No one (well, almost no one) realizes that the true culprit of lowering the standard of living is the scarcity of energy resources (read: "oil"). The idea that the current energy resources could provide the Western level of standard of living for the whole world is ridiculous. That's why USA+NATO sends their military power overseas to grab and hold on to what little has been left of oil reserves there. It's not that the population of the world is too large. It's just that we don't have any alternatives to the fossil fuels and there were no real incentives (Manhattan Project-like efforts) to develop them either. And it's not about the jobs being outsourced to China and India. Yes, manufacturing was outsourced. But there's much more to the economy than just manufacturing which is becoming increasingly more automated and less significant as a employment provider since the times of Henry Ford. The real value is in research, development, design and creative work (a.k.a. mental work). These types of jobs cannot be outsourced to the 3rd world. And these types of jobs provide the highest income. It could be the lack of education in the 1st world countries that is the real problem.
Wow, talk about projection re: the reading comprehension ad hominem attack. I said "we've had ZIRP for over 3 years." I didn't say anything about ZIRP before 2008. I said the FFR was between 1%-2% in the early part of last decade. That's still extremely low by historical standards.