I Used to be Middle-Class, now WHAT AM I?

When I was 15 in 1984 I remember asking my dad (who was the sole breadwinner in the house) how much money he made in a year. He told me $43,000 a year. Now for the sad part of the story -- BEFORE I lost my job, my husband and I cleared $34,000 in a year. Now that I'm not working, well, you get the picture. Amazing isn't it? I sometimes wonder how we survive with 2 kids and 2 mortages. Thank God for food pantries and second-hand clothing shops. My children, particularly my 10 year old is acutely aware of the situation. he knows he get free lunch because we are poor. But we are not the stereotypical poor -- we are both well-educated (I have 2 degrees) but things just don't seem to work, economically speaking, like they used to. it used to be that you went to school, got a job, and lived the American dream. We had that when i was a kid - we weren't rich, but we had plenty and always took day trips and yearly vacations. This year was the first in 5 years we took a vacation and we had to go cheaply, including foregoing restaurants, instead eating in our hotel room -- mostly lunch meat and cold sandwiches made from supplies bought from a trip to the grocery store. So seriously, what is going on here. I'm happy at least with what little we have but still, what gives? Where did America go wrong??