That only makes sense if social security and medicare were solvent and perceived as such by the population. However, few people believe social security will be around for them in any meaningful way, so I don’t buy reason #1. An older population wants to save less? Since when? They are the most frugal bunch around, from the retired people I’ve seen. I don’t buy #2 either.
The last point has merit: people spend and don’t save because we haven’t had a real recession in 3 decades. So the reason we consume more is not because savings is obsolete in this “new era”, but because we forgot what it’s like to be in a recession. Believe me, by next year, more people will wish they had saved for that rainy day, and we’ll have an entire population once again in awe of frugal living.
