Quote Originally Posted by struth View Post
Consumerism came out after ww2 in the USA. Affluence grew, people started buying houses in suburbia and changing cars every year. Wives filled house with every convenience. Fast food took off. TV took off.
Then they shipped it over here.
I'd say it changed with the introduction of easy credit - credit cards. 1970s or thereabouts. Prior to that only the professional middle classes could buy luxury goods to impress their friends. By the mid 1980s credit cards were ubiquitous so everyone could get in on the act.