You can argue that you believe the quality of life was the same, but objectively I think the standard of living clearly was not. We have higher expectations now. And we have to pay for them.
Jon C.
Good point. Yes, my mother and father had one car, one telephone (on the wall in our house), one black and white TV (that got channels 2, 4, 6 and a couple of UHF stations). We ate TV dinners on special nights and on really special occasions we went out to eat at a sandwich shop called the Purple Pickle. Life before the Internet and cable/satellite TV was way more simple, fun and happy.
Today, all of my family members own their own car, cell phone, have Internet, etc. However, my kids worked for those things. Did they get more than I did? Yes they did. Did it spoil them? No, it did not. They know how to work hard and aren't afraid to do it. They also live within their means.
Your argument is accurate to a point. Two-earner households enable families to buy things that their parents couldn't buy, but the over-all standard of living in my opinion, was better back then. I lived through those times at an age that I understood what was going on.