That's one thing, but another is how people feel entitled to luxury products - entertainment, technology, cars, etcetera. Things like I /need/ a car, so I'll get a new one on a payment plan. Or I /need/ an iPhone because of Reasons, disregarding how it's a very expensive phone with a very expensive phone plan alongside it.
I guess you could call that some kind of inflation too, but it's pretty self-inflicted.
With a car you have to take into account whether it can be assumed to improve your likely hood of getting a better job/getting any job/keeping your current job or otherwise make you money.
A cell phone may very well be necessary to get a job. It likely doesn't have to be an iphone, but it may be the cheapest option if you can get one subsidized, especially since it allows you not to have to pay too much money right now.
In general debt can be a very good thing iff you can reasonably expect to make more money than you did before.
You can live without a car if there is an acceptable public transport. That being said, car ownership among young Americans is going down. There have been some "OMG car is independence and growing up, they do not care about that" cries few months ago.
I guess it is blamed if you buy a car (luxury) and blamed if you do not buy a car (car being a symbol) case.
There's still a certain amount of victim-blaming inherent in that point of view, when you consider the all-pervasive apparatus of psychological manipulation that has been brought to bear upon generations of consumers.
