They lived in a house or apt with a third the sqft/person that was far more likely to catch fire and didn't have AC.

If they had a car they most likely shared it. It was far less safe, didn't have AC, guzzled gas and polluted.

Never ate out and spent a third of earnings on cheap grocery store staples.

College and healthcare was much cheaper, and they got a lot less of it.

We're benefiting greatly from the increase in productivity. We just view our great-grandfather luxuries as our necessities.

Yeah I think people need to start asking the question, "Where is the money going". Its not just inexistent, its literally going somewhere other than your pocket.

It's rent seeking, the antithesis of capitalism. It's always been. Enabled by abuse of government power. And no, it's not a partisan issue.

You see this pattern across the American economy. The boomers locked in their house values by passing all the zoning regulations to artificially restrict the supply of housing. AMA artificially restricts the supply of doctors to increase their wages. Accreditation pushed ever higher costs on universities which increased costs, and the availability of loans basically cut off the brake cable. And who do you think is really benefitting from all the companies enshittifying everything and pushing up costs? The billionaires and retirees of course. And the young/working people are paying for it.

The solution for individuals is arbitrage. Remote work, get healthcare abroad, and avoid college tuitions. The fact that these things make sense at all shows how broken the markets are.

And that someone is mostly government, which is a growing and increasingly wasteful fraction of GDP. We really need to start reining in the national debt and government spending. Drain the swamp.