> The generation that was coming of age at the time is the first in American history to have a lower quality of living than their parents.

I hate this way of thinking. The parents, at the same stage in life, didn’t have magical devices they could hold in their hands that would answer any question ever asked in human history, for example.

Progress matters. Just because the average 20 year old at that time could rent a 10% smaller apartment than their parents could, doesn’t mean they would necissarily trade what they have access to in 2007 for what their parents could access in the eighties.

People in 2007 are vastly better off than in 1984.