You are certainly correct that being worth a million isn't what it used to be. But it's still pretty good. My in-laws live a decent retired life on about 600k in net worth plus Social Security. They even manage to winter in Florida.
I have a friend who is about to retire on 2 mill net worth, which will give him a little over 100k in annual income until he starts collecting SS. He is 56. He will never have to work again. He plans to work part-time just to keep occupied, and because he likes to eat out.
I have another friend who is worth 3.5 mill, but says he can't afford to retire! He likes to live high. He also enjoys making money. At 58, he works half the month, and travels the rest of the time.
As for your neighborhood, that doesn't sound good. Mine is OK, and I already have my retirement home purchased in a great small town. It's rented for now until I am ready to use it. Building wealth takes time, discipline, and guts. I'm 57, so I've been working on this for a while. Just work on saving and investing, and realize that those "things" lose their ability to make you happy after a month or two, which is why new "things" must always be bought. Defer that for a few years, and you'll be surprised what you can suddenly afford.
To clarify, my neighborhood is not "bad" by any means. It's simply a neighborhood of moderate "starter" homes that are packed fairly tightly on small lots. There are certainly denser places in big cities, but I don't do well when I'm surrounded. Another big problem is that my area is converting from rural suburban to a more crowded suburban. I came here to escape that situation, so I'm not doing well with the change.
I agree wholeheartedly with the advice to be frugal. I try to delay every "new" purchase no matter how small as a matter of practice. If I see something that interests me, I don't try to give myself an absolute "No." I just try to say "Wait." I come home; I think; I sleep; I research. If the purchase still seems like a good idea later, I get it. There are plenty of things that I've waited years and years to buy.
On the other hand, the uncertainty of careers today makes frugality something that many of us must do for survival and not for the hope of something better in the future. We deny ourselves and deny ourselves so that we'll have a reserve if things go bad again. I have three engineering degrees. I grew up with being frugal so we could afford my college education so that I'd always "have something to fall back on." However, when I've had to fall back, I just kept falling until I hit hard ground. Saving may provide some cushion, but there comes a point where living to deny oneself seems to be a long and frustrating exercise in self-denial. I look around and say, "Do I want to live like this for another thirty years?" The answer is "not really. If I can't ever get ahead and enjoy things, what's the point?"
I'm not saying that things are bad for me. I've worked very hard, and I have a good job. I make enough to live in reasonable comfort and still save some money. However, I see many peers who haven't worked as hard as I have doing better, and I really don't see myself doing as well as my parents did. The phony numbers game of the original editorial does nothing to make me believe that things are as good as they could have been at an earlier time. I think others likely feel the same way. Even when we save, we never seem to get ahead, so what's the point?
Bill