The only reason ordinary man has those things and didn't in the 70's is nothing to do with him being better off..its to do with him being prepared to take more debt on. If ordianry man had taken the same debt level in the 70's he would have had all those things you list.
Lets look at 1971..and actually look at a things we had then and what they cost now...in fact i'll not include the recent years which might skew this..the recent austerity won't affect this much..except that since 2011 we haven't got better off have we?
Average Salary in 1971 = £2000
Average Salary in 2011 = £25000
increase factor 12.5
The average house in 1971 = £5632
The average house in 2011 = £238874
increase factor 42.4
that doesn't look like being better off to me...and its the biggest outlay anyone has each month.
gallon of petrol in 1971 = 33p
gallon of petrol in 2011 = £6
increase factor = 18.2
another chunk of outlay where we are paying a lot more than we did in 1971
thats two main items of many people's outlay that show we are paying more than we did in 1971..food may be a bit cheaper now..is it going to pull back those increases..no it isn't.
I can't find data for gas and electric..but i'll hazard a guess that they have gone up more than 12.5 times since 1971..another major outlay each month.
A foreign holiday being cheaper means nothing compared to the above.
You have confused living standards with people's ability to borrow. We are worse off today than we were in 1971...to the extent that even the most basic need..a home..is beyond the reach of many young people
