> Go to Vegas and there are whole shopping malls where, to indulge in just a degree of hyperbole, I'd have to look hard to find something I could afford. Or at least would even consider affording.

IIRC, Americans don't really shop at those stores. Their costumers are mainly foreign nouveau rich people.

In fairness, conspicuous consumption is one of the primary draws of Vegas. Probably not a very representative example.

And it's also a one-off, in a national and international sense. It's like judging consumption levels in the Muslim world by Dubai.

NYC has more than one of these sort of malls.

And those malls are usually pretty empty, from my experience.