Sorry LeBuick,
But you are falling prey to the fallacy of Division. There are two varieties of this fallacy. You are falling into the second type.
To argue that because the people on your street during the 80s suffered difficult financial times, therefore each, or even any other, Americans must have also suffered difficult financial times during the 80s would be to commit the second type of division fallacy. It is true that some people did suffer difficult financial times in America during the 80s, but it is false to say that the 80s, as a whole, were difficult financial times for all Americans. Basically, your experience of those times is too limited to justify making the generalization for the experience of the nation as a whole.