I've noticed a pattern activities or hobbies that've been around at least a few decades: you ask "which X should I buy?" and the answer is often, "DO NOT buy common 'consumer' stuff—either pay 5 times as much for one that isn't terrible or buy ANY model from the mid-eighties or earlier and refurb it, at a total cost of ~1-2x as much as the new garbage"

Part—not all, but part—of the supposed increase in quality of life due to cheaper goods is because entry level quality has dropped, for certain categories of goods.

cheaper is sometimes from lower-quality, but don't discount the effect of economies of scale. Every doubling of production volume reduces cost by ~30%. For example, Tesla thinks it's gigafactory will reduce the cost of their battery pack by ~30%, because that one factory will double global battery production. The same thing is happening to solar panels. As production sykrockets, prices plummet.

> Could our parents afford to own a home, have children, live comfortably off one income? Can we?

Yes we can. But it means tradeoffs most people aren't willing to make.

You'll notice one of the requirements above is "live comfortably" -- so your answer then is no.

Are you also not saying "where I want"? There are plenty of low-cost geographies. You may need to retrain as a truck mechanic or fisherman and maybe learn a new language to live there though. But the point it its very possible.

I only wish more people could see this post: your posts higher up in the comment thread almost look reasonable but this one really highlights the descent into madness necessary to accept your view. Things haven't gotten worse; your parents needed to work hard to have a good life. We just need to learn a new language, move to a third world country, give up all of our rights and our home, and pick a new profession.