Someone once said that the good ole days was when bread was 10 cents a loaf......
But you didn't have 10 cents.

With the dollar inflation since we left the gold standard, you cannot simply compare the cost of anything. Better is to figure the hours worked to buy stuff as was mentioned above. Things haven't changed all that much, nor should you expect them to.
Lake Wobegon where ALL the children are above average---it simply doesn't exist. In the same way, we cannot ALL be above average wage-earners, either.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags