Good points, Nar ...
... but you lost me at "since most of us are living in austerity".
That's been true for most low- and middle-income Americans pretty much forever. But here's the big difference between then and now: back THEN, people didn't mind paying (in today's dollars) $250 for a toaster that they knew would last for 40 years ... $675 for a Hoover Convertible they knew would last into the next century ... etc. TODAY, however, we're so used to cheap throwaways from China that we can't imagine paying more than $10 for a toaster, or $250 for a plastivac.