What happened to America's standard of living

Short Answer: Credit Cards, The Fed with all it's money printing and reverse mortgages.

Look at the first and third of my answers. Both imply that people are living on money that really isn't theirs. Credit cards are issued by the banks or businesses but people live so much beyond their means, that the credit card always caries at least a 20% interest rate if you are late. Many people have more than 4 credit cards. I don't know the % of them that are maxed out, but the number is alarming. It's also ruinous.

The fed is creating money to counter the 20 trillion debt the United States has. That is over 100% what America produces in 1 year. What happens when China and Japan demand payment for the credit America is using? One fact I do know is that if you divide 20 Trillion by America's population you find that every man woman and child in America owes about $60000. How is that to be repaid? With credit cards?

The last thing is that the baby boomer middle class is being offered reverse mortgages. These things allow people to take out a % of the value of their homes in exchange for the bank being able to be the first one to be paid out when the house sells. The question is: who is all this real estate going to be sold to? We are living far beyond our means and if you think the standard of living is down now, it will go down much much further later on.

Scary?! You bet it is, but you asked a question. This is the answer most economists who are not part of the deep state offer.