Letters to the Editor
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Well it depends on how you perceive value, to some extent
The so called Greatest Generation as well as the Korean War Generation right after it are in fact anomalies. No where else in the history of people was there an entire generation that voted and awarded itself such an enormous bag of free stuff. From SSI to early retirement to rich union plans to subsidized healthcare, IRA's, 401Ks, the GI bill, massive tax breaks, to the greatest long run surge in property values from 1955 to 1995, Medicare, Medicaid, and long slow retirement where expensive and extensive travel is the norm not the exception and it goes on from age 55 to age 85. Not only did those generations not take care of their own parents, outsourcing them to nursing homes, but they didn't take care of their children's generation either - letting them take out loans for the their college or letting the government pick up the tab, so long as they got out of the house at 18.
No on and on and on there's hundreds of examples that show that that bubble from Truman to Reagan is a one time only affair. And the rest of us are fucked. Fucked good and hard. I'm not retiring at 55 or 60 with free non contrib no copay health insurance like my mother's county employee gig. I didn't go to CCNY/CUNY for free. I didn't get a Levitt house for $9000 to sell it 45 years later for $550,000. My employer doesn't know what 'benefits' are. And even if they did, it's a toss up whether my job will wind up in fucking Bangalore where people are still occasionally eaten by tigers.
So are we falling behind? No not really, we NEVER had a chance. They got their greedy little claws in and it will take a bullet to the head to release them.
Dear Mom - if you leave me with your living will decision I will pull the plug so fast it will spark. It's just business.