Believe me, college graduates in the 70s worked tables too despite freeper bragging. I graduated in the mid-70s during a bad recession.
Here is the difference: I put myself through law school. Cost: $750.00 a semester, books $500. I worked PART TIME as a hostess at a restaurant, shared a house in the ghetto with a classmate, had a used and paid for car, insurance and never went hungry. Parents gave me $10.00 a week to help, grandmother gave me $100 a month for one year to help. When I graduated, I owed $5,000. It was a different world. I never went on spring break, not once. But at the same time, had fun