[Turk]

I was only answering the question of what makes me think "the standard of Living is not what it used to be.

If you are in your 50s or 60s and were planning on retirement in a few more years and lost your job in a town where many others suffered the same end due to a plant closing, you will have a rough time not only reinventing yourself in another field, but also selling your home and moving elsewhere.

Steel belt is full of more examples than I can list.

Similar things are happening to younger generation right here in the Silicon Belt. They have big BMW payments and large mortgages, and no jobs.

As for the Schwinn, try riding it in the wrong part of town after sunset and see if my predictions of violence etc comes true or not.
Not because it is Chinese made, it is because you are on a bike all alone in the dark.

That was not a concern 35 years ago when I rode my bike. That to me is a definete drop in the quality of standards in our lives.

TURK