I think people in the US are just entirely too willing to live in perpetual debt and then whine about how expensive everything is and how they can't retire comf

I think people in the US are just entirely too willing to live in perpetual debt and then whine about how expensive everything is and how they can't retire comfortably. When people find out that we drive a (totally reliable) 2005 CR-V with 235K miles on it and are going to sell that and replace with a 9 year-old 2015 car, they can't reconcile that with me being "able to afford" a new car if I wanted. To them, the only reason to buy a used car is if you literally could't afford something new. It's madness, but I'm glad they buy/lease new cars so that I can have used cars to choose from later.