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Originally Posted by The Yen Man
I think essential items got more expensive, but a lot of luxury items got cheaper, and hence why people now have way more luxury items or engage in a lot of luxury spending. Traveling, electronics, and other toys were way more expensive back in the day. Now with globalization making a lot of items cheaper to produce, I feel like consumption has gone way up.
That and nowadays, parents have a ton of options to stimulate their kids. I feel like kids these days are up to their eyeballs in enrolled extracurricular activities. That's gotta cost a lot. Not saying right or wrong, just saying I never had close to that much stuff growing up. Summers and weekends, my brother and I were pretty much left to our own devices. Not sure if that was normal for other kids back then though, that's just my anecdotal experience.
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Technology has advanced. People have lots of screens to stare at everywhere; that is true. Quite frankly those things are much cheaper relative to housing and food right now. My parent's first computer (which wasn't even a pentium) was almost $3000. Now you can buy a smartphone that has 1000 times more function for $300. Electronics being more common doesn't necessarily speak to the economic situation.
Enrollment in many extra-curricular activities is actually way down though. People also have way fewer kids. Essentially everything is becoming more and more compromised. Smaller houses, smaller families, less sports, etc.. 30 years ago family of 6+, with each child in soccer and hockey weren't totally uncommon. That's definitely not the case now.
There are definitely some Instagram types who are using their kids for photo shoots and putting them in all sorts of weird activities. This likely has more to do with the massive growing divide between people who's parents give them loads of money and those that are stuck working for it.
Both Boomers and Millennials are carrying huge amounts debt to live their current lifestyles. Boomers state that the number one reason for their debt is supporting their children. This just adds to the growing inequality.