Again, dolt, we are deeper in debt than ever. A lot of this shit was bought on credit. Which wasn’t needed minus maybe cars and houses then.
I understand that. The last few generations have been programmed to overconsume and put everything on credit. That’s why I said people could live differently in the 1950s. As George Carlin famously said, “Spending money you don’t have on things you don’t need, doesn’t get any dumber than that folks. And when you got it home you probably didn’t like it anyways” (I’m paraphrasing from memory here)
I don’t think this fact is an indictment of our economy or largely a result of wealth inequality. It’s a result of consumer credit culture that’s been intentionally foisted on the American people. Folks in the 50s hadn’t been hit that hard with this yet. There could certainly be better education around living within one’s means but that’s never been a focus of our education system. Wonder why?