Pigs in Finery - The end of the American Dream (nightmare)

One of my oldest and dearest friends, and basically my mentor for the past 40 years, once made the comment about "pigs in finery" to describe those people who were living on credit, drove a new car, lived in a new McMansion, and lived a lifestyle two income levels above their modest salary.  She said this not in the 2000's, but way back in the 1980's.  Of course during the housing boom these "pigs in finery" became the norm, and I met people who made less than 70K a year (household income) who had a new house, new car, motorcycles, and every other adult toy one could think of.  How did they do this?  HELOCS - (home equity line of credit).  Every time their modets house went up 50K, they would refinance and buy some more toys.

Now that the mother of all bubbles has burst, these are the very people who are the most shrill - they are literally small children with their toys taken away, and blame everyone but themselves.  Personally, I am glad glad glad that these people are screaming and crying.  I think the current economy is great - companies are making money, and many people are at least making an attempt to save.  I just finished an article by "Mister Mortgage" (google him) that said, "it is a myth that banks are not lending"  The fact is there are not enough credit-worthy borrowers.  Do we really want to go back to 2005 when anyone with a pulse could get a 200K loan??  

Where is it in the Constitution that says everyone needs to buy a house and a new car?  Let us try to NOT re-inflate the economy, but accept the present time as the "new norm" and deal with it!