Back in the day when America was great, GM (with all those nasty union jobs) was the largest employer. Dad made enough money to have a stay at home wife to look after things.
Nowadays it’s Wal Mart with all those “wonderful” retail jobs with their cooley wages.
What do you think caused this economic change?
I'm no economist, but I heard that the US received a large economic boom following WWII, which in some form or another is responsible for the mass consumerism we have today compared to the 1950s and before.
I don't buy into over romanticism of the past, but this seems to be a factor in economic cycles - the US went through a similar consumerist boom in the Roaring 20s.