All I know is it was easier for my parents to buy a house, have two cars in the driveway, and do it all on one income.  Prior to that, my grandparents were building house after house and had a farm.  I was able to buy my own car while going to high school.  My kids couldn't even afford to drive due to the high rates of car insurance.

In my opinion, we've destroyed the family unit by forcing both parents to work whether they *want* to or not and our older kids upon graduating can't even afford to live in an apartment, at least in Alaska.  

We used to be able to go see a doctor and not get reamed.  Not anymore.  For some reason, we now have to pay for insurance so much, we can't afford to see the doctor.  (Does that even make sense?)  Our missiles now only work half the time, and let's not even start with the new jets.  We imprison more of our population than any other country in the world.

And finally, we have candidates like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.