A Look at Our Material Progress

Modern life is more affordable and abundant than nostalgic claims suggest

By Alex Tokarev. He grew up in Bulgaria. He teaches Economics and Classical Liberal Philosophy at Northwood University. Excerpt:

"Imagine having to sweat on an assembly line or in a dangerous mine for three or four hours every day just to cover your grocery bills. Not excited about this prospect? Sorry, but that’s probably what you’d be doing if you were born a century ago. Today? The typical jobs are not only better, but you can earn the same amount of calories in just 30 minutes. Affordability, baby!

For most of humanity, the historical pattern was daily malnourishment interrupted by periods of starvation. Today, we have an epidemic of obesity. A hundred years ago, Americans fared better than most. Yet, compared to you, they were appallingly poor. In 1925, meat was expensive. The produce was seasonal. There was no refrigeration, no global supply chain, no high-yield farming.

Despite our government’s “food pyramid” propaganda, diets are now much healthier. Despite our government’s theft of 99% of the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar (through unconstitutional Fed policies that cause inflation), I can now grab a pint of fresh blueberries from Chile at our Michigan Kroger store for just $1.99, even though my backyard is already frozen. Unaffordable?

Capitalist competition, free enterprise, profit maximization. These pursuits led to the age of plenty that you enjoy. CATO’s scholar M. Tupy and BYUH professor G. Pooley have estimated (read their 2022 book Superabundance) that even the unskilled American workers can afford dozens of common food items by working 10 times less today than a century ago. Some crisis!

My son loves Universal Orlando’s parks. As a student, he works as a lifeguard, a minimum wage job. Even that pays enough to cover his round-trip to Florida by working just 8 hours. A hundred years ago, that travel would have taken three days and cost a weekly salary. Today, he leaves home after breakfast and eats dinner at the Islands of Adventure after swimming at Volcano Bay.

Our cars are faster, safer, more comfortable, last longer, pollute less, need less maintenance, and cost less in real terms. An unskilled employee needs to work only half as much today as 50 years ago to buy a pickup truck. Most vehicles on the road today come with safety features, entertainment options, and navigation controls that were science fiction to drivers in the 1920s.

Average Americans take vacations that their grandparents couldn’t have dreamed of. Alternatives to hotels have multiplied. Competition has lowered travel costs for everyone. Climate control, clean water, countless restaurants serving exotic foods from around the world, and limitless recreational options. These are no longer luxuries. I still marvel while my kids take those things for granted.

Debt? When your parents were your age during the fall of the Berlin Wall, the average, inflation-adjusted net wealth (assets minus liabilities) per household in the bottom 50% was $33,000. Today, it’s almost double: $60,000. Homes too expensive? Today—perhaps. Blame government restrictions on the supply. Price per square foot between 1975 and 2015? Almost no change.

College tuition rising faster than inflation? Blame the government for messing with that market. When taxpayer money is channeled to consumers of goods or services, higher demand means higher prices. Econ 101. Do you need two salaries to raise two children? We saved enough on one modest salary in 7 years to buy a house in Midland, MI. We paid it all with cold, hard cash.

The world isn’t getting worse. Your spending habits might be. In every measurable way, life is getting better. No previous generation has had more physical comfort and such amazing chances to develop productively and prosper. Study some history. If you stop moaning about decline and start noticing the progress, you might even enjoy your lives as Gen X is enjoying ours."