Meh, the cost of televisions and even phones have gone down so dramatically that trying to compare the situations is foolhardy.
If you paid $750 for a 19'' colour TV back in the 1980s, that's the equivalent of $1800 today. Forget about the 'big screen' coloured TVs that were going for thousands. Wait for Amazon Prime Days or Black Friday deals and today you could get a far far superior television for peanuts. I mean here's a
43-inch 4K Toshiba with built-in Alexa and Fire TV going for $229.99 on Amazon.com.
I could have a 40+ inch television on everyone of my walls and still have paid less, once adjusted for inflation, than my parents did on their televisions.
It's the cost of cable that has gone above inflation. But really I don't think there's many in that 47% that would be living debt free if they scaled back to basic cable.
Instead, if you want to start drawing fairer conclusions, at least look at the increase of cost of living. Things like the 3x-5x tuition increases over the past couple decades. In the States the median household cost under $50,000 in 1980, compared to the $200,000+. During the bust of the 1985 the cost of housing in Calgary was $75,000 ($179,000 in today's dollars) based on average sale. Today it is $450,000+. Well over double.
I'm not trying to defend the people obviously living beyond their means, but let's not get into the boomer's "Back in my day I got a paper route twice a week that paid for my rent and college tuition, why don't people do that today?"