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One thing is very different than the years before and after the Great Depression... Credit cards, smaller down payments living beyond your means.
I guess I was pretty lucky I was born just after WW2 ended. My parents were born in the early 1900s, to immigrant parents who became landowners had made it to the middle class. They enjoyed their parents wealth in the 1920s as they came of age. Married in 1929, bought some land and had their first 3 children as the great depression hit. My parents had gone through the Great Depression and the war shortages with my 5 older brothers and sisters. Yet by the end of WW 2 my father had bought back the farm he lost during the depression, had paid for it, and was remodeling the house. He put away money for all 6 of is children to attend college and helped then get started in life, slicked his money in CDs for retirement.
At the same time he thought us the merits of not buying anything until we could afford it. My parents never bought a car until he had the cash to pay for it. They had credit cards at local businesses, but paid them off every month. Yet we lived a middle class life. We had nice clothes, cars to drive.
I learned from my parents and carried it not my adult life. They taught us the concept of sacrifice. I did of course get a credits cards, but keep them with in my means to pay. I sacrificed vacations and personal wants so I cold pay for my children's college and leave them debt free. When my husband and I bought our first house, we had to make a 20-30% down payment, and have the income to pay the morrtgage. Even though we both had careers, welike most people, bought and based monthly payments or rents bing less than 25% of of monthly income on one person.
This is what is different from today. Young people don't make sacrifices and wait until they can afford something... They have an enormous credit card debt and little equity in their houses. Instead of cutting back they just use their charge cards to get by. The U.S not only has an enormous deficit, it's citizen's have an enormous personal debt.
The whole idea of encouraging people to consume is not only bad for our economy it's bad for he environment. In addition to this current financial crisis in 3 years me and a lot of other baby boomers will hit the Medicare system, and social security. No one cam possibly live on SS alone, as you need SS to pay for Medicare as it is not totally free. Besides the financial crisis today, The U.S may have a health and crisis coming in the next 10 years. It may just be that things will go back to life in the 40s and 50s... grand parents living with their children or vice versa.
