When politicians say "you never had it so good" they're taking credit for something they didn't do. In truth, what economic prosperity we have is due to private savers and entrepreneurs making economic progress possible.
It is not the people we elect who are in charge. They are only the human face on the machine. If they don't know this before the election, they quickly discover it after the election.
Since real savings enable the production of capital goods, obviously real savings are at the heart of the economic growth that raises people's living standards.
Entrepreneurial action provides the fuel for the constant mining of consumer value. If entrepreneurs cease acting in this way, consumers will cease to see innovation and growing value in the marketplace.
“Economic power,” then, is simply the right under freedom to refuse to make an exchange. Every man has this power. Political power, on the other hand, is something very different.