Well,you're surely superior to me because,apart from knowing that *my* family from earlier generations lived *very* difficult lives both in Europe and upon arrival here in the US,it never occurred to me to ponder how the lives of today's middle class compared to the lives of the rich of 100 years ago.
Were the Good Old Days That Good? NYT 2005,
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/03/business/yourmoney/were-the-good-old-days-that-good.html?_r=0