When I was young it was possible for a regular ordinary person to live in Manhattan or San Francisco or even London or Paris or Rome. Now Nashville is too rich for my blood.
It was also possible for somebody with an ordinary crappy job, if they stuck to it and got a few promotions, to raise a family, buy a house and a boat, a couple of cars, maybe have a lake cottage, and send their kids to college. Now that’s a description of a multi-millionaire.
What happened? It’s true the cars are a lot better, we can afford to fly places, we have gadgets we never dreamed of, and the internet is amazing, but being middle class ain’t what it used to be.