Why has the American standard of living dropped so much in 8 years?

We were in 5th place when Clinton left office, now one source has us at 13th.|||mine has not personally changed, but my job gives me the opportunity to see many whose standard of living has changed. They have lost automobiles, and homes, and jobs, etc. etc. etc.





My personal opinion is the eight years of Bush economics has done us in. The sad part is that it took the housing industry to go belly up before Bush would admit there was a problem.





OBAMA IN 08 !!!!!|||Actually the standard started dropping when the Democrats took control of congress.|||mine hasn't changed.





I guess it would depend on what they consider as being the standard. I never pay attention to that useless data gathering. It doesn't take into account the individual's goals. If they strive for nothing, they probably reached it! |||Inflation. Govt continually bailing people out of stuff and passing the cost on to us. Devaluing dollar and international business unwilling to make the US a base of operation and taking their trade elsewhere.|||All of our wealth went to wars and wall street. Printing more money devalues the dollar. All our goods are imported. Standard of living goes down. My take on it.|||Your standard of living dropped because many americans spend without fail and regards the luxuries of life are necessities and have a sense of entitlement when it comes to living the "good life".





Many lack the common sense and carry balance on the credit card with exorbitant interest rate.





Many lack the common sense and buy a house they cannot afford.





Many lack the common sense to have 3 kids when they can hardly afford to raise 1.





Banks that are driven my money and greed, without having the common sense to hedge risk.





Government that are intolerant towards other nations and culture and led by an incompetent president. And when rich people failed (banks and bank owners and executives), the government uses tax payer money to bail them out. The same tax payers that the banks screw over in the first place to make their profit and foreclose their homes.





You know how much money you spent on Iraq? What for?