I’m sorry, but your entire OP demonstrates such a lack of understanding of basic economics that it is hard to even argue with rationally. How do you separate “standard of living” from “investments”? We can increase our standard of living by “spending more” and “investing less”? It either doesn’t make sense or you are using these definitions incorrectly. Where are we getting this money to spend? What are we spending it on?
How do you think the “future” will invent flying cars and whatnot if we cripple our economy today by effectively printing money so we can consume useless crap instead of investing in the future?