[SethMurphy]

If the answer is the end of - I'll call it - "Consumerism", and the industries we choose to subsidize are those that are more essential to a community driven life (e.g. food, shelter, health, education, transportation, communication, etc ...), I think it is possible to lower the "Standard of Living" as reshaping what the term means, undoing years of advertisement based conditioning.

Americans may no longer have an unnecessarily large or luxurious automobile, or a screen in every room, but I would argue excess becoming the standard is the problem and a major cause of the imbalance.

The solution doesn't feel very democratic or free though, values that have been critical to the identity of the USA.

[lantry]

Not to mention this is almost certainly not what will happen in the USA. Trump and the GOP have no interest in reducing wealth inequality, and the vision you have laid out would be immediately labeled "communism"

[SethMurphy]

Yes, my thoughts exactly too. Not an endorsement by the way.