Ah. But one of the big points is that they are *not* realistic propositions even for the middle class in the industrial core--but the cultural engine tries to convince everyone that they are. Or, as my wife began to rant while watching "Stigmata": "She's a hairdresser! Hairdressers in Manhattan do not live along in 1200 square-foot lofts with designer furniture! Hollywood is teaching a generation of teenagers that if they drop out of high school and become hairdressers they will live in 1200 square foot lofts in Manhattan--and that there is something wrong with them if they don't!"
So that the gap between what the culture teaches you about the material prerequisites for daily life and what you can actually afford is larger today than it has ever been before, and so--although richer than ever before--we are more enslaved to necessity than ever before.
I'm not sure I buy this argument completely. But it is a powerful one. Pursuit of profit creates an extremely strong incentive to display images that magnify people's beliefs about their material "needs," and they then warp their lives to achieve them. As if an invisible hand is dealing to the world from a deck full of jokers...
Brad Delong