(4 of 4)
Spending patterns suggest that a certain amount of modern stress arises from a struggle to keep up with ever growing expectations. "What we consider a middle-class standard of living now was considered rich 30 years ago," says Mitchell. "My neighbor lives with his young daughter, and he has three cars. Does he really need three cars? He can only drive one at a time." Children are especially absorbent of discretionary income: the obvious equation is that the less time parents have to spend on their children, the more money they spend, on dance lessons and soccer uniforms and the tutors hired for $250 an hour to help prepare for the SATs. This year, helping make Christmas shopping a little less arduous for stressed-out parents, Toys "R" Us is offering a computerized registry so children can roam the aisles making their selections and the store can spit out a list for Santa.
This complex chemistry of means, needs and expectations makes for some contradictory behavior. This Christmas, high-end stores and discount outlets are having the best season: stores in the middle are struggling. It seems that most consumers are engaged in a constant, personalized cost-benefit analysis. If they feel they got a good enough bargain at the Price Club on toilet paper or dog food, they allow themselves the Starbucks confection that costs four times as much as a regular cup of coffee.
On the other hand, maybe these reflexes aren't so surprising. Everyone has heard stories of the Depression-era parents or grandparents who were still recycling string and splitting two-ply toilet paper long after their portfolios had reached seven figures. There is something about even a glimpse of poverty, much less the experience of it, that leaves scars, of humiliation and terror and resolve not ever to live there again. In a restless age, when the days are long and dense and full of surprises, when industries change overnight, it's little wonder that it's harder to dream, easier to toss and turn till morning comes again.
--Reported by Wendy Cole/Chicago, John F. Dickerson/Washington and Aisha Labi/New York