Oh I don't know, that large swath of decades where housing was cheap relative to the last 10 years, a high school education could get a job that afforded a middle class existence and education could be paid for with a part time job? Hell for part of that period wages even grew with productivity, what luxury! Sure some things are better today, but the cost of the necessities of life are through the roof relative to wage growth.

Back in the 70s my dad worked his ass off between classes and jobs to pay his own way through his PhD, and owned a small house off his stipend/odd jobs and my mom's salary as a public school teacher, in a decent area of California no less. Even he's admitted that would be simply impossible today.