That rant is weak sauce; the options that are available to you now in all the categories listed are endless, but you have deal with the trade-offs
You can get great fitting, quality clothes that are made in the USA and will last – but you have to pay considerably more for that quality than the clothes made in a 3rd World sweatshop. The variety of fresh produce available is staggering and you don’t have to even spend that much for it – but you do have to seek it out (Russo’s in Watertown…’nuff said).
Healthcare access/affordability, the decline of polite society and infrastructure obsolesce are results of disruptive changes in technology and the inability of people, govt and institutions to keep up with those changes.
Instead of dying off early, people are living longer and increasingly putting demands on healthcare structures – that cost money. Add in the restrictions on free market healthcare (some I agree with / others not) and regulatory / insurance burdens and you are paying a f’k ton of money.
The lack of intergenerational family units results in people who are utterly at a loss at communicating with folks more than 20 yrs older/younger than themselves. That compounds the impact when Nanna (who shouldn’t be driving, but wont give up her license cause otherwise she is housebound) interacts with a self-centered teen who cannot fathom anyone having that slow of a reaction time.
And mass transportation designs from the Eisenhower Administration just aren’t scaled for the amt and type of vehicles available today – plus those roads were constructed without environmental impact stmts, community outreach, historical commission oversights, etc. And the folks being in a hurry has always been true – one of my favorite Flintstone cartoons from the 60’s had Fred winning the Indianrockpolis 500 race because he drove like a man during rush-hour
Things are always getting better, just not always in our immediate orbit. I have this discussion with my 83 yr old parents all the time; who forget that even though things cost less “back in the day” – as a percentage of income they were still pretty damn expensive and had very limited product / service choices