Americans seem to have some regrettable belief that simply by being Americans, they have an entitlement to a high and improving standard of living. False. That might have seemed to be the case for many decades, but they will be in for a terribly agonizing shock. An ever more global economy is a fact, and although the subject is to some degree overworked, it's true that Americans cannot demand to be compensated handsomely for the same work that Asians are willing to do at a cheaper wage. Neither can companies in India, China, etc., hope to be able to always pay those low wages forever. There will most likely be some form of a "meeting in the middle" over the coming years with Asian wages growing and American wages falling. That's great news for Asians, but bad news for many Americans.

To a significant degree, Americans are living off the heritage of our former free-market, small-government, capitalist economy which was the engine that provided the increasing standard of living Americans used to enjoy and modern day Americans appear to expect. I say former, simply because we now have anything but that any longer. The central government attempts to manage wealth creation while producing no wealth whatsoever. Its major products are regulations, failed programs, and aggressive foreign wars. None of these has a constructive 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 horribly costly, and as we've observed, once we start one the attitude becomes one of "we must have triumph thus we need to spend whatsoever is required to attain it." Sounds like a route to national bankruptcy. Imagine what could have been done with the cash we've spent on these wars. And that does not even include the social damages to individuals and families.

The point is, downsizing on a family level is going to be the new thing to do, regardless of whether we like it or not. A continuously improving standard of living derives from private savings and investment, hard work, along with a political environment created by a government that doesn't behave like business expansion will continue no matter what the government might choose to do to obstruct it. As far as those things are missing, so also will increasing personal wealth be outside our grasp.

One does not have to like the laws of economics, and one may utilize the services of individuals with mistaken ideas to get the answers one wants, but the facts stay the same.