I remember 1955 and am here to testify to the fact that today's poor are not better off than we were back then.
We may have color TVs instead of the clunky old black and white but we never feared that we would be killed in a drive-by shooting. It was safe for children to walk to school in those average neighborhoods and when the kids got sick, the doctor came to the house. No waiting for hours in a crowded hospital emergency room after the illness has become serious.
Moms were home (and could afford to be) supervising as kids ran safely from house to house playing. No pushers, no muggings.
We average types planned yearly vacations. We were respected members of respectable communities.
Believe me, I would rather be average in 1955 than poor in 2005.
Well, you probably wouldn't have wanted to be black in 1955 or have a kid with polio in an iron lung machine. Then there was the Cold War and the chance that World War III would break out at any moment.
In any event, the prosperity of the 1950s through the early 1970s were an economic anomaly that won't be repeated any time soon.