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I'm 37 and was adopted by my Grandparents. From what I'm told, they didn't get their first 19" color TV until circa 1969. Before that, they had a 19" Sears B&W in a black metal cabinet. When the color TV was bought, the B&W was wrapped in plastic and stored in the basement. Around '84, Dad pulled it out of storage and plugged it in. It didn't work too well and I begged him to let me tear it up; but, he gave it to our TV man (who I'm sure pitched it in the trash).
The first color TV lasted until around '77-'78, when it died and was replaced with a 19" RCA colortrak with a varactor tuner. Around '83, the CRT died in that set and our TV man replaced it. About a year later, Dad bought a slightly used 19" Magnavox color remote set for $150 from our TV man and that set lasted until the mid '90's. The RCA went in their bedroom for a few years.
As far as other TV's in the house, there was a 9" GE B&W in my room with no cable. The only reason we had that TV was because it was included in the purchase of a camper that Dad bought in the early '70's. He also had a 14" Truetone tube color TV from the early '70's that he bought used for $75 from a family friend because she needed the money. That set was swapped between the camper and their bedroom, until the RCA mentioned above went to the bedroom and the tube TV stayed in the camper. The camper TV was retired around '87, when no TV shop would fix it because it was a tube set and replaced with a 13" Emerson knob tuner that cost $149.99.
Dad worked for the railroad and Mother, for the most part, stayed at home. My parents were not filthy rich; but, they did OK. The house that they bought in '63 cost, IIRC, $16K and it was a brand new house. The house notes were around $90/month, as opposed to hundreds of dollars today. Also, groceries were cheaper back then. I remember going to the store with Dad during the '80's and $100 would feed all 3 of us for the month. Now, $100 is doing good to buy groceries for a week. They had cable TV; but, the bill wasn't 3 figures. I remember a time when the cable was around $20/month.
I agree that people expect too much too quick in today's world. People from my parent's generation often worked for 15-20 years to save enough money to get a house. I find that people from my generation expect everything on a silver platter right out of the box and I blame that on how their parents raised them by giving them everything they wanted and not teaching them that you have to earn what you get.
Something else that I've picked up on is that when older people bought something like a TV or big console stereo, they took great pride in their purchase. I've even found pictures of people standing next to their new purchase. Today, people just swipe the plastic and take what they get for granted. When it becomes outdated in a few years, they junk it and go swipe the plastic again.
In today's world, it often takes both parents working in order to keep everyone's head above water; however, if you look deeper, some things could be cut out and save a bunch of money. For example, the 3 under 13 year olds don't need their own smartphone, cut the $150 cable service down to either free OTA or the basic $20 cable package, etc. Of course, that's not likely to happen because most people today think they are entitled to these things.
A while back, I was talking to a friend who was telling me that her sister is constantly complaining about not having enough money to make ends meet. She said that it was hard to feel sorry for her because they could do a lot better if they'd take back that expensive swimming pool that they just bought, cancel that $200/month cable/internet, and sell off those iphones that they got for the kids and cancel the service.
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