Money Talk Daily

Americans seem to have some unfortunate belief that simply by being Americans, they are entitled to a high and increasing standard of living.  Not true.  That may have appeared to be the case for some decades, but they are in for a terribly unpleasant surprise.  An increasingly global economy is a reality, and while the subject is somewhat overworked, it is true that Americans cannot be expected to be paid handsomely for the same work that Asians are willing to do at a far lower wage.  Neither can companies in India, China, etc., expect to be able to continue to pay those low wages forever.  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 bad news for many Americans.

To a large degree, Americans are living off the legacy of our former small-government, free-market, capitalist economy which was the engine that provided the growing standard of living Americans used to experience and today’s Americans seem to expect.  I say former, because we have anything but that anymore.  The central government attempts to regulate the production of wealth while producing no wealth whatsoever.  Its main products are regulations, failed programs, and aggressive foreign wars.  None of these have a positive impact on the wealth of this nation, and I believe that the “military-industrial complex” that President Eisenhower warned us about might be the most destructive factor of all.  Anyway, given his military experience he sure should have known all about it.  War is horribly expensive, and as we’ve seen, once we get into one the attitude becomes one of “we must have victory so we have to spend whatever is necessary to achieve it.”  Sounds like a path to national bankruptcy.  Imagine what could have been done with the money we’ve spent on these wars.  And that doesn’t even include the social costs to individuals and families.

In any event, “downsizing” on a personal level is going to be the new in thing, whether we like it or not.  An ever increasing standard of living comes from private savings and investment, hard work, and a political environment created by a government that does not act like business growth will continue regardless of what the government might choose to do to impede it.  To the degree those things are absent, so also will growing personal wealth be outside our grasp.  One doesn’t have to like the laws of economics, and one can employ the services of those with flawed views to get the answers one wants, but the facts remain the same.

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