People didn't stop spending money, they just spent it on things that complement their PCs.
On stage I make love to twenty five thousand people; and then I go home alone.
The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare, no matter what happens to the world, that's not equity, it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people.