Keep in mind that salary is a record lows in those same countries as well. We are no longer the generation of a single salary being able to sustain a family, and save for the future.
Record lows? Try record highs. Plus even the poorest have access to things that used to be considered luxuries. I doubt anyone feeling pinched today would give up what they have to go back in time to the "golden age" of the past because people struggled then too. I know people who were wiped out by 25%+ interest rates in the late 70s.