Hmmm..

I grew up in a world where a 14" B&W TV, one landline phone, one newish car and one beater, meant that you were solidly middle class.

Today, the 1950's/60's middle class would be spat on by Canada's welfare cases.

Own less? Perhaps. 

But the arc of human consumption is up, always up. Couple that with a population headed for 9 billion by 2050, 12 billion by 2100 and.....

Humans are like that. We are inquisitive, and we are acquisitive.

But maybe these new millennials are a new kind of human, what used to be called "Soviet Man" or some such. 

BTW, how did that work out?