Today poverty comes with some extra baggage - lower access to the healthcare system and much worse healthcare results, increased crime rate, low social status , higher stress, etc.
Not everything in life is about possessions.
Not everything in life is about possessions.
http://books.google.com/books?id=SNkDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA178&dq=sm...
http://books.google.com/books?id=xdwDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA65&dq=smo...
Now, it's true that pollution is still generally worse in poor areas compared to wealthier areas, but the pollution issue alone makes me prefer a "poor" lifestyle today over a "middle class" one from 50 or 60 years ago. We also have additional consumer protections for food and medicine compared to 60 years ago, which makes it hard to compare products across decades.
Homicide (and presumably other violent crime) is about the same as 1950.
Further, "poor" people have always had lower social status and higher stress, so there's no change there.
In 1950 it wasn't uncommon for people to still use outhouses and not have electricity.
Life expectancy reference: http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/unpp/panel_indicators.htm
homicide rate reference: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0873729.html