s started about 25 years after the United States bombed the bejeezus out of eve

I think life is better today than it was in 1970. You must consider that the 1970s started about 25 years after the United States bombed the bejeezus out of every single major industrial center in the world. America made "the best cars in the world" at a time when factories in Stuttgart, Munich, and Ingolstadt were lying in ruble--and with the world's top scientists, engineers, artists, designers, and architects pouring into the country. The American middle class saw a rapid rise in their wealth and standard of living during this time. An inexperienced worker could walk into a factory job in the US and enjoy a very high level of affluence relative both to their skill and the rest of the world. This state of affairs completely broke down in the 1970s and economic progress in the US after this time has been of an entirely different flavor. To take 1950-1970 as an example of "the way things ought to be" is highly unrealistic. Workers in the US are still making more, much much more in most cases, than their counterparts in other countries.