From time to time, someone will dredge up the idea that life is harder now than it was a generation ago on a particularly slow news day. MSNBC jumped on that wagon earlier this week, and I’ve been stewing on it since, mostly because I think the argument is bullshit, no matter how many numbers you put up to support your thesis. If life is in fact harder now than it was 30 or 40 years ago (a claim towards which I’ve long been skeptical) there is no secret as to why this is so – using the same numbers cited in the article, We can surmise that the problem areas are three, in no particular order:

% of income taken by taxes

% of income taken by mortgage payment

% of income taken by health-care/insurance

What have these three things in common?

If you guessed “government,” you’ve got it. That government is responsible for the ever-mounting tax bills is an incontestable premise. But what of mortgages and health expenses? Since the mid-1940’s, the governments intrusion into the health-care market (via preferential tax-treatment given to predominately “employer-provided” 3PP plans) I believe is the single most important cause of the rising costs associated therewith. And your monthly mortgage payment? Look no further than the Federal Reserve – born of government, to protect us all from the very same nefarious and greedy bankers who (since its inception) have effectively comprised the Federal Reserve. As the Fed controls the creation of credit money, so it controls the primary vehicles by which most people come to acquire real-estate. More credit created, means more can be granted. And when more credit is granted, rates will fall. When rates fall, borrowing is induced, which c/p increases the demand for housing. Supply remaining relatively unchanged, or by a smaller magnitude, the prices have nowhere to go but up. Despite the target rates you might’ve heard of, some people believe that during the late 1990’s the Fed was expanding the money supply by about 7% annually, which would probably explain why in many areas, the “value” of housing went up 50%, 100%, or even more than that – in as few as 5 or 7 years. Also, houses are substantially larger than they were in the 1960’s – which has to count for something. So, if life is in fact harder now than it was in 1975, it’s government’s fault.

Of course, I believe that are taxes are more onerous now than they were, that the prices of many “necessity” goods like housing and health-care are outrageous – but I’m not inclined to accept that position that life in general is harder than it used to be. It is certainly harder than it would have been, other things left unchanged (e.g., tax increases, inflation, etc.) but that does not mean that life’s difficulty is absolutely greater than it once was. Quite the contrary. Everything we can buy today is several orders of magnitude better, stronger, lighter, faster, prettier, sexier or more efficient than the corresponding counterpart good 30 years ago – if such a good even existed. Nearly everyone has some or all of the following:

central air conditioning

a smart-phone

a personal computer, especially a laptop

a bluetooth headset for your smart-phone

something that uses Wi-Fi

Nike Air

a CD player

an iPod or mp3 player

side-curtain airbags

anti-lock brakes

flex-fuel engines

something made of Gore-tex

breast implants

cable television

TiVo or other DVR service

something made of carbon fiber

video games with polygon rendering

access to the internet

…and so on – a virtually limitless list of things that no amount of money could’ve purchased 20 or 30 years hence – all of which make our lives easier, safer, and more enjoyable than they would otherwise be. Imagine the progress that might’ve been made had we not been taxed to the hilt, had the money supply not been further debased, had inequities in the health-care market been eliminated. Sure, life is harder than it could have been, but that doesn’t mean it’s harder than it was.