Sure it's easy to play that card and feel quite self righteous, but I'd wager a majority of Americans' spending grow with their income and family. You can't just turn off a mortgage, car payments, and college tuition because you're swimming in the pool for 6 months. I felt far "richer" when I was a single LT making $25k/year than I ever felt once I got married, had kids, and was earning $130k/year. To suggest somebody who just got a 60% pay cut should just suck it up is naive at best.