jc, I like the high end resteraunt idea. i had'nt thought of that.
personally i dont believe any of this is anything new. between chinese inflation, cheaper labor in the US, etc. it's only a matter of time until guys realize they can build some things cheaper here.
as far as generations go, my grandparents were "children of the depression" and were extremely frugal with savings BUT they did not learn this from the way thier parents behaved, they learned it from watching thier parents get financially ruined. when we spoke of thier parents before the depression there was a real "consumer" mentality. people were spending like mad, gambling on the market, taking cruises, buying new items on credit!
it seems people have it in thier heads that "buying on credit" is a new idea. that's just not true. it takes a good recession/depression/financial ass beating once in awhile to get people to be safer with thier money.
the funny thing is that i see many teenagers today starting to get that "depression mentality". many kids going into college are being very leary of credit cards, loans, high debt because they saw how it destroyed thier parents dreams. i actually have a lot of hope for the new generations. i'm seeing very young couples who hav'nt lost thier jobs buy houses at rock bottom prices (and interest rates). i'm seeing kids working to buy a POS car (because mom/dad cant buy them the new AMG)..
call it depression/recession/stagflation/whatever every once in awhile it's a good thing to bring us back to reality.
