Are Americans Entitled To A Constantly Soaring Standard Of Living In Excess Of The Rest Of The World?
By Erina Array
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Americans appear to have some unfortunate belief that simply by being Americans, they are entitled to a superior and improving standard of living. False. That may have appeared to be the truth for some decades, but they are in for a terribly agonizing shock. An ever more global economy is a reality, and while the topic is somewhat overworked, it is true that Americans cannot demand to be compensated handsomely for similar work that Asians are willing to do at a cheaper wage. Neither can companies in India, China, etc., expect to be able to always pay those low wages permanently. There probably will be some sort of a "meeting in the middle" over the coming years with Asian incomes rising and American wages falling. That's good news for Asians, but bad news for a lot of Americans.
To a significant degree, Americans are living off the heritage of our former small-government, free-market, capitalist economy which was the engine that supplied the increasing standard of living Americans used to experience and today's Americans seem to expect. I say former, simply because we now have anything but that any longer. The central government attempts to regulate wealth creation even though producing no wealth whatsoever. Its main products are regulations, unsuccessful programs, and aggressive foreign wars. Not one of these has a constructive impact on the wealth of this nation, and I believe the "military-industrial complex" that President Eisenhower warned us about might be the most destructive factor of all. Anyway, given his armed forces experience he certainly must have known all about it. War is horribly expensive, and as we have seen, once we get into one the attitude becomes one of "we need to have triumph thus we have to spend whatsoever is necessary to achieve it." Sounds like a path to national bankruptcy. Think about what might have been accomplished with the money we've spent on these wars. And that does not even include the social costs to individuals and families.
In any event, downsizing on a personal level will be the new thing to do, regardless of whether we like it or not. A continuously increasing standard of living comes from private savings and investment, productive labor, and a political environment created by a government that does not behave like business expansion will proceed regardless of what the government might choose to do to obstruct it. To the degree those things are absent, so also will growing private wealth be outside our reach.
One does not have to like the laws of economics, and one can employ the services of individuals with flawed views to get the answers one wants, however the facts stay the same.
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