[fabsroman]

Skeeter,

It isn't that things have merely appreciated without salaries going up too. The salaries have kept pace with inflation rather well over the years. It is just that Americans want more and more.

I went to a seminar a couple years ago, and I will never forget this quote. "Back in the 50's, a man was successful if he had a family, a house, a car in the driveway, and a black & white TV. Today, a man is successful if he has a family, a house, a vacation home, 2 cars in the driveway, and 4 color TV's in his house."

Think about it. When I was growing up, the house we lived in wasn't gigantic, my father had one car that ran all the time, and we had a single TV. When I was about 11 years old, we got a second TV that was pretty small and my dad bought a dump truck (i.e., Checy 3500) for his business.

Homes that were considered large homes back in the 50's are considered to be average now. Everybody needs to drive a luxury car nowadays.

I could go on and on about this. About how everybody wants to go to college and get a desk job. About how my brothers and other friends of theirs work in auto body shops making 6 figures a year because nobody else really wants to do the work. About the amount of money that I have seen construction contractors make even though they do shoddy work. Heck, I want to go into home improvement myself instead of practicing law, but one requirement to get a home improvement license is that I have two years experience with a licensed home improvement contractor, which I don't have. It pisses me off because I know I can do a better job than a lot of the guys around here, I know I can pass the test, and I know I can put up the required collateral for a bond.

Sometimes, government in general is a disaster, and I won't pin it on the Republicans either because Maryland is about as liberal as it gets. Corrupt government was the downfall of a lot of empires, Roman and Greece are two I can think of right now. I am hoping it doesn't happen to the USA.