It would be interesting to know the ages of people in relation to their response to this.
I'm sensing two distinct themes:
1) Wow, these kids are being total douche-bags about these huge items
2) Kids were always like this, it's just that the terminology is "harsher" and more public
Personally, chalk me up in camp (1). I was born in 1972, and I do think the expectations were different, at least where I grew up. I'm from an middle class/upper middle class neighborhood in a mid-western city. When we didn't get what we wanted, it was things like a bike, skateboard, a moped or dirt-bike, (or being a nerd) a cool model, or a rocket... etc. At most, something in the $100 range.
It was a rare and privileged few who got a car for a birthday present, and they knew they were rare and privileged... They might have been *hoping* for a car, but they sure as hell didn't go all postal about it. An they usually got it as part of a "deal" with Dad in which they had to pay for the insurance and gas, etc.
The idea of kids feeling entitled to presents that are $500 and up, to the point where they are cursing their parents... Sickens me. If one of my peers tried that kind of shtuff, parents would have dropped the hammer... "Oh, your life is so rough, and I'm a lousy parent? Tell you what, you ungrateful little shit, your t.v.. stereo, phone, and Atari are going into the attic until you learn a little appreciation for what you have..."
Part of our holiday traditions also included giving at church, working the food kitchen or charity tag sale, by the way. We all had friends whose parents had lost jobs, and everyone had had tight years. We'd all had that conversation at one time or another that one Christmas or another was going to be tight for whatever reason, and that's just the way it was.
We also had one t.v., and when we watched it it was "family time." It was The Waltons, or Little House on the Prairie, for the whole family. If it was Dad and me, it was stuff like Columbo, or Hill Street Blues. Saturday morning it was westerns. My family was on the "less well to do" side of things, so our one t.v. was just fine. Some kids got a t.v. *in their own room* and that was a BIG deal...
And as for respecting our elders, things *were* different. We might cuss around each other, but around a grown-up? No freakin' way... It was "Sir" and "Ma'am." And saying you were going to kick your Dad's ass? Holy crap, that kind of disloyalty and dishonor meant you well and truly deserved the thrashing you were going to get when Dad heard about it. Kids that talked ill of their families, especially their parents, were punks and losers. Dad was a Provider, and Mom was a Nurturer, and you were a Learner, and we respected those roles, or at least understood them.
Mind you, I always heard how things were different for my parents' generation growing up, and they were. They grew up working a farm, up at all hours taking care of animals, doing hard labor, because it was *their* role. Did I want to grow up the way they had? Hell no. But if I had, I would have been a stronger person for it.
Things *do* change, and have changed. You're naive if you think that either "its always been this way" OR "This change is something completely new." The truth is in between, and it seems to me that if you don't acknowledge the nature of the changes our society has experienced over the years you risk losing... A lot of things. For one thing, a sense of place in the grand scope of society, our history, and our future. For another, a sense of perspective, and what you can deal with if you have to. When we had some power outages out here earlier this year, some people could roll with it, and some people couldn't roll so well.
Anyway, I'll leave it at that.
...Disrespectful little shits.
