However, we are truly living in the greatest period the world has ever known: peace (despite terrorism), prosperity (despite growing economic pain) and freedom (unlike the world has known). So what's really the problem?
YOU are confusing prospects with reality. In the past two hundred years, how many Americans have been killed by foreign powers on our own soil? Granted it has been more than a hundred years since the United States attacked it's own citizens, but it has only been a matter of months since Ruby Ridge, Waco, and little Elian.
And yes the rest of the world has been, to a degree, following the role model set by the US in terms of granting more freedom to its citizens. But in our country, the citizens granted limited powers to the government. Now the government is stripping those freedoms away from the people. Look at the hundreds if not thousands of pounds of laws and regulations that have been passed in the last seventy years. Do you think those have made you more free? Those pounds of paper are links in the chains that are enslaving us.
And as for the illusion of prosperity, you are only looking at the asset side of the ledger. The US is now the largest debtor in the history of the world. Our savings rate is the lowest in history. Government debt at all levels of government is at all time highs. Corporate debt is at an all time high. Mortgage debt is at an all time high. Credit card debt is at an all time high. On a per centage basis US net worth is at an all time low. When the home loan program to foster home ownership was passed in the 50's, home equity was at 57% of individual net worth. Fifty years later, it has fallen below 50%, home equity has actually declined. Americans have been consuming their savings and capital base. And unless we are very lucky, a lot of that debt is going to produce a mountain of bankruptcies. Most people like to allow for a margin of safety. Thanks to Robert Rubin and Allan Greenspan, most Americans have already consumed it or had their government take it away and give it to someone else.