The "Good Old Days?" Well, not so much, really.

[Caliman73]

168. That wasn't a result of "credit cards" and isn't unique to our time...

Just before the Great Depression in the 1930's, there was a boom in credit and everyone was encouraged to get into the stock market. Lavish lifestyles were promoted and there were items "you just had to have"...

It is Capitalism and the desire of those with money to get MORE money without putting more money into circulation with higher wages. Bernie Sanders talked about this all the time, that the compensation of the richest people has gone up hundreds of percentage points while wages for working people have stagnated. and have not even kept up with inflation. How to you stimulate the economy when people can't really even afford to buy the necessities? Push credit and the "lavish lifestyle".

Are people making choices? Sure, but to say, "back then people lived within their means..." sounds like a judgment of individuals, when we all exist within systems that very much limit and/or push us into choices they want us to make. Like in the 1970's when Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House and was pushing America to make choices about energy and consumption, but then Reagan came along, took the solar panels off, subsidized fossil fuels heavily, started dismantling Unions, and said, "We're America! We're number one and we don't apologize for anything..." Then proceeded to slash corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthy by more than 50%, went after social welfare programs, and praised the rise of yuppies and consumer culture.