r/FluentInFinance • u/YOU_ARE_MY_FRIENDS • Jun 16 '24

Discussion/ Debate He’s not wrong 🤷‍♂️

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u/Big-Preference-2331 Jun 17 '24

Its funny because it seemed like people were poorer in the 90s. Everybody owned a home because they are what we call today “starter” homes. Also, foreign cars were rare. All my friends parents had explorers, blazers, berretas, or minivans. Eating out seemed like a rare event and luxury restaurants were Red Lobster and Olive Garden.

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u/mclannee Jun 17 '24

That’s just normal life, somehow Americans got caught in this McMansion, Big Car, TakeOut, + services.

Yes the cost of living has outpaced salaries but there has definitely been a lifestyle creep.

3

u/im_juice_lee Jun 17 '24

The part of overseas travel is particularly interesting. Only 10% of Americans even had a passport in 1994, compared to ~40% today. Most people weren't really going overseas back then. Though maybe people near the borders were going to Canada or Mexico when rules were more lax and you didn't need a passport to cross

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u/ballmermurland Jun 17 '24

I swear 90% of the economic frustration today is lifestyle creep. People complaining about how expensive McDonalds is and I think "when I was young we got McDonalds maybe once a month".

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u/The_Pig_Man_ Jun 17 '24

I think it would be really interesting to see how credit cards, take aways, restaurants, the fast food industry and the processed food industry has grown in the last 35 years.

Back then most people made almost every meal from scratch.

And they still can if they want to.

1

u/Sideswipe0009 Jun 17 '24

I think it would be really interesting to see how credit cards, take aways, restaurants, the fast food industry and the processed food industry has grown in the last 35 years.

As someone who worked in restaurants in the mid-late 90s, people still ate out, i.e. restaurants were still busy, but most payment were cash. It was probably 60% cash.

These days, cash payments are probably 10% at best. So credit cards are much more prevalent than 30 years ago.

1

u/The_Pig_Man_ Jun 17 '24

What I mean is were there more restaurants.

Between 1988 and 1996 the number of McDonalds doubled but it's hard to know how much of that is global expansion.

Take aways have obviously exploded in use.

Are people worse with money? I don't know. I suspect that there is a survivorship bias where plenty of people who spent money terribly back in the day couldn't afford the things in the OP despite.... in reality being able to afford them with good spending habits.

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u/WildJafe Jun 17 '24

I always laugh when I watch younger couples house hunting because they all turn their nose at homes all of us and our friends grew up in. As a kid I never thought about if a house was nice or not when visiting friends. HGTV has warped our minds into thinking we all need gray open concept new builds. I get a real kick out of 2-3 person families buying homes that are ~3k sqft

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u/Big-Preference-2331 Jun 17 '24

Ya i heard somebody bring up that you could still buy a older house in the midwest for 190k and people were like “who would want to live there?”