Some truth to all this, but there are some offsetting factors. I agree you need to be careful not to succumb to "keeping up with the Joneses" , but that was always true.
OFFSETS:
HOME PHONE: I get unlimited local & long distance and multiple extensions for less $ than the cost of leasing a single corded phone w/o lighted dial back in the day.
CELL PHONE: Sure, we didn't have cell phone bills back then - but if you are careful, I'd say the phone can pay for itself. My rate will be down to 83 cents per month next year, and when I do use it, it normally saves me an extra trip or buying the wrong thing, or whatever.
EFFICIENCY: My new fridge uses about 40% as much juice as the old one, which was already a very efficient model for 1992. Furnaces are 90+ rather than 45-55%.
Remember 'tune-ups'? Those cost money (or your time and $), and performance started degrading shortly after, along with mpg. And letting the car warm up on cold days, or it would stall in traffic because the choke was still adjusting?
Buying tubes for old TV, calling a serviceman to fix it? Flashlight batteries that would be dead and leaking within the year (buy a new flashlight and batteries!)? No Costcos or Amazons to bring us great deals? Valuable choices in products that we just never had before?
How much of our life was wasted, waiting for those old tube TVs to warm up, and adjusting the Horizontal, or the Vertical? (OK, just kidding on that one). Now we waste it waiting for our digital TVs to 'boot up' and cycle through dozens of channels to find out that 'nothin's on'.
These things fade from our memory, but there must be dozen of other things that required our attention and costly maintenance back then, and those needs have been designed out.
Regardless of which effect is greater, I'm not going back - no way, no how!
-ERD50