We are wealthy

Standing on a street corner - watching cars go by, I realized we are a wealthy country.  The age, quality and condition of our cars shows that.  For the most part we have very new cars in very good condition.  The "rust buckets" and smoking junk I remember in my youth have pretty much been replaced by very efficient safe transportation.  But at what cost?  One of the reasons we are in the predicament we are in today is that most of these nice cars are on credit, borrowed against a future that is not materializing.    30 years ago, you borrowed for a new car, gambling in a sense that inflation would increase the value of your house, the wages your were paid, while making the dollars you paid to your bank cheaper.  However, with inflation at a standstill, wages frozen or dropping and house values plummeting, this system is no longer working.  My feeling is that the cars will start to fall apart, the air conditioners will stop working, cell phones sales will slow down... or maybe we are so addicted to these items that we will stop investing in the future to pay for the present.

ChrisZ