Gross vs Net Standard of Living

I'm sick and tired of you setting me up yeah
Setting me up just to knock-a, knock-a, knock-a me down
--Bruce Springsteen

Assessing standard of living in a debt-laden society can be misleading. A portion of what is viewed as 'prosperity' has been borrowed from the future and must be paid back. This payback taxes, quite literally, future standard of living.

Where would US standard of living be today, for example, if the resources borrowed by current $20+ trillion in federal government debt could be factored out of the picture?

Suppose that you borrowed to the hilt. Jumbo mortgage, car loans, maxed out credit cards, student loans, et al. Of course, for many, this state is not merely supposition. On the surface, living standards would seem quite posh. But when debt is netted out, equity may be below zero.

When evaluating degree of prosperity among highly leveraged entities, gross standard of living provides one image while net standard of living paints an entirely different portrait.