Yes, in the bad old days there was no social security, no Medicare, unemployment was in the double digits and huge numbers of Americans died of disease, malnutrition, avoidable accidents and plain old poverty. Today we have much less of that.

But that's not why there's an apparent lack of concern.

From the New Deal to the 1970s, the general economic trend in the USA was that most folks' economic lives were improving. The middle class was growing, and what constituted middle class kept expanding. More Americans could buy homes, cars, higher education, retirement - and insurance to cover it all.

Most of all, the Average American could look forward to a future that was better than the past, and his/her kids having an even better one.

A big part of this was the direct result of the power of organized labor, either by unions bargaining with the titans, or by smart titans realizing that it was better all around to keep their workers just happy enough that they wouldn't unionize. Another big part was government's role in supporting both American business and labor by various laws and court decisions.

All that began to change in the very early 1980s when Reagan took office. Breaking the air traffic controller's union was the turning point - it was the former SAG leader's way of saying that Business would have the upper hand and Labor was no longer a friend of his.

The real genius of the plan was that millions of Average Americans actually believed RR was "for them", despite all the evidence.

Now for the best part.

What has happend in the past 25-30 years has been a slow, gradual, almost-unnoticeable erosion of the middle class. That's why it's not getting a lot of notice; gradualism rarely does.

For example, 30-40 years ago, most of the necessities of life (housing, transportation, health care, education) were relatively inexpensive, but the luxuries (electronics, vacations, high-end anything) were relatively expensive. Lots of folks could buy a house but few could afford a VCR. Now that's all upside-down; lots of folks can have a widescreen hidef digital TV, but not the house to put it in.

It used to be that there were a considerable number of good jobs that a smart hardworking high-school graduate could get that would support a couple or even a family, with decent pay and benefits, and a chance for advancement. Now it takes a college education, and often two adults working full time, to pay for the same basic life. Meanwhile the cost of a college education has consistently outpaced inflation, while the available funding has dwindled, so young folks often start out their working lives with a mountain of debt. And the jobs keep being sent "offshore" for short-term gain.

Sure we have 401(k)s and IRAs and such. We need them because pensions are all but gone and social security isn't near enough any more. But a stock-based 401K or IRA is a lot more risk. Etc.

Because this all happened gradually, the Average American compensated gradually, such as by having more women in the workforce, and the overall effect was rather muted. But eventually the slack runs in - when both Mom and Dad work full time, and there's still not enough, what next?

Most of all, the outlook for the future isn't for anything much different.