NO ONE HAS IT HARDER THAN THEIR DAD DID:

Leave the metrics aside for a moment and just consider all kinds of examples from day to day life. How about photographs? Twenty years ago, I carried a $100 camera that took pictures on film that had to be both bought and developed, and if I wanted to share the images with others, I'd pay for copies. Now all of that activity is essentially free, and no doubt better. I can even edit the photos myself.

What's the value of friendships kept up through Facebook? A good restaurant found on Yelp? Not getting lost because of GPS on a cell phone? Jobs found or connections made on LinkedIn? 

No numbers can measure such gains in living standards. Yet the gains are real for a wide swath of the middle class. These are not toys for the rich.

Such examples can go on and on. Sure, some products and services have remained immune to the grand forces of the past two decades--gas, real estate, airfares. But even when it comes to basics like food and furniture, we're getting more for less. As Boudreaux and Perry point out: "According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, spending by households on many of modern life's basics--food at home, automobiles, clothing and footwear, household furnishings and equipment, and housing and utilities--fell from 53 percent of disposable income in 1950 to 44 percent in 1970 to 32 percent today."

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