For much of the past century, there has been no better place to live comfortably than the US. In the world’s richest economy, air conditioners, microwaves and refrigerators that spit out ice cubes are common household goods, seen more as necessities than a luxuries.

But as the country teeters on the edge of recession, life is becoming harder for the average American. With the purchasing power of the US dollar in sharp decline – it takes $2.66 to buy the same amount of goods that $1 would have bought in 1980 – and household incomes dropping, Americans are being forced to cut back on some of the products that have made life good. In western Europe, consumers are in a similar quandary, with France last week becoming the first large economy to acknowledge it had fallen into a recession.