In the 1930s, the average car cost about 46% of a year's earnings. Today, they eat up 85% of the annual average wage.

Rent, which previously claimed just 16% of yearly income, now demands a staggering 42%.

By these metrics and others, the average person is in a worse position than during the Great Depression, the most challenging economic period in the last 100 years.

What is your take?

Doug Casey: It's not written in stone anywhere that life is going to be easy. But with the accession of capitalism, life has gotten better and better for the average guy for many generations. Perhaps prosperity has spoiled the average guy, transforming him into an undeserving idiot who thinks socialism works and a welfare state can give everybody something for nothing.

As a consequence, the rate of improvement in the average standard of living has been slowing down. I believe it's going to go into reverse. There are some very disturbing things happening across many fronts.

The State—I'm referring to the institution itself—is at the root of all of them. It's constantly inserting itself into civil society through its taxes and regulations. And, most of all, it's destruction of the currency, which is popularly called "inflation."