People who live in poverty generally wear hair color and make weird hair styles that they probably regularly have to maintain. Homeless people have a lot of body tattoos compared to people who are generally well off. Poor people generally consume addictive substances at a higher amount than the middle class.
I used to think that their such wasteful spending was the reason they are poor. But now i think they do such wasteful spending because they are poor.
We see such behaviour in middle class GenZ as well. where they spend a lot of their income on expensive coffees, avacado toasts, expensive smartphones, streaming platform subscriptions, takeouts etc. All these expenses while they are not able to purchase a home for themselves.
Younger generation spends on such frivilous stuff because they know they are never going to be able to afford a home of their own. They know that there is no hope of owning their own car. With the Taxes so high and the economy so down, they want to feel something in return for the money they earned. So the best way they feel is to spend it on “luxury” items.
Compared to 50 years ago, TVs are much less expensive compared to houses. Computers are cheaper than Cars. Smartphones and streaming services are cheaper than food. The current economic situation has made everything upside down where a home is now a luxury and mobile data is a necessity.
So this phenomenon i like to call is Luxury Poverty.