Both are straw men that represent the extremity of a population.
There's a bit of rose-tinted glasses going on here, isn't there? I don't particular buy into this notion that the previous generation was oh so virtuous, while this one is just daft as a brick.
Well they existed before the concept of easy credit, so it's not really a matter of them being more self disciplined--just sort of the way things were. For most people, you saved up and paid cash for everything b/c that was the only option.
There's a bit of rose-tinted glasses going on here, isn't there? I don't particular buy into this notion that the previous generation was oh so virtuous, while this one is just daft as a brick.