Case in point.. Visit your average trailer park.
My wife's a case worker and sees them all the time. They are filled with DirecTV satellites, DVD Players, Big Screen TV's, and empty beer cans littered on the floor.
Yes, the standard of living in the United States is just plummeting.
OOh, OOh, I know:
Could it be because the TV's and other manufactured goods are cheaper when there is free trade?
That's an excellent post. I seem to remember hearing somewhere that the bizarre combination of circumstances you describe was the inspiration for John Mellencamp's song, "Pink Houses" back in the 1980s. Mellencamp described a road trip he took in the Midwest, and the one lasting impression he had was of small towns where people lived in run-down pastel-colored houses, seemingly on the edge of survival -- but with satellite dishes on top of the houses and big new cars parked next to them.