Food is a lot cheaper now than it was then. As is clothing, especially at Walmart. If you look through an old Sears catalog the worker-hours needed to buy prett

Food is a lot cheaper now than it was then. As is clothing, especially at Walmart. If you look through an old Sears catalog the worker-hours needed to buy pretty much everything people buy has declined - all the stuff is cheaper, not just electronics. (Ikea helps too!) Buying a house might be more expensive, but the average house is so much bigger and better today that it's hard to do a direct comparison.