Samson,
I'm not as old as your dad, but regarding the items that we cannot afford I have the following
When I was a young man in the 60's I had one suit of clothes for good and three white shirts and three ties.
For GOOD I had a pair of brown shoes and a pair of black shoes and they have been re-soled at least once.
Of course I had work and casual clothes and shoes as well.
We drove our cars for ten years and took good care of them keeping the local mechanics in business.
My wife's family and my family handed down Union made, expensive clothing to the next generation and several ladies of my acquaintance altered clothing for extra money. The resale shop in my home town did a good business year around and all the best people shopped there. By the way I'm not against China made products, my wife and daughter work at J C Penny's and they sell pretty good products for casual wear, but I purchase shirts retailing for $29.95 when they are on sale for $9.99 and then also get a 20% employee discount bringing it down to $7.99. Most of these will survive 100 washings without opening a seam or fraying, so I figure I had a good deal. The only reason that I now have ten good suits is that the original Johnny Carson suit from Hart-Schaffner & Marx in Chicago no longer fits and the lapels are toooo wide.
My point is that folks are too concerned with volume instead of good quality and with having NEW stuff instead of good stuff that lasts. As a consequence we send all of our manufacturing overseas instead of keeping the home fires burning.
Of course Wal mart didn't cause our problems, they and the Chinese filled a need that appeared when we got greedy.
Just my view, Bob