Reminds me of going to Walmart and getting a free 30 dollar bike basket. The register person assumed it was my ‘bag’ cause I had the other stuff I was buying inside of it and didn’t scan it, they just passed it to the other side and chucked my stuff in there.
It’s survivorship bias combined with easily accessible media. Plenty of people died young back then but if it wasn’t family or close friends you might not have heard of it until years and years later if at all. Some might assume friends just drifted away, it’s life.
Same with appliances. People say old appliances were significantly better, and I understand in certain areas they might have been but if they were truly so great why aren’t old appliances all over the play, plenty of old people still alive that wouldn’t have bought new appliances just because.