A giant arbitrage.

We are all creatures of our own generation.
Understandably we learnt our way at the knee of our mother and the environment our parents occupied. They in their part were brought up in a different era and learnt from that experience, passing to us the lessons learned in a world far different from ours.
There was a greater sense of continuity between the generations in those days. Much of the skill and experience was transferable, tradition had remained in tact and individual histories were valued. The communication was face to face with parents and children prepared to play their role as, in time immemorial fashion, the older generation had the last say. 

Change was something that ordinary people could cope with since there was a continuity between old and new and, as with a faulty washing machine which you repaired it rather than throwing it out, it was valued, there was almost a sentimental affinity, it had a place and should be given a second chance. The instincts were of preservation and respect of continuity. 
The speed of change has destroyed much of that, driven by market forces we have become a throw away society, an instinct artificially fostered by the need for growth in spending.
The Japanese economy is in the doldrums because the individual Japanese person, shaped by its semi feudal society, insulated from the American model of consumerism, preferring to save rather than spend, their economy has plateaued but even with an enormous balance of payment surplus (normally a respected economic position), it is lampooned by the Market for not having sufficient domestic growth. In the England I grew up in we also placed a high value on saving for a rainy day and people would find respect amongst their peers in resisting falling into debt.
How far we have travelled from that position with an economy mired in debt,(our personal debt).
We, the collective "we" are in deep trouble. The hypothesise that debt is good and can be spread like so much manure was blown in the 2007 banking crash. The instinct that you didn't want to be left holding the baby, brought a freeze to the banking system when the confidence of each bank to another bank was questioned and the first of the American big banks went to the wall in default. Trillions of dollars of taxpayers money has been hurled at the system to immunise the banks but the disease is still with us in untold overpriced assets held on their books.
It's now a sort of Ponzi scheme where, so long as no one blinks, (particularly the Chinese with their holding of American dollars), the system creaks on. Heaven help us when the interest rates are forced to rise and the banks are saddled with "interest" on their bad debts.
Value is measured only in monetary terms not the philosophical term it used to have when it also encompassed the human condition.
The inequality gap grows ever wider as the need for a global identity steamrollers us all into one size fits all, and the cost (not the value) of labour across the globe is arbitraged.