I'm going to add another: 4) We have more money sinks now. Just think what entertainment purchases looked like back in the '60s and '70s. You had no video game

I'm going to add another: 4) We have more money sinks now. Just think what entertainment purchases looked like back in the '60s and '70s. You had no video games, no home video. A/V technology progressed so slowly that your TV set and your stereo system wouldn't become obsolete. The only upgrade people made was going up to a color TV (and B&W sets were much less common by the end of the '70s). So, the average person would buy one TV set and one stereo system, and they'd have a bookshelf and a record collection. Nowadays in the 21st century, there's a dizzying array of stuff you can buy for your own entertainment. As such, people are diverting their funds away from traditional lifestyle purchases (clothes, furniture, etc.) and towards modern forms of entertainment (video games, Blu-rays, Netflix and Hulu subscriptions, etc.) and upgrading our basic hardware (new computers and phones every couple of years, going from old-school TVs to HDTV to 3DTV to 4K, new video game consoles every generation, etc.). (Also, I'll say that your point #2 applies more to men than women. Women's clothing is still very colorful.)