From 50 years ago to today, prices have skyrocketed, especially housing and chinuch. No comparison.
I wasn’t pushing for govt interference, but rather a real education in the basics. I’ve met some chasidim who were quite sharp & well put together and OTOH some who were poorly educated and had difficulty speaking English. While much of that is dependent on the person (some are just sharper than others), having basic skills should be universal.
“do we have any proof they are worse off financially?”
Statistically saying, YES. You can find outliers in the data, but that does not speak for the majority.