One uncomfortable explanation for our economic condition...

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

For all of my life America has been rich, and we still are.

We have an incredibly high standard of living by global standards.

We 300 million consume a third or a half or whatever it is of the resources in a world of six billion.

Absent global colonial oppression how could anyone expect us to retain that position?

Of course our standard of living is going down. How could it not?

What is best for human beings in general is probably not best for America citizens.

I do not want a lower standard of living, but hasn't the writing always been on the wall?

Our modern expectations of American wealth were born during a post-WWII period when the US had almost all the world's wealth. How could we not decline from such an unsustainable imbalance?

(Bonus question: How much of what wealth we maintain is maintained by our vast military power, versus our entrepenurial genius?)

Added on edit: Even if one accepts that net American wealth must, having reached imbalanced levels, decline in the natural ebb and flow of history that does not mean that things must get worse for average Americans, at least in a 50-100 year time frame. A more equitable distribution of what wealth we have would raise up people on the bottom so that the average person could do better even as the American slice of the pie diminishes.

Discuss.

[FreakinDJ]

1. Enter "Free Trade" stage left

Your logic is seriously FLAWED

The Corporations that are selling America down the tubes are RICHER then ever. They are just relocating their base of operations as to maximize profits.

Exit Stage right "American Prosperity"

[mdmc]

4. I disagree

Each country has an elitist class. There are rich people in Africa, Asia, all over...

Some of America is getting richer right now.
Most are slipping..

[FreakinDJ]

13. FREE TRADE is neither

Its not FREE nor is it TRADE

Bush approved a 2% tariff to China's 20% tariff for American products entering their country. Bush also included HUGE Tax Breaks that served as incentives for American Manufacturing Jobs to be shipped overseas. The result has been devastating with the loss of 100s of 1000s of American Manufacturing Jobs alone - Good Paying / Family Supporting / Blue Collar Jobs

[mdmc]

15. I agree with that

[mdmc]

2. I remember the NAFTA debate

"Giant sucking sound" vs. "lifting all boats"

Seems that when you "lift all the boats" some of those boats have to sit lower in the water..

I will never be able to match the prosperity that I grew up in. House, pool, cable tv, pets, medical treatment, dinners out, disposable income.

Now I rent, struggle to meet my health needs, have no disposable income, and never eat out..

[FreakinDJ]

3. I remembe Fienstien saying "Sha had to vote for it"

She broke the filibuster saying "Some one had to vote for it"

[lunatica]

5. She used the same argument when she voted for the Patriot Act

She said it was because she 'knew things' that we didn't.

Years later she claimed she was lied to and pretended she was in a high dudgeon over it, but that's what sleazy politicians like her do.

[brodyboy]

8. Why do Californians continue to re-elect her?

I'm only asking. No need to assume otherwise.

[AllentownJake]

6. No our politicians are largely traitors

That will sell out their country to the highest bidder, and it is one of the few bipartisan activities that they engage in on a wholesale level.

When people wake up to that, someone is going to have some spaining to do. Shame of it is the largest traitors are already dead.

[HeresyLives]

7. Yes, the post-war period was a one-off.

Most of the world had been trashed, but in the US factories were booming in order to replace everything that was lost, and then rebuild. That type of industrial growth was never sustainable past the baby-boom.

[CK_John]

9. The birth rate is higher than the job producing rate, ergo less jobs for more people equals

lower wages and high unemployment.

[rucky]

10. If you look at our GDP & average wealth per capita, I could see this...

on a macro level.

If you look at our disparity of wealth, there should be some room in there to improve the standard of living for more individuals here. Expanding domestic production and reducing trade deficits would go along way, as well.

But I agree there is an adjustment going on at a global level. So much of our wealth on paper = debt, there's really no way around that.

[Zenlitened]

11. It's the paragraph added on edit that makes this rec-worthy, IMO.

A more equitable distribution of what wealth we have would raise up people on the bottom so that the average person could do better even as the American slice of the pie diminishes.

Agreed.

[Warpy]

12. Our declining standard of living is as artificial as the rise in it was

Even my right wing father knew that this country was great at creating wealth but terrible at distributing it fairly and he spent his working life under the New Deal, the best deal working people ever got.

He voted for an end to that New Deal, which meant that wealth was stripped away from people who worked to create it and all was lavished on a very few obscenely rich men. Of course, that has not worked out well and the new poverty is much like the old poverty was, created not by a lack of wealth but by inequitable wealth distribution.

I'm delighted to say that he didn't remain fooled by the right all his life and that his last vote was for Kerry, but it was too late.

The government will have to become terrified of the citizenry again for another New Deal to take hold. Until then, get used to poverty because that's all we're going to see more of while everything we create is robbed by the few.

[abelenkpe]

14. +1 nt

[MrScorpio]

16. The problem is that our standard of living is inherently flawed

Americans have put a premium on specific consumption and the ability to consume, rather than a standard of living that places a premium on general quality of life.

It's no accident that as the ability of Americans to consume have diminished, a corresponding lost of living standards have accompanied it.

We're valued by dint our bank accounts, not by our worth as sentient human beings.

[Gregorian]

17. I agree with you and with the OP

I think they're two different things. Maybe two related things.

I'm short of words to even begin to say what I feel about this, only to say that to me poverty is something that I see in even the wealthiest of people. Poverty of the soul. I see people who treat others as less, and I actually feel sorry for the people playing the role of superior. It makes me sad.

I never laughed so hard as when I saw a little Datsun with a bumpersticker that said "The day of nonjudgment is near". And when I passed, there was a very large tatooed arm resting on the driver's window. Attached to that arm was a very large woman. It'll stick with me for life! :)

[anonymous171]

18. Or we could erect trade barriers and start fighting for the American worker

Instead of American Business interests.