Progress?

rrt00004 posted on Mon, Mar 1 2010 12:24 PM

rated by 0 users

Over the past couple of years it has become uncomfortably clear to me that something is seriously wrong in America. The current economic downturn is merely the latest symptom of a protracted illness that has incrementally permeated our economy over time. Perhaps the most disconcerting aspect of this economic atrophy is the widespread apathy displayed by the American people. This really shouldn’t be surprising however, given the dramatic lifestyle transformation that has occurred over the past 40 years. Americans today are preoccupied with making their economic ends meet in an economy focused on excessive consumption, intellectual sloth and hedonistic escapism.

We are all conditioned to believe that our standard of living has expanded greatly; and who could question that, given the advancements we have seen in the areas of technology and medicine. It’s difficult to imagine life without a personal computer or mobile phone, and I’d certainly prefer having heart surgery today, rather than 40 years ago. But are we really better off today than we were? Consider the fact that a dollar in 2008 was worth only sixteen cents when compared to a dollar in 1968. The ramifications of this debasement have proven profound and I challenge you to ponder the examples I site below and ask yourself by what definition this represents progress.

In the late 60’s, when I was in the first grade, my family lived in Wichita Falls, Texas. My father was a Route Supervisor for a bread company and my mother stayed home and cared for me and my two older sisters. We lived in comfortable 3 bedroom 2 bath home with a double car garage, in a nice neighborhood. My mother prepared all of our meals and on rare occasions the family would dine out at a restaurant, or most likely, a cafeteria. Our family was economically secure with the income derived from my father’s employment. My parents didn’t possess a credit card, so all of the family’s expenditures came from my father’s salary or the bank savings account. Can you imagine a fellow today, employed in the same capacity as my father, supporting a family of 4 comfortably? It’s simply not possible. That family today would struggle to live comfortably with both parents working and a mountain of debt.

Today healthcare costs are a serious economic challenge for most families. Insurance premiums for medical and dental coverage are lofty and the additional out-of-pocket costs associated with treatment under the insurance plans usually finds its way onto a credit card. This scenario lies in stark contrast to my family’s experience some 40 years ago. Each year my mother would load the children in the family Oldsmobile and travel to our Dentist in Ft Worth for a visit. The Dentist would examine all 4 of us and perform any dental work necessary. Upon completion, my mother would remove her checkbook and provide payment to the Dentist for the services rendered. Like many families in those days, my parents didn’t possess dental insurance. Try to imagine that same scenario today. Once again, it’s simply not possible for a family modeled after mine in the late 60’s to routinely fund dental work for 4 without assistance from dental insurance, a credit card, or, more likely both.

My parents and those in the late 60’s possessed more freedom than do their contemporaries today. Economic security perpetuates freedom; Freedom to decide who raises one’s children, how they’re nurtured, and who provides for their medical/dental treatment. As economic security erodes, so too does freedom. We have experienced a slow, methodical usurpation of freedom in this country and most Americans don’t even realize what has transpired. Much like a wise thief that incrementally removes a slice of ham from another’s refrigerator over a protracted period of time. One day the unsuspecting home owner opens his refrigerator and is perplexed to discover his ham is gone.  

As the purchasing power of the dollar has declined, Americans have faced some difficult decisions regarding their lifestyle. Many families concluded that it was necessary for both parents to work outside the home in order to make their economic ends meet. Accordingly, daycare facilities emerged across the country to care for the displaced children. A plethora of restaurants sprang up to feed the families who no longer had the time to prepare meals at home, and, as savings evaporated, credit cards arrived to supply the necessary leverage to keep this devolutionary process moving full speed ahead.

So what are the ramifications of this economic transformation to which I refer? Generations of children being reared by someone who’s value system is often diametrically opposed to that of the parents; A steady diet of processed foods that contain enough chemicals to make a drug dealer blush; and a mountain of debt sufficient to place many families into indentured servitude with those wonderful credit card companies. Americans have become slaves to debt and systematically forfeited much of their freedom. In 1968, my parents had the freedom to choose who reared their children, who prepared their meals and who provided their healthcare and dental care. Today most families don’t.

Americans would be well served to wake up and stop believing the pontifications of their wise overlords, who trumpet our progress without acknowledging the emasculation of our freedoms detailed above. Perhaps it would behoove us to ask some tough questions about the road we are traveling before we awaken one day to find our country has been incrementally dissembled while we slept.