It’s quite a change from the days when the most notable young people on television belonged to a comfortable middle class. After the Reagan revolution restored Gilded Age values, plutocratic wealth became fashionable on prime-time soaps like Dynasty.

It could be that adolescents simply do not want to identify with ordinary folk. Some economists argue that many lower-income Americans vote against their own financial interests—opposing tax increases on the wealthy or a national health-insurance plan—because they identify with people who have more money and hope that some day they too will reach those lofty tax brackets.
Teenagers are known for having eating disorders. Increasingly some seem to suffer from income dysmorphia. Sex and beauty could also be to blame; sex sells, but it is oversold on prime-time television. Money has more elusive allure.
_ALESSANDRA STANLEY, NYT