Almost our entire economy in the US is built around spending money you don't have. You can't finance a car, sign a lease, or buy a house without having extensive history of buying things with money you don't have. On top of all of that, we continually lean further and further away from actually owning anything and instead either renting or borrowing every necessity and commodity available. At that point, why bother spending money you do own on things you don't get to keep? Especially when you continually watch people who have significantly more money than you racking up debt and then getting it forgiven just for shiggles.

Every month there's a new "unprecedented" event. Wild fires, shootings, repeated attempts to strip our rights, opioid epidemic. There's a miriad of reasons to feel like long-term investments are an exercise in futility.

Also, when an especially bad flu season can financially ruin you due to Healthcare costs, why fucking bother?

Not sure if someone had the intention to attack anyone but isn't it somehow part of the problem that people seek joy primarily by spending lots of money? Without ANY savings on the side, you'll be constantly on the short leash of big corporations and have little to no room to improve on mental health and stuff.

Not talking about people buying groceries and other daily use items obviously. But I doubt buying expensive electronics, fancy clothes etc. will make anyone happy but the shareholders of the manufacturers and the credit card companies.