There is this book, Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $ a Day (Collins and others, 2009), a book written with great empathy that provides a sobering account on how the poor manage their everyday finances.
At the same time, the United States became a much more open economy; in dollar terms, imports (measured on a balance of payments basis) rose from just over 4 percent of GDP in 1960 to nearly 14 percent of GDP today.