Fair enough. The best example that always pops to my mind is a totally run-down second-run movie theater that was in the town near the farm where I grew up. It was literally in an old-style aluminum quonset hut and the movies cost .99. Floor was sticky and seats were broken and of course no air con. Theaters cost more now, of course, but they also come with surround sound and actual reclining seats. If you grow up with that, well, you are going to have slightly different expectations than if you grow up seeing movies in a quonset hut. Most things these days are just plain shinier because that's what the top 20% income class demands, and they're the ones with the money, so they get what they want. The rest of us are just trying to keep up.

As regards the rest of your comment, I salute you for trying to win people over with math. I just did something similar with a Boomer who commented that you can indeed save, so I countered with an example of how one health care expense has gone up a whopping 12,400% over 40-50 years.

But I don't think math is going to do it. What I think we really need is better imaginations.

Also: Yes, you're right, I should have written this essay tighter. There are sloppy bits here, I admit it. That's part of why I'm leaving Medium. I do not like this platform that drives writers to pump out articles every day or fall afoul of the algorithm. That can lead to sloppy work and wasted time for readers, and I don't want to participate in that anymore.

I wish you the best of luck, and thanks for the great conversation.