In the mid-1900's, my parents raised 6 kids. Owned a decent home. And put the 6 of us through good colleges, debt-free. All on dad's so-so white collar incom

In the mid-1900's, my parents raised 6 kids. Owned a decent home. And put the 6 of us through good colleges, debt-free. All on dad's so-so white collar income, with close to zero "family" wealth on either side. Mom was a mother and housewife, but not a helicopter parent - it was normal and accepted to let us kids walk to & from school every day, and to roam the neighborhood (alone or with friends) during daylight hours. There wasn't anything special about this - plenty of relatives, friends, and neighbors did similar. Vs. these day - unless you were in the lucky 0.1%, could you even dream of doing that?