In our data-rich era, it’s hard to get to uncontested facts.

For example, the official federal estimate of total unemployment is a bit over eight percent. This includes people who have no jobs, part-time workers who want full-time work but can’t find it, and people who have simply given-up trying to find a job. Yet other estimates place total unemployment and “under-employment” as high as 22 percent.   

For a number of reasons, I think that this time the feds are closer to the mark. But there’s no question millions of Americans are having a rough time making it in our economy. 

We’ve Come a Long Way

With that said, there’s a lot of good news for Americans across the board. We hear too little of it. Here are some facts about the state of our economy that go too unreported:

• In 1914, the median lifespan in the U.S. was 52.4 years. Today, it’s 78.8 years.

• According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 1920 “the ratio of renters to homeowners was about 4 to 1.” In 2015, about 64 percent of American owned their homes.

• In 2015, the median American family income was $55,775. In 1915, the median male-led family income was $687, or slightly more than $16,000 in today’s dollars. Maybe the good-old-days were a bit tougher than we’d like to think.

• The average price of a car in 2014 was $31,252 on average. Yet in 1915, “the journal Motor Age indicated that a typical car’s sticker price was $2,005 ($46,879 today).”

• Then there’s the price of gas: adjusted for inflation, 100 years ago gas was $4.78 per gallon. At your local pump today, you paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.20.

Our Modern Day Luxuries

And how do you like routine inoculations against contagious diseases? Cars that parallel-park, download your favorite music, connect you to geo-location satellites and pretty much do everything but walk the dog? And would you like to trade-in today’s Honda Accord for, say, a mint-condition 1977 Nova? Didn’t think so.

What about smart phones? The more than 80 shampoo brands sold in many U.S. supermarkets? Every conceivable variety of food from countries all over the world, affordable and accessible in stores nationwide?

Can’t live without air conditioning, Bluetooth, or, for that matter, indoor plumbing? Don’t go back in time, even a few decades. 

Indoor bathing? Go to any home goods store and check out the variety of shower heads. Try not to spend too much time looking at bathroom fixtures; your 400 cable channels await your return home.

Refrigerators that freeze your favorite foods and microwaves that heat them? How about hypoallergenic breeds of dogs? And just how does one choose between Zoysia, Bermuda, and Perennial Rye grass seeds? Decisions, decisions …

Almost 95 million Americans participate in employer-based 401(K) plans. Three out of five millennials are saving for retirement. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 6,500 in March 2009. Today it stands at 21,400.

Some Bad News, But Also Hope

Debt. Deficits. Excessive taxation and regulation. Student loan debt. Personal debt. Massive and disruptive technological changes. The mathematically certain collapse of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in coming decades (unless these programs are modernized and made fiscally whole). And, most importantly, the critical issue of demography: we’re not having enough babies to sustain long-term growth.

Real problems. Great needs. No question.

“We have every right to dream heroic dreams.” — Ronald Reagan

But all is not bleak. America remains a nation of economic vibrancy whose opportunities for robust prosperity are vast. Inept public policy, pandering and cowardly politicians, and unethical corporate executives, among other things, prevent that growth from accelerating more than it is.

Yet the kind of tax reduction and simplification proposed by the President, combined with constant advances in technology, offer great promise for our economic future.

Doom and gloom get us nowhere. Courage and confidence, ingenuity and diligence: These things are our very heritage.

“We have every right to dream heroic dreams,” said Ronald Reagan in his first inaugural address. We must, he said, “believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds, to believe that together with God’s help we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us.”

“And after all,” he President Reagan concluded, “why shouldn’t we believe that? We are Americans.”