There is actually cause and effect here. When credit card slips become money, as they did, then the cost of everyting goes up (it's called inflation, which is as much the result of credit expansion as it is the printing of Ben Franklins by the FR). So, the only way to support a family, buy food, gas, etc. is to pay the market price, which is established not by current earnings, but by current earnings PLUS credit.
That is why Greenspan stopped printing M3. It made it too obvious what the FR was doing to keep the whole business aloft.
We realize it, but we also see those tight families with the top cable TV offering and multiple cell phone contracts. Many of them can't separate luxeries from necessities.