The simple reason for that is that wages for the 'man in the street' have not kept pace with inflation. Back around the 1960s, a blue-collar production-line wo

The simple reason for that is that wages for the 'man in the street' have not kept pace with inflation. Back around the 1960s, a blue-collar production-line worker could afford a house, a car, and a wife that was able to stay home to look after 3-4 kids. Today, both the blue-collar man and his wife are working, they can only afford to rent a house, buy a car on a long-term loan, and can only afford to have 1 to 2 kids. When the bulk of the population is like that, the country as a whole is not doing very well at all. Businesses can't sell the 'extras' to people who have no spare money.