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What matters is the living standards, stupid.
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To who? This is the old 'good for the individual' v. 'good for
the group' problematique. The saber tooth tigers may have had
very high standards of living [by tiger standards] but they are
all gone while the rabbits prosper. The American standard of
living is *NOT* the norm, although it may be an ideal. The
historical record shows the typical standard of living something
like present day China or India. We are simply 'regressing to
the mean.' You can make water run uphill, but you must
continually input energy to do it. We are paying the price for
not investing in the critical metaphorical and physical
infrastructures, or in the areas that matter.

We spend more than enough money, but on the wrong things. In
automotive terms, we have "invested" in a killer sound system,
but have not changed the oil. Now the car is not running so
good. If we keep this up, it won't run at all.

Uncle George