Boy if this Stockman article doesn't hit home, then I don't know what will. If you don't have time for the full piece, just scroll down to the "Change From 1972 Through 2020" section, and take a look at the chart plus commentary. Anyone who has done the math on what it takes to raise a family in modern-day America, to be able to afford an emergency five hundred dollar bill, and to not be on welfare can fully attest to the reality.

By contrast, my grandfather moved furniture for a living, and in the late sixties or early seventies was able to build a thirty five hundred square foot house on a giant lot, across the street from a parkway: move furniture today for a living, and you're lucky to get a five hundred square foot, insect-infested studio apartment in the ghetto, while barely affording groceries, and not having access to a doctor.

As I've said many times before, when you institute "fractional reserve banking" and try to levitate wages through fiat, you're making a deal with the devil that overall price inflation won't wind up outpacing the artificially-goosed wages-- and like all such deals, it's not a bet you're going to win very often, and it's not a bet which "middle class" (which veritably no longer exists) America has won.

And we haven't even hit the actual collapse yet: this country is going to look like Greece, with people roving the fields looking for insects to eat.