Bill, I'm surprised that in your excellent commentary, you neglect to mention the financial ravages of health care. Soaring medical costs are eating up purchasing power for many of us at an alarming rate -- and we're getting nothing (in fact, less) for the dramatic rise in price. That's the very definition of eroding living standards.
You're right on all counts. I tend to run towards long posts, and I tried not to go too far with my analysis. I'm sure that I left out other things as well. A part of the rising cost of healthcare and every other rising cost is lawsuits. A hundred or so years ago, when you bought a product, you were pretty much buying just the product. Today, you are buying the product plus the cost of the lawyers for the retailer, the wholesaler, various transportation companies, and the manufacturer. Each of these companies in the chain must have more lawyers than it needed in the past. The costs for those lawyers are passed to the consumer. Again, if you are in the law industry, you are doing better than you were forty years ago. If you are in any of the productive businesses that are being bled by the law industry, you could be doing worse.
Bill