This is part of my special on How to Solve the Trade Deficit. You can read Part I, Part II, or Part III if you missed them.
The Increased Competition for Jobs Is Domestic, As Well
You mention that standards of living have fallen, despite gains in things like iPods with 25,000 songs and the ability to connect instantly through the Internet. The thing is: In many respects, it isn’t true – standards of living haven’t fallen – unless you fit one specific demographic, which we’ll talk about in a minute.
I pointed out a few months ago:
- Research that showed Americans alive today have more free time that any group of humans that have ever lived in history (you can read about it here). What do they do with that free time? Watch television. No, literally, the research showed that people used all of those extra hours to sit on the couch in front of the TV.
- Teen pregnancy and abortion rates are collapsing, which is promising for future poverty rates because having a child before the age of 25 is more likely to result in lifetime poverty.
- We live longer than any civilization in history.
- We have better pain management than any humans who have ever lived.
- We can cure more diseases than any humans who have ever lived.
- We can travel anywhere on the planet in under 20 hours.
- We consider full-home air conditioning and heat a basic human right when, only 90 years ago, the richest men on the planet suffered the heat just like the poorest worker.
What "I Want My Country Back" really means for many people, whether they realize it or not, is they want to go back to a time when a man could get married, have kids, and support a family on a single salary by working at the local factory. What they don't realize is for that to be possible, it required limited choice for consumers, and keeping blacks, women, Jews, gays, and the elderly out of the workforce. What they really want is the system that allowed them to have a job simply because they were ENTITLED to one by virtue of being a white man. Those days are over and they are never coming back ... frankly, I think it's good for civilization. I love meritocracy as long as there is equality of opportunity.
Plus, you must consider that 50 years ago, blacks, Jews, gays, women, and anyone over 55 weren’t viable competitors in the work force because they were either paid a fraction of their white, male protestant counterparts, fired, or not even considered for positions. Unless you happened to fit into that one lucky genetic “lottery ticket” you were screwed.
Now, we are increasingly a meritocracy. In today’s workforce, you are far more likely to have your ideas compete with a much wider range of people. This is good for the civilization.
To put it bluntly: When you say things are getting worse from a standard of living perspective than they were several decades ago, the unspoken fact is that this is only true if you are a straight, white, male, protestant, high school graduate who wants to make a living without years of specialized training. (more…)
