Nostalgia plays games with the mind. Not everything was better or even cheaper 30 years ago. Take electricity, for example. Electricity prices in the USA are down 30% in real terms compared to 1984.
http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/special/pdf/2013_sp_03.pdf. See page 6 of the link.
EIA further calculates that electricity prices in real terms are no higher than they were in 1998. Though it costs less than 30 years ago or the same as 15 years ago, the grid today pollutes much less and is a much better value. Why?
Many coal-plants have installed pollution control equipment or have been replaced by modern natural gas or even nuclear plants over the last 30 years. Moreover, the grid has added 8,000 megawatts of solar and 70,000 megawatts of wind power that did not exist and did so all in the last 5 to 15 years.
Electricity is an example of a commodity getting both cheaper and better with the passage of time!