How to go nowhere

The monetary system has nothing to do with standard of living. You are just comparing relative purchasing power and you aren't going back far enough. Think 1940s or earlier.

People had no TV, no AC, one car per family maybe. They had to use ice to keep their food cold, bought new cloths rarely and many made their own. Shoes and socks were repaired as was just about everything. There was no real medical care to speak of. Some people still did not have indoor plumbing. And, if you look at immigrants from Europe you see poverty we can't even imagine today. The further back you go the lower the standard of living. Yes, the 50s did change that but they still lacked most of the creature comforts we have today. You certainly didn't see the middle class flying off to Cancun for vacation.

Hell, kids today think I grew up in a cave when I tell them we had 4 TV stations and had to fiddle with rabbit ears and change the channel by hand. And when I tell them what Pong was they get this look on their face like they just shit themselves.

Some people in America STILL don't have indoor plumbing, a/c, a car, medical care, etc.

And yes, the standard of living has A LOT to do with money.

These people have lived without indoor plumbing for YEARS, and finally, this year, got it.

FIRST PHASE BRINGS SERVICE TO 180 HOMES, BUSINESSES
Phase I of the Dawn Wastewater Treatment Project was recently completed, with 180 homes and businesses connecting to a county-operated system.
Some of those homes had never had any kind of indoor plumbing. Tommy Thompson of the Rappahannock Area Health District had declared Dawn a public health emergency and said it was "the worst area I have seen for on-site sewage disposal system."
As part of Phase I, the county provided service to 19 families that had no disposal systems and were using portable toilets.

http://fredericksburg.com/blogs/view_tagged?blogger_id=41&tag_word= Dawn wastewatertreatment project