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[Evangelical]

Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah

http://www.mybudget360.com/wp-conten...ving-chart.jpg

However in 1975 about 45% of women were in the workforce, today it is 60%. So although the cost of a house has increased slightly, and median wage has decreased slightly taking into account inflation, it is important to also factor in the effect of doubling the wage earners in a middle class family.

Over the last 70 years the US GDP has averaged a growth rate of slightly more than 3%.

So in reality the economic outlook for a middle class family with two wage earners is significantly better than it was 50 years ago when they only had 1.

Also, it is true that cars appear to be much more expensive today than they were in 1975 when adjusting for inflation. However, they are also much safer and they last much longer. A car that ran for 100,000 miles in 1975 was a big thing, but that is no longer true. Today 200,000 miles is realistic if you care for your car. There are 11 cars that have not had a single fatality since 2014, that is an amazing improvement over 50-60 years ago when deaths during the Vietnam war were dwarfed by traffic fatalities.

Computers, the internet and robots have played a major role in keeping our GDP growing. It is very likely that AI, Quantum computers, drones and self driving vehicles will continue to propel that growth.

Also, although these new technologies take away jobs, they also open them up. Consider how many handicapped people can be productively employed today versus 50 or 100 years ago.

50 years ago the biggest threat to our economy was the trade deficit due to our dependence on oil. Today it is reasonable to think that the US could ultimately become energy self sufficient.

When NAFTA was approved we lost many jobs to cheap labor overseas. Today we can replace that cheap labor with 3d printers and robots.

So the only real issue with our economic outlook is that we are going to change and can expect dramatic changes to take place.

What people forget is that it is not a 1:1 relationship between jobs lost because of technology and new jobs created. One robot might replace 10 factory workers but only 1 new job created to monitor the robot. So there are 9 people left with nothing to do. This is made worse by the fact that the world's population is increasing. So in the future there could be robots doing everything and a huge population with nothing much to do. Only a fraction of those people will be needed to work in the technology, as robots will eventually be able to maintain or even re-create themselves. The basic income for everyone is coming, and the humans will be slave to the robot masters. People think of the robots as the slaves but it is the other way around. Because people are dependent on the robots, the robots become their master.