[Hokusai]

> what is considered "luxury" has become more and more accessible/affordable or is not a status symbol any more

This seems to be the reality for many HN users. But not being able to buy a home or even pay rent seems quite common in the general population.

[beaconstudios]

Yeah the tech bubble is one of the worse ones. 800eur/month is not even possible for most people, let alone pocket change.

[foepys]

Not disagreeing with you but quite a few younger people driving those cars are living at their parents and have little to no other significant expenses. Yes, 800€/mo is a lot for many but for some it's in the "affordable if I don't do much else" category.

I've also heard about people pooling their money and driving them on alternating weekends. Luxury car ownership has gotten a lot cheaper than before when you needed to pay upfront or with hefty interest.

[RC_ITR]

The real weirdness is that bad local policy has led to uneven inflation, so our cultural 'anchors' of luxury are all thrown off.

A luxury car? We've gotten 10x+ better at making those since the 1950's, so ofc it's cheaper.

A trip to the Maldives? Same.

A reasonable house to live in? Well, we've sort of gotten better at making those, but not as drastically, AND we've decided to make laws that make it harder to build more of them anyway.

Lot's of fun hierarchy of needs debates to be had from that.

[SuoDuanDao]

It would seem luxuries have gotten more accessible while necessities have gotten more dear. Not sure what that says about global versus local inequality.