> I think it's more that our standards of living were artificially inflated for the past 100 - 150 years.
This kind of perhaps excessively long historical horizon reminds me of the old joke (http://www.challzine.net/23/23scientist.html):
> [King's College] had gotten a large bequest to the College and were trying to decide how to invest it. The bursar said, “Certainly we ought to invest it in property, real property. That has stood the college very well for the last thousand years.” But the oldest senior fellow in the room shook his head and said, “Well, that is true enough. But the last thousand years have been atypical.”
A person doesn't actually need that much room to live comfortably. Particularly if you make use of public spaces and the outdoors.