Another perspective on this is that it's all relative. It's hard to compare wages across different times, but a lot of things that were considered part of a "ve

Another perspective on this is that it's all relative. It's hard to compare wages across different times, but a lot of things that were considered part of a "very comfortable living" are still pretty easy to obtain: kitchen appliances, cars, televisions, frozen vegetables, a family meal out. The reason the 50s in the US have such an association is that they were a lot better than the 30s & 40s, everyone's frame of reference. Also, cars enabled suburbs, supermarkets and other efficiencies.