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"Is that a back door admission that trade raises our standard of living?"

No, because another good measure of standard of living is determined by the ability to aquire material necessities/wants with cash/check/debit derived from wages & other income. An ever-increasing percentage of the US population, to maintain the same standard of living, has to rely more and more on the use of credit cards, lines of credit/home-equity loans, home refi's, pay day loans etc... In other words they have to bury themselves in debt they'll never repay. In 1955 the average wage-earner could save up enough money in 5 years or less to buy a brand-new American car or truck outright with cash. Try that today. The problem is that most of what people look at to determine "standard of living" is what car you're driving, how up to date your home electronics are, and how big your house is...not HOW you obtained them. Have you ever seen that commercial with the guy bragging about all that he has, and then telling you that: "I'm in debt up to my eyeballs!" That commercial is very easily representive of America as a whole. On the surface his life seems grand, but he's on an ever thinning string towards financial collapse. The United States is steadily more and more in that condition through free-trade policies. In 20 years, if we keep on this penny-wise pound-foolish path, China's going to have a very big set of scissors to cut that string with.

Have you ever seen that commercial with the guy bragging about all that he has, and then telling you that: "I'm in debt up to my eyeballs!" That commercial is very easily representive of America as a whole.

If this is true, how do you explain household net worth rising to an all time high of $51 trillion? Liabilities are only $11.4 trillion. Assets are almost $62.5 trillion.

The United States is steadily more and more in that condition through free-trade policies.

Are you claiming our net worth has dropped since NAFTA? You have any links showing our debt is growing more than our assets?

No, because another good measure of standard of living is determined by the ability to aquire material necessities/wants with cash/check/debit derived from wages & other income. An ever-increasing percentage of the US population, to maintain the same standard of living, has to rely more and more on the use of credit cards, lines of credit/home-equity loans, home refi's, pay day loans etc... In other words they have to bury themselves in debt they'll never repay. In 1955 the average wage-earner could save up enough money in 5 years or less to buy a brand-new American car or truck outright with cash. Try that today. The problem is that most of what people look at to determine "standard of living" is what car you're driving, how up to date your home electronics are, and how big your house is...not HOW you obtained them. Have you ever seen that commercial with the guy bragging about all that he has, and then telling you that: "I'm in debt up to my eyeballs!" That commercial is very easily representive of America as a whole. On the surface his life seems grand, but he's on an ever thinning string towards financial collapse. The United States is steadily more and more in that condition through free-trade policies. In 20 years, if we keep on this penny-wise pound-foolish path, China's going to have a very big set of scissors to cut that string with.

Hmmm, that reminds me, maybe a little off the beam, but I like to collect old magazines (I'm a Victorian/Edwardian literature junky), some from 100+ years ago, there were stories where it took a married couple 5 years to save for a house and some of those houses were fairly spacious. Today, you'd be up to "your eyeballs" in debt unless you were a rockstar or something. BTW, I actually knew someone like that guy in the commercial, he had a huge house, a Lincoln Navigator and so on and he really had to cut back. I know there are times people ask for it but our personal debt problem is a huge problem.