[prolikewh0a]

How do you account for the fact that when accounting for inflation, a lot of the country hadn't seen a wage increase since the 70's[1]? The cost of essential goods has gone up. A lot of people are seriously on the edge and aren't spending on useless consumption.

I think what you have are people trying to survive, and another subset of people who are surviving perfectly fine and are comfortable but have become rampant consumers due to advertising. I know engineers in the latter circumstance.

[1] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-...