The relative wealth and abundance in the US economy does reflects previous generation's investment in the future coming to fruition. We are happily consuming the rewards and neglecting the investment.
A stress is carried through a solid body by the stiffest path. Don't think that by giving-in to short-term objectives one is satisfying some ideological imperative of strong mindedness. If five riveters balk at doing a job based on a safety concern, and you are the guy who steps out-of-line to take the job. That is not high-mindedness, it is just recklessness.
There is a great deal more to the economy national/world than the cost of labor. We are heading to a very different world when the American consumer's consumption mimics that of the third world. I say third world, rather than second, because our governance/management seems incapable of doing more than quick fixes. It will take a lot of failure to bring competence back to governance in the United States.
It is this same mindset which has cost us our space program. Other countries can deliver satellites (the only profit making business at the moment) cheaper. Knock-offs have lower overhead than innovators, but doesn't the world need innovation? We have become enamored by the software start-ups of our time. Two guys in a garage with $1000 and some credit cards. That model only works on labor-only companies such as software. You can't create a FedEx or nanotechnology using your credit cards as venture capital.
The guy who opens a gas station when he is 20 is the guy who has the repair shop at 40 is the guy behind the chain of stores at 60. It is you can I who shape the future. We can't just count on someone else to build the future while we consume. Let's not sell that 20 year old with $200K of student loans, $30K worth of car loans, $600K worth of housing loans, $40K worth of credit card loans, a wife convinced to shop, kids adamant about brand-names, health insurance, bloated municipal bond obligations, neglected infrastructure, overgrown government commitments, and then undercut him in very cost category. This isn't the world of âIt's a Wonderful Life.â
We are eating our seeds, living on our investment capital, and congratulating ourselves for being tough-minded.