"Her parting comment was to 'take it easy and not work so hard.'"
Geez, talk about twisting the knife. Did she add, "But make sure you don't cut my Social Security, or forget to pick up the tab for my Medicare and free drugs...and while you're on the way out, would you mind sending in my AARP dues check?"
You bring up another point in the equation. The guy writing the editorial was addressing people's negative feelings towards their financial situations. He tried to give some numbers that would say that people are doing better, but even then, his poor treatment of the numbers made his arguments worthless.
The other question is "what else affects people's feelings about their financial situation?" When Social Security began, the most quoted number is that 17 workers were contributing to the system for every person who was receiving benefits. I've not heard what the ratio was in the 60's or 70's, but I've heard that the ratio is 3 to 1 today. One reason that many people may feel pessimistic about finances is that they see looming problems with Social Security and other entitlement programs. We can't consume more than we produce, and someone is going to have to produce whatever Social Security is going to consume. Many workers today realize that entitlements are going to consume huge amounts of our future productivity. That realization is reason to feel discouraged regardless of what the current income figures are.
Bill