| The answer to that question seems obvious: it depends. First, the 1930s aren't a great point of comparison (with Great Depression occurring then). The 1950s are a better comparison. Second, yes the broader advance of science and technology has lifted many boats simultaneously - we've all benefited from the advance of communications, medications, travel opportunities, etc (with some notable setbacks for those forced to pay the environmental costs of some of those advances). It's unquestionably better to be a non-white person in the US today than it was in the 1950s, even with all the systemic issues that still disproprortionately hinder them today. But by many other criteria, quality of life is worse: - Affordability of educational opportunities (i.e. the housing/school/childcare cost inflationary nexus, university fees) - Housing insecurity (many families pushed dislocated by rapidly rising rents). - Level of education/qualification required to achieve middle class comforts like housing security and good education for your kids (it'smuch higher). As others have noted, IPads and PlaysStations are not indicators of middle class comfort - paid vacation is. - Increasing despair/hopelessness/alienation/failure due to winner-take-all dynamics, with effects like the drug/opioid epidemics, mental illnesses, homelessness, high concentrations of violent crime in disadvantaged populations (despite overall lower crime than in the 1970s-1990s). - The spillover effects of all the above on those who are generally better off. |