In some ways maybe.

In the 50s your wife stayed home to work while you worked a blue-collar job, probably having only a high school diploma (if that), and your blue-collar job supported a family of 2.1 kids, your wife, Rex the dog, a car, and a mortgage in the suburbs. Oh and it probably came with a pension. Everyone smoked indoors. Companies felt obliged to look after their (male) workers and sexual harassment of female employees was routine and casual racism was baked-in to the culture.

Over the years CEO pay has risen something like 1000% and worker pay less than 20%.

Now companies spy on their workers and engage in union-busting while paying their workers a pittance such that even a person working two minimum wage full-time jobs is barely able to sustain a family in the USA and Canada. We don't smoke indoors any more. Sexual harassment of female employees is still routine and casual racism is institutionalized but perhaps less overt today.

I guess society can pride itself of the smoking thing but we've either made no progress or regressed in a lot of ways.

>someone fired end of story

Take off your rose-coloured glasses.