Was it the case? Both grandfathers worked blue collar jobs (coal mining and steel milling). Obviously, they didn’t have smartphones, but they also drove cars (1 per household, often bought used, never leased) for a decade plus, didn’t have cable/Netflix, ate basically every meal at home/brown bagged lunch, grew some of their own food, made their own coffee at home, and lived in 900-1200 square feet without AC (including raising 5 kids in a 2 BR house in one case) to make ends meet.

Obviously, I didn’t study economics when I was 5, but this seemed to be the norm in that era and community and would be viewed as abnormally (perhaps unacceptably) frugal now.

To be clear, they did get married, have children, live a decent life, and retire on pensions, but they and their neighbors lived a lot more frugally than seems to be normal/accepted today.