Do Americans Have An Entitlement To A Constantly Increasing Standard Of Living Beyond The Rest Of The World?

Americans seem to have some regrettable belief that simply by being Americans, they have an entitlement to a high and improving standard of living. Not true. That might have seemed to be the case for some decades, but they are in for a really agonizing surprise. An increasingly global economy is a reality, and while the subject is to some degree over-worked, it's true that Americans can not expect to be compensated handsomely for the same work that Asians are prepared to do at a far lower wage. Nor can companies in India, China, etc., hope to be able to always pay those low wages permanently. There will most likely be some sort of a "meeting in the middle" over the coming years with Asian wages rising and American wages falling. That's good news for Asians, but not so great for many Americans.

To a large degree, Americans are living off the legacy of our former free-market, small-government, capitalist economy which was the engine that provided the rising standard of living Americans used to experience and today's Americans appear to expect. I say former, because we have anything but that anymore. The central government attempts to regulate wealth creation while creating no wealth whatsoever. Its main products are rules, failed programs, and aggressive foreign wars. Not one of these has a positive impact on the prosperity of this country, and I believe that the "military-industrial complex" that President Eisenhower warned us about may be the most destructive factor of all. Anyway, given his military experience he certainly must have known all about it. War is unbelievably costly, and as we have observed, once we get into one the attitude becomes one of "we must have triumph thus we have to expend whatever is required to achieve it." Seems like a route to national bankruptcy. Imagine what could have been accomplished with the money we've allocated to these wars. And that doesn't even include the social costs to individuals and families.

The point is, downsizing on a personal level will be the new thing to do, regardless of whether we like it or not. An ever increasing standard of living comes from private savings and investment, productive labor, along with a political setting established by a government that does not behave like business growth will continue regardless of what the government might choose to do to obstruct it. To the degree those factors are missing, so also will expanding personal wealth be outside our grasp.

One doesn't have to like the laws of economics, and one can utilize the services of individuals with mistaken ideas to get the answers one desires, but the facts remain the same.