The point is that we don't really enjoy a higher standard of living. We have a few more toys, but in order to pay for those toys, we're working twice as much. Forty years ago, a family was a husband, a wife, and children. The husband's productivity was geared towards bringing home money. The wife's productivity was geared towards raising children. Today, no one in the family can have primary responsibility for raising children. We've taken "one adult unit" of productivity out of raising children and had to put it towards other expenses.
More time spent at work, less pensions but we now have 401Ks that empoyers pay into and that we can take with us.
A 401k is nice, but many employers have paid bonuses and extras for years. A family that was smart enough to invest those bonuses could also "take it with them" if they wanted.
Yes, there are layoffs but we have the opportunity to change jobs more frequently as the economy has grown.
The situation of an employee changing jobs is better than that of an employee being laid off because he can bargain from a position of strength, but often, the change really doesn't improve one's financial situation. Many employers base their 401k contributions on years of service. If you leave a job where your employer is making an 8% contribution to your 401k for a job where the employer will be putting only 2% into your 401k for the next five years, you have to get 6% raise before you've even broken even on just that benefit. If the change means lowered pension benefits, the raise must be bigger. If the change means losing vacation, you can effectively count each week of vacation as 2%. It's not hard for a new company to pay you ten or twelve percent more than the old company did but you'll still end up only breaking even.
When something is wrong with one's current job situation, changing jobs is necessary. However, changing jobs is not such a great deal for the employee. I've been in that situation, and it's not positive.
The economy has grown for some people in certain paper-shuffling jobs, but the economy hasn't grown for everyone. Someone who is a smooth talker and good at hyping himself will always do well. The honest, hard-working, analytical types are not doing particularly well in today's "hype is everything" economy.
Life is what you make it.
Yes, life is what we make it, but if we're working harder to have less and enjoy less than what our parents and grandparents did, then the thesis of this editorial is wrong. We aren't better off than we were forty years ago.
Bill
Nope the economy has grown for everyone, some just choose the doom and gloom path and wait for someone to take care of them.
I have opportunities my Grandfather could only dream about just because of this thing called the Internet.
The amount of information available at your fingertips is astonishing when you stop to consider it. And a smart person can use that info to better their financial situation with little effort. But most use it to surf porn, or see what disgusting stunt some Hollywood bimbo did. And usually they are the ones yelling about how the country is worse off now and it was better in my father's day. Well it wasn't better. Sorry but if you live in the USA and are having a hard time making it you either are just ignoring the opportunities around you or just don't want to put forth the effort.
My little town is full of business success stories. The funny thing is most of those successes are by people who were not born in this country and moved here as adults. There are two within a stone's throw of me that are millionaires and a third who will soon be one. I've discussed with them the opportunities America has to offer and they all scoff at the notion that "its too hard now to make it." I know how hard my dad worked and how hard my grandfather worked. We have it easy now, IF we use the tools available.
But few do.
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.
ACtually it is a good deal. In technology your skill set can advance much faster than your promotion prospects at one company and when you can get a 40% raise by jumping, it is worth it.
This article is pure pablum, and you are a star!
What an absolute crock of s#it!
The economy will NEVER grow for EVERYONE, some segment of the population will always be hurt by growth...that certainly was the case for people employed by the horse-drawn cart industry with the advent of the auto industry, but their demise was a positive thing for the overall economy.
Today's lowest rung employee is eons ahead of the highest employee of fifty years ago in technological knowledge.