[roel_v]

"A typical American male who works full time is earning almost exactly the same as his counterpart was when Nixon was president"

But that's clearly, obviously and without question BULLSHIT (when you look at what you can actually do with that money, rather than just look at inflation-adjusted dollar numbers). A typical American male in that income bracket today has a house that is larger and much more comfortable than back then, has access to a much broader range of food, can communicate with anybody anywhere in the world instantly, carries in his pocket a device to communicate with people he knows in a much more efficient and convenient form than whatever was available 30 years ago, has a higher life expectancy and better access to information (not to mention that the information that is available is vastly more), etc etc.

What would you prefer, being Louis XIV who lived in a castle with no bathrooms (everybody shat where ever they happened to be standing and there were servants to sweep it up) or in the typical house of somebody in the West in the 20th-40th income percentile today (with running, hot water and functioning plumbing, electricity etc?) Or even being an early 20th century rich businessman/socialite in NYC, where the health circumstances even for the very rich were vastly inferior to what is now available to everybody except those at the very bottom of the socio-economic ladder?

[drivebyacct2]

What is the point of this near-rant? Sure, quality of life, cost of technology and standards of living are different, but that doesn't change the economics of the situation.

Sorry it's such "obvious bullshit" to you.