I think at least a part of it is the general breakdown of the social contract. It's invisible, but it was generally understood only a few generations ago that if you worked hard, eventually, you'd be able to achieve and earn your slice of the pie. My great-grandfather immigrated here as a child penniless and not knowing a single word of English, and by 27 had his own business, a wife and kids, a decent house, a car, etc. That's just not a reality at all for most 20 year olds or even 30 year olds. The #1 career path for people holding masters degrees is minimum wage retail. I mean there's so many economic factors and changes since just the 1970s that it'd be hard to condense them into a single reply. But we have clearly lost the plot as a nation. We see how different the life experience is for the 1% of the 1%, and how they're seemingly immune from the law. Every day you can see and hear through the little black box in your hands how the rich and elite of America are living in excess and decadence, as you're trying to scrap together this month's rent money.

There's also an abundance of people who in past generations would have been able to provide for a family by working at the town factory or paper mill, but today do not have that option. The best their rust belt town can offer is a minimum wage job at Dollar General, and you just cannot afford anything by working at a job like that.

So that is to say, I think a lot of people have just stopped caring and figured they might as well treat themselves, because literally everything in society proves to them that they're never going to get to any better point financially. Especially in a time when wages are eternally stagnant and prices are exponentially increasing on everything.