I can only speak for the UK but in the 60’s and 70’s here, you could be a welder, marry a nurse and buy an average three bedroom detached house with a nice garden. I’m not saying that it would have been a cake walk, but it was absolutely possible if you put your mind to it.
Now those combined wages will struggle to pay the rent on the shittest property in town whilst your landlord struts about telling you how entitled you are.