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There has been an endless stream of rhetoric as to the decline of the American middle class and its lifestyle. Oddly enough only four categories of goods are less affordable than they were 20 years ago. Education, health care, automobiles and housing have all shown inflation adjusted increases in price over that time frame. All others are more affordable- apparel, food, travel, etc.
My point is this - do YOU have more or fewer material goods than your parents? No one can measure the stress now versus then or happiness or lifestyle BUT we can measure what we own and where we go.
Do you own cellphones, computers, two cars, color tvs, more clothes, belong to a gym, vacation out of the area, eat out frequently or drink lattes ? It is highly likely that your parents rarely did or owned any of these things. The point is that today’s American lives a life sooooo much better (materially) than his parents did - the rhetroic that today’s consumer is squeezed is just that “rhetoric”.
If we chose to live a lifestyle commesurate with our parents it would be significantly more affordable. The average American could probably erase all credit card debt by brewing his own coffee, camping instead of the Caribbean and a single television with no cable connection. That would seem medieval but not to a teen in the 1960s.
We feel “entitled” to a certain lifestyle these days.