Do people generally expect to spend more money these days?

[Doctor_Jackson]

@Icarus

At any rate - we do know that US wages have been stagnant for decades. Workers haven’t reaped the financial reward of all this “increased productivity”. Billionaires are richer, so YAY! I guess.

Not according to the Federal Reserve, please look at the links I posted, particularly this one. Median real income has been steadily rising since at least 1985. That is part of what is fueling the lower savings rate - people have more and are confident that they will have even more in the future, so the perceived need to save is diminished. Generally speaking, a kid who gets a candy bar every day, guaranteed, will eat it more quickly than a kid who gets one candy bar per month, maybe.

@Dinsdale

I think my perception may also have been colored by a shifting of peoples’ individual timelines. More folk used to get married and had kids earlier, which pushed back their discretionary spending until they were older.

Yep, there are a smorgasbord of social and economic drivers behind the trend.