It’s become fashionable, lately, to bemoan the decline of America’s middle class. “Real wages are declining,” some say; hardworking Americans spend more time on the job and earn less than their parents.
Personally, I’m tired of this self-pity. I think focusing on money, alone, misses the most important facets of our nation’s wealth.
First off, I admit that I’ve done zero research; my points here are based mostly on imagination, but I hope to deliver them with enough conviction that they hold some sway over you.
And second off, I don’t dispute anyone’s economic figures. Maybe we are making less than our parents. But even if that’s the reality, I still feel that our lives have improved significantly in the past three decades.
So imagine with me, for a moment, that it’s 1980 and you are you, earning a middle class income. Jimmy Carter is about to lose to Ronald Reagan; Dallas is the top TV show; bell bottoms are still fashionable (if you live far enough from a coast). But what else do you get?
- Communism! The Soviet Union is going strong, oppressing citizens and aiming ICBMs at your back yard. You expect that the world will be annihilated within a decade. China? You can’t even visit it. In fact, half the world is off-limits.
- A lot less globalization. Most people, around the world, are dirt poor and will stay that way, die young, have lots of babies, etc. Americans are still making refrigerators and Buicks.
- Four channels on the TV. Commercials are predictable and humorless. Three’s Company is the funniest show on Prime Time. News is on at 7 and 8 in half-hour slices. VCRs are cutting edge and belong to the rich. Your remote control, if you have one, has buttons for channel/volume up/down, on/off, and hue/saturation/contrast.
- No Tattoos Tattoos are for sailors, convicts, and circus performers. Incidentally, I’ve got nothing against tattoos, I’ve just never been able to think of something so compelling and clever that I had to have it wear it on me. I change my mind too often for a tattoo.
- Less Medicine. Please do your own research to find which medical breakthroughs didn’t exist in1980. Or just wave your hand (works for me). Even within our dysfunctional health care status-quo, I still believe that we live longer and more healthily today. Call me naive.
- Less technology Keep some dimes in your pocket for that next phone call, made from a public phone booth, to a number you wrote on your hand or a matchbook. The call must be local as your pocket won’t hold enough dimes for long distance. All mail needs a stamp and arrives in 2-14 days. You shop one store at a time, with their limited selection. You find information in the library or the Yellow Pages. You job-hunt in the newspaper’s classifieds.
- Smoking in Restaurants
- More body hair.
You get the point.
Our world is a wealthier place today than it was in 1980. Money is only one measure, and perhaps the least important one. What we have today – unhindered exchange of information, cheap and easy communication, the freedom to travel to almost anywhere, start businesses, create art, express ourselves and realize our potential, however odd or impractical it may be.
Only a former Communist Party apparatchik could pine for 1980.
So please take a moment to appreciate our world’s wealth; it’s yours too.