It's the proliferation of credit combined with increasing ubiquity of equating consumerism with success. Using other people's money to act like you can afford

It's the proliferation of credit combined with increasing ubiquity of equating consumerism with success. Using other people's money to act like you can afford the things that other people who have much more money than you can actually afford. The easier and more common this has gotten, the crummier deal everyone ends up getting for their money. Back when average consumers still had to save money for years before making big-ticket purchases, the shrewdest of manufacturers achieved the greatest success with product lifetimes having quite good multiples of those saving years. When that became no longer as much of an issue, then never mind. Expanded credit opened up opportunities for spendthrifts to dominate, who love to consume so much that they replace purchases that are still perfectly good after a few years anyway. Remember all those 70-year-old juicers where there's far more in the landfills than remaining in the kitchen? Most of those were landfilled while they were still working.