Well, as a young person in my early 30s, I almost find this viewpoint insulting.
I hardly know anyone from my university days who didn’t also work on the side, and I absolutely don’t know anyone who got married for 30k, and cars are usually bought used and only in the size and number necessary for everyday life with work and possibly children.
Vacation is taken at best once a year.
Am I living so far from the usual reality, or could it be that a lot is being made up here?
From my environment, I can at least say one thing clearly: most people who grew up in parents’ homeownership try to fulfill the dream of their own four walls themselves. Thanks to affordable regions, most succeed, but clearly with the significant difference that in almost no case could the woman just stay at home for the kids for several years or even permanently, as was almost always the case in my parents’ generation, if I think back to all the classmates of my siblings and me.
So wealth is maintained here, but at the price of two incomes instead of one.
I also believe that halmi’s statement is somewhat exaggerated – but there is definitely "a grain of truth" in it...
Consuming to death in the form of several vacations a year, sometimes studying until mid/late 20s, and driving the fanciest car on a lease was already standard in my environment!
As a result, of course, there is no saved-up cash by the early/mid-30s, making financing currently very, very difficult. Then it’s whining about politics and the current economic situation because apparently no one can afford their own home nowadays.
People used to consume much less, save a lot more money, and earn money much earlier. All things that everyone can somehow control themselves...
If you want to consume, fine – but then you have to bear the consequences if 100k is missing for financing in your early 30s.