Much worse than today. And think about all the stuff that people have today that they didn't have before. Think about the quality of the cars today vs 1980. Think about your nice flat screen TV compared to whatever you or your parents had in 1980. In 1980 you would need to go to Buffalo to get a buffalo wing. You couldn't find certain fruits in the store in the winter. The average home size is 50 percent bigger. In 1980 calling a friend in Europe on a phone wired into the wall would cost dollars for a few minutes. Today, nearly everyone can pull out a screen and talk to anyone else anywhere in the world face-to-face on a whim. I get the nostalgia for the past, but do you really want to return to the 1980s?