On the flip side, my relatively poor grandparents spent good money in the 1950's on hoarding stuff (clothes, shoes, radios, misc. equipment) in basement/attic s

On the flip side, my relatively poor grandparents spent good money in the 1950's on hoarding stuff (clothes, shoes, radios, misc. equipment) in basement/attic spaces, in preparation for the next world war that never came. That stuff was never used, and mostly thrown away after they died, as it wasn't in good condition anymore. That money could have been much better spent; this was pretty common in the generation who grew up during WW2.