agip wrote:
1101 wrote:
It is good to keep perspective and George Will does a good job there. But it is also important to refer to the perspective that people actually have. I would suggest that most people who think that things have not been getting better do not look at 1941 as a date to compare to. Indeed, most of us were not alive in 1941 and very, very few of us were adults at that time and able to make reasonable comparisons.
I think that many people think that we haven't been making a whole lot of progress as far as overall well being (admittedly difficult to define) since perhaps the 1980s.
...and they'd still be wrong. Living standards have risen quite meaningfully from the 1980s.
As 1101 alludes to, you first have to define "standard of living" in some measurable way. Only then can you compare eras and say if things have gotten better or not.
From what I see in your post, George Will leaves out that critical step.