How is this a generational thing, in the social sense? Maybe it's just the fact that as we manage to get more and more productive and automate more and more of

How is this a generational thing, in the social sense? Maybe it's just the fact that as we manage to get more and more productive and automate more and more of our work, we have to invent more and more needs for people to spend their money on, to keep the majority of the adult workforce employed. Eventually we get really diminishing returns, providing services and products that seem frivolous to most people at a second glance.