Reclaiming the American dream.(living standards decreasing)(Editorial)

Until recently, the economic history of America had been a history of upward mobility on the part of a broad and growing middle class. In many other lands, the middle class was virtually nonexistent, if it existed at all. Almost everybody was consigned to the lower class, with little hope of ever being able to climb out of poverty to join the ranks of the fortunate few who possessed most of the wealth and all of the political power.

But not here in America! America was a land of milk and honey not only for a fortunate few but for ordinary citizens willing to work hard and to convert their dreams for a better life into reality. The upward mobility of ordinary citizens was widespread and long-lasting. Each generation of Americans achieved a higher standard of living for themselves and their families than the previous generation.

Achieving that middle-class standard of living became widely known as the American dream. In the 1950s, that dream was so attainable that a young man with no more than a high-school education could earn enough money to support a family. In those days it was common for the wife to stay home and be a full-time mother. And that family, with a single breadwinner, could still afford to buy a home--the quintessential symbol of the American dream.

Long before the 1950s, however, America had already risen from a largely agricultural nation carved out of a wilderness to become the envy of the collectivist old world. No, in America the streets were not paved with gold. But jobs were plentiful, and so were opportunities to move up the ladder in existing enterprises or to create new businesses and new jobs. In America, to a much greater extent than any other place on Earth, a young person starting off dirt poor could apply his talents and pull himself up by the ...