What's wrong with America (November 1978 edition)

It's... a completely out-of-touch cover page!
 
There are a lot of people who would be happy to be "scraping by" on $69,000 in 2014, much less 1978.  

To be fair, inside the magazine, the article is subtitled/taglined "What with tithing and tuition, Mike Maus finds that his handsome income will barely suffice.  Our advisers say lay off the land deals."  So it's just the people who put together the cover that are either:

1. Completely out-of-touch, or 
2. Trying to get a rise out of people who will become angered by such a cover, and perhaps buy the magazine to add more fuel to fire their anger, and/or
3. Trying to get people who envy that income to buy the magazine in the hopes that within its covers lie the secrets to "scraping by" on $69k/year

In my case, I acquired it for free and skimmed the story to figure out what could possibly be meant by "scraping by" on such an income in 1978.