“Flourishing” is a relative term.
Houses were smaller. Most families had one car (if any). Medical care was about what you’d get at a minor emergency center, at best.
Basically, everyone’s standard of living was probably about the level of what the poor/lower-middle class is today.
I’ve always said that if people today had to revert to the standard of living of the 1950’s there would be weeping & wailing & gnashing of teeth.
We do not realize how materially blessed we are these days.
PS The 50’s were just great!
Although I was just a pre-teen then, I remember that our family and those of my friends was wonderful - not lower class. Everyone I knew had someone to do the heavy cleaning for them, we had clothes only for Sunday and going to town and clothes just for school, everyone had one car but we bought a new car every other year, everyone had plenty of good locally grown food. Christmas time was special and we had lots of presents but just a few toys, mostly things like books and clothes-like a year’s supply of underwear and new pajamas. Very little was purchased during the year except a new outfir for Easter and new shoes for school. My mom owned a small women’s clothing store with several employees, most expensive blouse was $5.99, most were $2.99. We lived in a huge two story house. Everybody worked at something. Nobody talked about money or taxes - ever! Major difference between today and then - more stuff to buy so more materialistic society. Not necessarily better, just different.
The point is that the COUNTRY had the best economy in history, the 50’s being known by historians and economists as the golden age, the Middle Class was BORN, and even at 92% TMR, the rich did FINE. The TMR was in the 90’s from 1952-1963, mainly Eisenhower. FDR’s previous TMR was 94% at one time.
Those are easily verified facts which you should research to satisfy yourself.
Oh - and since BC/BS (employer supplied) was a NONPROFIT, it paid 100% of all claims from dollar one - there was no such thing as a copay.
Old timer here - born in 1945. When I was a kid our 4-family house was worth $10K (suburban eastern MA) my father made about $20K as a state highway tree surgeon (and he retired with a good pension & HC,) family of 4 groceries for the week (a station wagon full of bags) was about $25, a loaf of bread was (I think) 15-25cents, and I think a new car cost between $1-2K. Gas was 25 cents a gallon. Sorry, it’s not easy to remember that far back, but that’s pretty accurate for age around 10-12 (1955 or so.)
And the cars were nice looking, all steel, easy to work on, and lasted a lifetime.
BTW-our house and all the neighbors’ houses were huge. And we wanted for nothing. All bills were paid on time, and no loans were taken out.