I'm not sure you really understand what it is like for people who have an average household income.

My household income is about $215k for reference (only in the last five years has it started climbing, before that it was $60-70k and as a child I grew up with a single mother on welfare so feel I have a range of reference points). I don't own a house but feel I am very well off as I can: take an overseas holiday every year, pay to fix things that break or emergency expenses without stress, not really worry about a budget, have a house cleaner, easily keep a year of expenses in cash, super is over double the average for my age, carry no debt, can buy cool stuff when I feel like it, and just in general don't have to worry about money. From the outside I might look pretty average but so many people fund lifestyles fancier than mine on much lower incomes by funding it with debt. Debt isn't necessarily bad but you certainly have a lot more freedom of choice if you don't have any debt. And it is very psychologically different to know that you can easily deal with most emergencies without a hit to your lifestyle. I mean even if I got massively injured my current income allows me to afford things like decent income protection which people on less money are unable to afford.