40 years ago, you could afford to not just survive, but live somewhere decent, enjoy life, travel, have kids, eat at restaurants, and even save a little. All of that was attainable and normal, with a normal job.
The reason it isn’t for us is NOT that we aren’t working hard enough or making good decisions about spending, it’s because the wealthy have systematically siphoned off every cent that they can—the wealth that is rightfully ours from the labor we generate and contribute to society—and taken it for themselves by sheer power and absence of resistance.
Never forget that. Never accept it.