If our children have more comforts but less control over their lives, have they really become richer? Henry Ford's five-dollar day begins this essay about the price of prosperity. Better pay came with scrutiny of workers' homes and habits, making a warmer house inseparable from an employer's permission.
Through dramatized historical scenes involving John Locke and Kandiaronk, the essay asks whether wealth can be measured by possessions alone. Life, liberty, and property belong in the same reckoning. Written in December 2025, it carries that question into benefits, savings restrictions, and the difference between helping people survive and allowing them to build independence. A larger pile of things is not enough if the bargain quietly gives someone else control over the person who owns them.
Read the essay and sources: https://joelkdouglas.com/2025/12/02/should-every-generation-be-richer/
Music from Epidemic Sound
Artist: Nylonia
Song: Transmission Road
