Between 1999 and 2008, U.S. economic output, as measured by gross domestic product, increased by a whopping 65 percent, from $8.7 trillion to $14.3 trillion. Meanwhile, the U.S. population during this same period increased by only 10 percent, from 273 million to 303 million. This resulted in an enormous increase in consumer disposable income from wages and increasing investment income.

Traditionally, when economic output increases faster than population, consumer lifestyle improves. Consumers purchase more and better automobiles, new electronics like cell phones and personal computers, and larger and better homes. But with the exception of a few bright spots, such as the more than $500 billion wellness industry, consumer lifestyle did not improve much in the decade before the great crash of 2008-2009.  
 
The average and median price of a single-family home rose from $180,000 in 1999 to $300,000 in 2008—for essentially the same house except it was nine years older with an outdated kitchen. The average home size increased steadily from 1,200 square feet in 1960 to 2,300 square feet in 2001. Each year, houses included more useful features, such as built-in air conditioning or better insulation, but size and quality stagnated from 2001 to 2008 when only the price increased.

The average price of a new automobile in the United States rose 40 percent, from about $20,000 in 1999 to $28,000 in 2008, without any significant increase in quality, performance or features. In the all-important area of fuel efficiency, performance actually declined from 17 to 16 miles per gallon in these years, after having increased consistently every year before 1998 from 12 mpg in 1975 to 17 mpg in 1997.

I vividly remember each new automobile my father bought in the 1960s and why it was superior to the car it replaced. Air conditioning, automatic transmission, power windows, seat belts—the list goes on and on for the compelling new features that came out with each model year. Or, if you didn’t purchase a new car for a new feature, you purchased a new car because it cost less—it actually saved you money over the cost of maintaining your existing vehicle.

Today, there hasn’t been a new feature introduced in years that makes a compelling reason to purchase a new car. Detroit killed its own business by failing to make cars that consumers wanted for either utility or economic reasons. For example, if Detroit had offered a 100-mpg car in the summer of 2008 when gas hit $5 a gallon, there may never have been a crash, due to tens of millions of consumers trading in their cars for more environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient models.

As we assimilate the events that led to the Great Crash of 2008-2009, as well as where we are now, it’s clear there is no better time to step up and be the entrepreneur or intrapreneur who has enough vision and courage to give consumers what they really want: innovative new products and services that will improve their lives.