Or the industries are moving up-market. You have to go where the money is, and as the years go by there's less and less of it in the traditional "middle class"

Or the industries are moving up-market. You have to go where the money is, and as the years go by there's less and less of it in the traditional "middle class". I also wonder if easy access to credit pays a roll. Credit cards were simply harder to get back in the day (partially tied to interest rates), which means a lot more enforced savings. Nowadays even someone with marginal credit can get a $1000 limit, blow out the card and pay 20+%/month on a baseball game they couldn't afford in the first place. But the ball park/team won't care, they got their money.