You know what is really sad is that our "standard of living" is now determined by how many cheap goods we can buy . . .
Amen to that. The enviro-whack jobs and taxes have done in our real standard of living. You want a standard 3 bed/2 bath house in a non-crack neighborhood? FORGET IT unless you are highly paid, or BOTH parents work full time....vacation time with the family? Ha---if you can manage to snatch it a few days at a time, otherwise there will be "hints" at work that you aren't as "dedicated" [a wage slave] to the company as someone else. Tens of thousands of dollars have to be spent before a new housing project can go up...satisfying the envirowhackjobs...and uncle sammy hasn't kept pace with the PERSONAL deductions people can take on their taxes. When adjusted for inflation a family can deduct only a fraction of what they could back in the 50s...children and teens are brought up by baby sitters and the "me, me, me" attitude is everywhere....but, by God, we can by a DVD for less than 20 bucks at the freakin' Walmart.