LOL!!!
Yes, the standard of living has risen to meteoric heights... How ironic, that as the standard of living has increased, so have the taxes, as well...
Were the generic "public" educated on things such as the Laffer curve and its' implications, they'd be screaming for tax-rate reductions, and crucifying the liberals- whose last vestige of hope is to add more bums to the public dole...
Of course, in the good old-days (which, as you have so clearly described, weren't so good), people also had a sense of shame, and pride in their abilities to pull themselves up by the bootstraps... Those that failed...? Died. A Darwinian model, if there ever was one...
My personal assessment of the economy is that it's far worse than they're letting on- it's like the old joke, "you gonna' believe ME or your lyin' eyes?" :-\
The new word on the lips of most educated economists... is deflation. And if it gets as bad as some indications seem to suggest... Then we may follow Japan into the financial toilet.
I hope- dearly so- that I'm wrong... But something tells me it's going to get a lot worse, before it finally starts to get better... :-|
FReegards,
Most people don't know much if anything at all about economics and gobble up the pablem, spewed by the triple threat of Dan, Peter, and Brokaw. Economics USED to be taught, as a mtter of course, in high school ; my mother took two required courses in it. It's no longer even being taught much in colleges, today.
Yes, people used to be shamed by being on the dole; now, they demand more and more and M-O-R-E government handouts. Stick it to the rich, is the battle cry. Their own taxes ? They haven't a clue about that.
I don't think that we'll get anywhere close to the Japanese model; but, deflation is here , now, and I hope that it doesn't get any worse.
We seem to be on the same page. :-)