Part of this slowdown in consumer spending also has to do with the tightening of credit as well, making it more difficult for people without means to spend. In my opinion this is a great thing. When people are backed against a wall because they have no other way to pay for their livelihood than their salary, they're not going to be ok with stagnant wages and companies low balling them.
Bring on the pain, I say. Real growth comes from companies investing in their workforce, not people drowning themselves in debt.
Put another way: it used to be that you could buy a house for the equivalent of a year's salary. Now it seems most houses are about 5-6x the average salary of a given area. If that were still the case today, most Bay Area residents should be making near 1 mil/year or houses here should be closer to about $150-200k, more likely the latter since credit is primarily the reason for the inflated cost.
Bring on the pain, I say. Real growth comes from companies investing in their workforce, not people drowning themselves in debt.
Put another way: it used to be that you could buy a house for the equivalent of a year's salary. Now it seems most houses are about 5-6x the average salary of a given area. If that were still the case today, most Bay Area residents should be making near 1 mil/year or houses here should be closer to about $150-200k, more likely the latter since credit is primarily the reason for the inflated cost.