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To: Cogadh na Sith
I am part of the first generation, Gen X, that will have a lower standard of living than the previous generation

People have been saying the same thing for 100 years -- usally when running against incumbents. It hasn't been true yet, and there's no reason to think it will be true now. You can look at a data series going back to 1790 (admittedly the early stats are debatable), and real per capita income growth over 20 years (1 generation) runs around 40-50%, for the whole period, with the lowest in the very early years of the republic. In 40 years it runs a bit over 100% on average.

Most of the people whining about how we're doing worse don't see that we're really "doing different." I grew up in a pretty average family for my town -- 900 square foot house, eat out twice a year, one black-and white TV. Travel 1000 miles away every 2 years. If you live that way today, you can do it with a much lower class job than my Dad had back then with a stay-at-home Mom. If you want a 2500 square foot house, eat out twice a week, 2 Plasma HDTV, go on vacation to at least to Fla or the Caribbean every year --- you need a lot more income -- and the average person actually has it.

I don't mean to rag on you personally, but that's the facts, and the "average" person is out there making it happen, every day.

27 posted on 11/25/2007 4:07:09 PM PST by BohDaThone
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To: BohDaThone
You can look at a data series going back to 1790 (admittedly the early stats are debatable), and real per capita income growth over 20 years (1 generation) runs around 40-50%, for the whole period, with the lowest in the very early years of the republic. In 40 years it runs a bit over 100% on average.

Did you read the article? That's not true for the last 30 years.

This is also the first time a smaller generation has followed a larger one. It is also the first time in America's history that a smaller generation had to fund the previous larger generations retirement, and healthcare....

41 posted on 11/25/2007 8:03:43 PM PST by Cogadh na Sith (Peace Through Light)
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