> 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 c

> 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: * http://archive.is/https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/04/how-america-spends-money-100-years-in-the-life-of-the-family-budget/255475/ 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-transport-geography/transport-communication-costs-index/ 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)#1967–1968 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Mustang_(first_generation... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Mustang_(seventh_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.