Except that I've been wearing a Omega since before digital watches were invented and using Leicas since before digital photography was invented -- though my fanciest pen is only a Parker, again dating from the 60s. It's stainless steel, quite trendy in those days.
Here's another interpretation of the same observed phenomenon: despite the general decline in real purchasing power of the working and lower-middle classes since about 1990, increasing income differentials have meant that the well-to-do can afford more luxuries and 'toys'. And more people work absurdly long hours to buy stuff -- stuff they seldom have time to enjoy because they're working too hard, in order to pay for it all.
The old left distinguishes between petty bourgeois (those hoisting themselves out of the proletariat), the bourgeois and bon bourgeois (the middle-middle classes), and the grand bourgeois (rich non-aristos -- there are of course very few aristos in the USA). When I was growing up, my father was a naval officer, pretty much bourgeois, but in those days we could afford some things that are regarded as the province of the bon bourgeois today.
Me? I'm bo-bo (bohemian-bourgeois) a new classification (?1990s) that enables you to live better on less money or worse on more money, depending on your choices.
Cheers,
R.
