Important like before, but still dumb!!

I remember in the '80's me and all of my friends would scratch and claw and beg and steal to afford Gucci, Louis, Fendi,MCM, Polo and Izod and whatever designer who was waaaay overpriced and could care less about us. How is it that in 2010 we are doing the same thing with the same designers? How did we continue this cycle? Why haven't we learned to support our own designers who grew up with us and care about us? Where are they now?