Michael League said: In the 1950s a middle class family could live off of one salary, usually the husbands and support their kids without taking on much debt at all because wages were good and distributed well. As the distribution has changed, first we had both parents start working in the 70s and 80s to supplement the family income and meet the needs.
Also (I am guilty of most of this too)
In the 50's a normal family probably had 1 car to share (not 1 per driving age person), no $200 cable bill, no $250 cell phone bill, no huge house payments (houses of the average family were smaller), no ipods, computers, gaming consoles, they didn't eat out 2 or 3 meals a day, they planned meals, grew gardens, canned vegetables. Kids wore hand me downs, and simple clothes, not as many big name designer clothes, kids played ball and all you needed was a glove (now the kids have to have high dollar bat bags, thier own bats, helmets, batting gloves ect).
Things have changed, and there are many many more examples I could use, but bottom line in my opinion, so many of us (including myself) have become very spoiled and used to eating what we want, getting what we want, and when we don't obsessing on what we don't have. I am honestly tired of living that way, and have been making improvements on instead of worrying about what I don't have, being very appreciative of what I do and trying to enjoy the simple things in life.