Your posts are so dead on! I think we have hit peak consumerism as you described and we are quite possibly at a crossroads, after 2008 which I reference like a broken record, was a major game changer and changed the whole dynamic of generations chasing the American Dream, because that event murdered that illusion and people especially younger generations are no longer chasing that mirage. I think that's one reason for the current hysteria over Socialism, It's not that people want Socialism, they know the truth about what our current Crony Capitalist economic system is all about and see it for how unethical it really is, and no longer chase dreams built on lies.