Why do Americans live in one of the wealthiest countries in history, yet so many feel they’re falling further behind every year?

The Richest Country in History. So Why Does It Feel Like We’re Falling Behind?

“Some countries use their natural wealth to help their citizens. In America, many people wonder why prosperity seems to flow everywhere except toward the people creating it.”

Every once in a while, I stumble across something on social media that makes me stop—not because I immediately believe it, but because it raises a question worth asking.

This week it was a Facebook post claiming that Saudi Arabia sends every family a monthly check from its oil wealth.

The claim, as it turns out, wasn’t entirely accurate.

Saudi Arabia does operate a program called the Citizen Account Program, but it isn’t a universal payment to every household. It’s a targeted benefit designed to offset rising living costs for eligible families.

But once I looked beyond the viral post, I realized something far more interesting.

Why did so many Americans immediately wish it were true?

The answer isn’t really about Saudi Arabia.

It’s about us.

Americans don’t feel poor.

They feel left behind.

That’s a very different emotion.

For decades Americans were told that if the economy grew, everyone would benefit.

Work hard.

Play by the rules.

Get an education.

Buy a home.

Save for retirement.

Your children will have it even better than you did.

That promise was never perfect.

But millions believed it because, for a long time, it often proved true.

Today, many people no longer believe it.

Not because America isn’t wealthy.

Because America has never been wealthier.

The numbers are astonishing.

The United States produces nearly $30 trillion worth of goods and services every year.

American corporations report record profits.

The stock market continues reaching historic highs.

Oil companies have earned tens of billions of dollars in annual profits during periods of elevated energy prices.

Artificial intelligence companies are creating enormous new fortunes.

Meanwhile…

Millions of Americans are wondering whether they can afford groceries.

Or prescription drugs.

Or rent.

Or another increase in their homeowners insurance.

Or whether they’ll ever retire.

Those two realities exist at exactly the same time.

And that’s what makes people uneasy.

Other countries made different choices.

Norway discovered oil decades ago.

Instead of spending all of the money immediately, it created one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds.

Today that fund is worth well over $2 trillion, invested for future generations of Norwegians.

Alaska created something similar.

Oil revenues help fund the Alaska Permanent Fund, which pays annual dividends to qualifying residents. The amount varies from year to year, but the principle is simple:

Some of the state’s natural-resource wealth belongs to the people.

Saudi Arabia chose a different model, using targeted cash assistance to cushion citizens from higher living costs during economic reforms.

None of these systems is perfect.

Each has critics.

But they all begin with one basic question:

Who should benefit when a nation’s natural resources create extraordinary wealth?

America answered that question differently.

In the United States, most oil production is carried out by private companies operating within a market-based system.

Those companies invest billions, take significant financial risks, employ hundreds of thousands of workers, and return profits to shareholders.

Supporters argue that this approach encourages innovation, investment, and economic growth.

Critics counter that while companies prosper, many families see little direct benefit when prices rise at the pump or when everyday costs outpace wages.

Both perspectives are part of the national conversation.

But the deeper issue extends far beyond oil.

It raises a broader question:

When a nation becomes extraordinarily prosperous, how should that prosperity be shared?

That’s the conversation we should be having.

Not whether every American deserves a monthly government check.

Not whether one country is better than another.

But whether the economy is working for the people who keep it running.

Because people notice.

They notice when CEO compensation rises dramatically while wages barely keep pace with inflation.

They notice when corporations announce record profits while consumers pay more.

They notice when productivity increases but many workers still feel financially fragile.

And they notice when politicians promise that prosperity is just around the corner—even as the grocery bill says otherwise.

Maybe that’s why the Facebook post spread so quickly.

Not because people had carefully researched Saudi Arabia.

Because it expressed something millions already feel.

That somehow, somewhere, the rewards of America’s extraordinary success have become disconnected from the lives of ordinary Americans.

Whether that’s entirely true is something reasonable people can debate.

But the feeling itself is undeniably real.

A better question

Instead of asking,

“Why don’t Americans get monthly checks?”

Maybe we should ask:

• Why has economic growth become so disconnected from financial security for so many families?
• Why do so many people work harder yet feel less secure?
• What would an economy look like if ordinary citizens truly shared more fully in the prosperity they help create?

Those are difficult questions.

But they’re the right questions.

And they’re worthy of a serious national conversation.

Because the measure of a nation’s success isn’t simply how much wealth it creates.

It’s whether the people who built that wealth believe they have a meaningful stake in it.

My Take

The viral Facebook post wasn’t accurate in all its details. But sometimes an imperfect story points us toward a perfectly legitimate question.

America remains one of the richest nations in history.

If so many of its citizens feel they’re falling behind, perhaps the most important question isn’t how much wealth we create.

It’s who benefits from it.

And that’s a conversation worth having.

Julie Bolejack, MBA

The Mindful Activist

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Sources and Notes

• Saudi Arabia’s Citizen Account Program provides targeted assistance based on household circumstances; it is not a universal monthly payment to every family.
• Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global is the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, valued at more than $2 trillion.
• Alaska’s Permanent Fund has paid annual dividends to eligible residents since 1982.
• U.S. GDP is approximately $30 trillion annually, making it the world’s largest economy.