Well, I’m certainly much better off than I ever was. The wife, too.
There we have it. Mr. and Mrs. Average give a thumbs up, 
Yes, my real name is, in fact, Average Joe. 
I have to say that people in Thailand are economically better off, too. And it’s all related. Better health entails better productivity, and health services have definitely improved here over the years for the average and even below-average citizen. Greater opportunity for the locals abounds here. Improved infrastructure also leads to other improvements, including economic ones.
I would like to see a blue sky on a summer day.
I would like for my babysitter to be able to walk home safely at night (or at least think she can).
I would like to order pizza from a mom and pop restaurant.
I would like to see kids play street hockey.
I would like to go to the town fair and see everyone there.
I would like to see a high school education mean something.
I hear you about when you say that “these are the good old days”. I know I’ve got it 10 times better than my parents did. Sometimes I miss the innocence of growing up in the 60’s and 70’s. I’m glad I grew up when I did. And I do appreciate what I have.
We want what we can’t get, and nostalgia is just the ultimate example of that. People in the 60s and 70s were just as prone to longing for the good old days, and so were the people before them, and before them, and before them.
Until you get to the people right after the Bubonic Plague. Those folks were pretty chill.
Oh, you don’t have to go back to the Bubonic Plague days. Just 100 years ago, mortality rates were awful. I had an uncle who died young and needlessly in the 1930s from a burst appendix. Of course, thay could treat appendicitis back then, but this was in rural Arkansas, far away from any decent medical care.