re: I'm sick of people saying the middle class is worse off than 4 decades ago.

So, bottom line of the detractors in this thread.

Their thesis is basically this. "People in 2017 are more challenged economically than those in 1970". The why of their argument isn't a big deal for this post.

You see, the problem with trying to use comparative data is that you'll endlessly talk about data that has too many variables to deal with.

A better way to evaluate is simply to look at the choices the people who actually lived the situations make or made.

With that.

1)People in 1970 had a lower rate of home ownership
2)People in 1970 had a FAR lower rate of car ownership
3)People in 1970 made FAR fewer purchases of luxury items available to them in their day.

1)Demand today not only drives higher homeownership rates but, those homes are 1000sf larger with far more non-essential luxuries like granite countertops.

2)Demand today drives not only a higher rate of car purchases but purchases of cars that cost far more even after cost of living. It isn't as if people today are prevented from buying less expensive cars. They could. But, they don't. If they genuinely were worse off than in 1970, the streets would be flooded with Nissan Versas, not SUVs.

3)Demand today not only drives purchase of cell phones, but purchases of the nicest phones possible AND, REPEATED purchases of upgraded phones when your 2010 phone would do you just fine. You might be able to argue a cell plan is a necessity but you damned sure can't argue a cell plan with max data on the newest iPhone is.

If you want to measure how well people are doing, stop trying to count dollars. Their BEHAVIOR will tell you.