Most of the British population was firmly behind America in terms of living standards until the mid to late 1980's when we had a credit boom and ample quantities of cheap consumer goods were available from the far east. Many people around where I lived still had outdoor toilets until the 1980's. The house I grew up in had very little insulation, an outside and indoor toilet, open fires for heating and a coal fired range for cooking on. My grandparents rented a black and white TV from some lease company until 1980 - they had to pay weekly for that thing. The food in the UK back in the 70's was terrible. It really was slop. Many electronic products frequently required repair - my dad remembers going to the local electrical supplier to buy new vacuum tubes for his record player all the time. I'd say even what GM and Chrysler were making in the 70's was better made than a Morris Marina or Austin Allegro - my dad had 3 Marinas and a Morris Ital and he was always fixing or welding up the rust on those POS's.
My mum remembers visiting relatives in London in the 60's and there still being a lot of badly patched up housing damaged by the Blitz. She had an aunt who had plywood covering the roof and floor in her house where a German bomb and landed. A grandmother who served tea and food on battered China that had survived when her house was hit by a V1 "doodlebug". The war had been over 20 years and people still hadn't picked up much of the mess.
I must admit - I was born about 5 years to late to remember the old slum housing. It was piles of bricks or empty land by the time I remember. I do remember all the old blackened derelict factories around here - some of which had been like that since the 50's.
