Appearances are deceiving, goes the saying. And these days people are living of appearances.
Great post. Interesting historical facts. I think that what you have observed and accurately questioned in this post is a universal phenomenon. This is the dark side of globalization.
I love food, but i love tasty food the better, even if the place does not look fancy.
We have a lot of presure to live up to certain expectations and unfortunatelly for most, our children are the most afected by this. They then pass the pressure on to the parents and nobody seems to want to look cheap or inadequate.
It's a silly game we don't have to play.