Economy

The US economy has been declining for a long time.

"When I was a kid of 16 years of age, my father brought home all the money we needed to live a good life in Manhattan. My mom stayed home with the kids. We had a maid and a cook, and we went out to a restaurant every Sunday. In contrast, today it takes a man and his mate both working full time to live the same way. A typical family can't send their younger child to a private school, and they can't afford to send their older child to a private university. A family can't afford to have a maid to do the housework, and a cook certainly isn't in the budget. Believe me, the American standard of living has declined since I was 16. Furthermore, in "the old days," families usually were able to save. Today, few families have much in the way of savings, if, indeed, they have any savings at all. Finally, when I was 16 our family didn't have any debt. Everything we possessed was paid for in cash. We had a small summer vacation home in Connecticut paid for in cash -- no mortgage. Today everybody with a home has a mortgage. In the old days, when somebody paid off his mortgage, they would have mortgage parties to celebrate that rare event. During the 1930s and 40s, debt was a dirty word. "

But it's declining much faster now.