I would say there's a big difference with the past economy and the present but life is in stages and just as an individual grows, it get past some certain stages and phases so this is certainly another stages of the economy that we need to know or experience and yes life don't usually give you what you expect on most cases so you need to adjust to it.

Tho the past economy was far better of than this in the sense of balancing to the needs of  the average man as well but now it's been difficult for many as they tend to scale through this phase of the economy.
Imagine then in the past you can use let's say 10$ to go to the markets to get groceries for the house and you will get enough stuffs to carry for months but comparing to now it's the reverse it's just like you took nothing to the markets that's how difficult and different the past economy is to the present.