Maybe that was true, but I'll point out two things:
1. What has changed over the years hasn't been the COST of a "middle class lifestyle," but the DEFINITION of this lifestyle. You can still afford to live a middle-class lifestyle on one income today -- but only if your lifestyle involves things that were part of a middle class lifestyle 40+ years ago. How much do you think health care (to cite one example) would cost today if none of the treatments and medications developed in the last 50 years existed -- and anything more complicated than a broken bone was likely to be fatal? It wouldn't cost much at all.
2. Most of the things people today associate with a "middle class lifestyle" from prior generations only existed because they were facilitated by outright big-government socialism. I'll cite Social Security, Medicare, the GI Bill, the Interstate Highway System, and even the Homestead Act of the 19th century as prime examples of this.
Good points. I think the whole thing is insidious.
People used to get by with a fairly simple lifestyle. And it might be called Middle Class by the standards of the day, as you indicate.
But we fell into a consumerist lifestyle. Now, it’s none of my business — I’m not saying that people shouldn’t be allowed to buy big TVs or whatever. People buy what they want. All I say (and I think it’s what you’re saying) is that people have upped the definition of Middle Class and nowadays you need to work really hard, earn a lot of money, pay a lot of taxes and buy a lot of “stuff” if you want to feel good about yourself. I guess people think that makes them happy, but I think they may be fooling themselves.
When the Fed injects trillions into the economy, and then we allow China to flood the country with a lot of cheap goods, it becomes pretty easy to inflate the Middle Class aspirations. And pretty soon everyone has a Jet Ski and 5 TVs.
I think if the country came to tolerate less debt and had less of a consumer focus, people could pay less taxes, work less and be happier. But that’s just my opinion. I’m a Conservative so I wouldn’t really want the government to force people to buy less stuff. That’s an Elizabeth Warren kind of approach. I just wish people wanted to simplify their lives.