Are you sure anybody wants to marry you if you drive a 30yo car?
In a place where only about 50% of people own a car, nobody asks what I drive.
As far as buying second best, that’s personally fine with me. There should be more to a country than the “best products.” Adequate leisure time. Time with family. Time to enjoy life. People are more than consumer-droids, required to buy the “first best.”
Slow down, jump off the rat wagon, and spook the horse so the wagon crashes into a ditch and kills the (slave)driver.
Full employment shouldn’t be a goal. ENOUGH employment so that anyone who genuinely wants to work can, should be that goal. Fortunately, as labor force participation declines, we’re actually headed that way. And lastly, the economy worked fine when there were a lot of families with one working parent.
