[Dan_77]

Quote by: commonsense Its good you bring up "technology" The per capita production thanks to robotic assembly lines, greatly improved heavy machinery, all manner of powertools, pneumatic hammers, nailguns, etc. Yet, the "typical joe" still works 40-60 hrs a week for aproximately the same roof over his head, car payments, food, vacation etc as he did in the 60s.

Untrue. The typical house is much larger than it was 50 years ago. The typical car is much better, the typical person eats much better food, and the typical vacation is much better.

He should be living twice as well, with a "Jetsons" -like 3 or 4day workweek.

We ARE living twice as well. And if you wanted to live to the standards of 50 years ago, you could easily obtain that on 3 or 4 days a week of work. We don't do that, though, because we like the standard of living we have now.

This additional productivity that is attributable to advances in technology has been usurped by a far larger parasitic government.

Marginal taxation has increased only slightly since 1960.

I cant ressearch this at the moment, but I would guess there are many many times the number of govt employees to private as there were at any previous window in history, many of them armed agents.

Armed agents? What are you talking about?

As far as government employees - for better or worse, people depend on government for a lot more now.

As far as "health care costs" I just received a bill for an emergency room visit (kidney stone) where I was administered a single pill (prophylactic antibiotic) for $78 ! This does not reflect the actual "cost" of the pill. Even an expensive brand-new synthetic drug does not retail for one tenth this price.

And a big part of why you need that pill is because our health care system has kept you alive long enough to need it.

When I was a kid in the 60s and had a bad flu or what-have-you, a young family doctor visitedme in my home.

And cancer was a death sentence. So were myriad other diseases. The doctor HAD to come visit you at home, because you had measles, mumps, chicken pox, or a host of other diseases that are all but wiped out of existence.

Do you know that I'm not even vaccinated for polio or smallpox? The diseases are eradicated - we flat out beat 2 of the 20th century's greatest killers, and you're complaining that doctors don't make house calls!

My parents (mother never worked, father blue-collar, non-union, no insurance) could afford to pay the bill in cash. He managed to retire with plenty of money inthe bank and never "invested" in anything but CDs.

Again, if you wanted to limit yourself to the lifestyle that was available at that time, it would be much easier to do that in this day and age.


There is a book I highly recommend that explains why someone can be so negative on some of the most positive things in our society.

Amazon.com: The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse: Gregg Easterbrook: Books

It's by Gregg Easterbrook, Brookings Fellow (and thinking man's NFL columnist to boot). It examines why, despite the fact that our lives continue to get immeasurably better, people still perceive them as getting worse.