are y'all better off than you were 4 years ago ?

[Mattemma]

I would have to say no. When you need to use a credit card to buy milk and bread for your kids then things aren't so great.

Insurances are up across the board while coverages were lowered across the board. More people on assistance.My dh pays for that but we don't qualify for help.So we help the poor(and the scammers) while struggling to survive. I wish I could get a cart full of free food and have the *government* pay for it.As for jobs I heard the increase was in low wage positions. Work your butt off and after taxes and gas money you have little to show for your daily hustle.

I just got my voters ballot and I am sad to see there are atleast 7 people listed for president.There are over 7 groups running,but all we ever hear about is Obama said this, and Romeny did that. I want to hear from the others running. I want to know what THEY have to offer the country. I already saw what Obama did,and I already heard all I want from Romney. Unless we take a leap away from what has been our country will continue to be run into the ground by big business that bribes the issues(lobbying) for their benefit via the democratic and republican parties.

Dh listens to a talk show daily on the road and one caller went on and on about her OBAMA phone,and how great Obama is.How her entire family has their free Obama phone Blah blah blah. I know a lot of people with those phones too.Free phones.food cards,free health coverage.All free to them provided by the workers of America.Someone worked their butts off so those *FREE* things could be offered. One person I know whose family is always getting freebies owns a restaurant.How do THEY qualify and my family does not?Fact is I don't want to be on any assistance. I just want to be able to make ends meet, be able to save, AND not see so many go on assistance. People need to work for what they want not get freebies.We are indeed a welfare nation.Shoot I read that obese people can qualify for assistance too.We are becoming a fatter nation,so will that mean even more on welfare?

We are trillions in debt. The Obama administration has spent the most(trillions) of any president in office. You can not keep printing off money and not expect a negative outcome.

It is a darn shame what this country has become.A darn shame.

 

[Mattemma]

Oh and my chckens aren't better off either. I can't afford to feed them as much.Nor can I afford to change out their bedding as often.Poor girls.Maybe I can get a food card for them.

 

[theoldchick]

Yes, for now. I've climbed a steep trail full of challenges. Now I'm on a level trail full of challenges. The house is paid for. The land is paid for. The equipment is paid for. Lightning killed all but two of our cattle. Had to put down one horse. Our Transmission shop is doing well-can barely keep up with the demand. Sold our other house with a small profit. Don't have kids to worry about. I'll have to euthanize the dog pretty soon. Our new hay cutter is working out great! Got too many rocks in one pasture. Somebody in the family tried to commit suicide. Got a new car so we could visit elderly kinfolk and make sure they have enough food. My immune system has decided my eyes are the enemy and don't belong in my body. My new camera is awesome. Broke my other camera. Not so awesome. I keep plodding along. Things could be worse. I could be hungry, cold, dirty, and lying in a ditch. Instead, I walk my path. One step at a time.

 

[mom'sfolly]

At the end of the Bush presidency the Dow had it the lowest level it had been in a decade. The highest it was during the Bush administration was about 14,000, and the lowest was about 8000, but it went up and down. If you split the G. W. Bush terms, overall the Dow lost about 1% the first term and 20-25 % the second term.When Obama took office it was about 8000, and is about 12,000 now. It has been an upward trend throughout the Obama administration.

I still don't understand how corporate American can be doing so well, with so little in job creation. It is not just the Dow that is up, but corporate profits are up as well.

As for the "Obama phone" comments, read the Snopes article or the other article from an actual "Obama phone" provider.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/cellphone.asp

http://www.freegovernmentcellphones.net/faq/obama-phone

Since the phone assistance program started as land lines under Clinton, and expanded to cell phones under G. W. Bush, it can hardly be called an "Obama phone"

We were asked if we were better off. I said yes, others said no. This is opinion, and that is okay. But the facts are there for people to look at....Median income is lower under Obama, but disposable income is about the same. Housing prices are lower, and but housing starts are up. Corporate profits are up nicely and so is the poverty rate. The actual number of people employed, in real numbers not rates, is higher under Obama, but by a measly 100,000 -150,000. Domestic energy production is up under Obama, and so are gas prices. Gas prices were high during the Bush years as well.

 

[jbirds2012]

I would say most everyone is better off now than they were four years ago, despite a political campaign to try and convince us otherwise. Unemployment just dropped to 7.8%, we aren't losing 800,000 jobs every month(instead we are growing), Dow Jones is at a 5 year high, NASDAQ is at a 10-year high, Iraq has about come to an end, the auto industry is saved, housing market is finally turning around. I don't really get how people can say they aren't better off now. I think they are just falling victim to false rhetoric. Oil is a global commodity, it would be nice if we could directly control it and drop prices to a quarter/gallon but I won't hold my breath. I think the current state of government assistance was inevitable irregardless of who won in 2008... I mean geez, 800,000 jobs lost monthly? It shouldn't come as a surprise that more people would start looking for assistance.

isn't it a amazing how all of a sudden at the 11th hour the unemployment miaclulisly dropped ? well at least the spin doctors are gainfully employed, they don't mention the reason is because all these folks unemployment ran out. and others have frantically looked for work for so long and have been getting rejected for so long that they just plain quit looking. ( me included ) and another thing that no one ever seems to bring up is that if you can find work, employers are only willing to pay half of what they used to pay so if you can get work you earn half as much for working just as hard and now you have to pay twice as much for gas food clothes, etc...

 

[chickened]

I think as a country we are not better off and I do not mean just financially. We have a president that is one of the most divisive men I have ever heard he pits the rich against the poor sort of a Robin Hood way, he also pits the middle class against the rich and poor. He will not tell the lazy to get to work but instead says that others owe them something.

In this regard we are far worse off because this trend creates a big sucking sound as more folks go on welfare for the convenience of it rather than pulling up their bootstraps and creating wealth. The democratic party will showcase poverty through the liberal media and show how well the government programs work while the republican party will showcase a business man 's struggle to the top from rejecting public assistance... which is the worse for our country?

 

[thaiturkey]

It's a pity that this thread is turning political.

The answer to the OP title must depend on individual circumstances and need not necessarily be limited to material gains or losses. If you want to take a national average as your measure, then also compare your own country's fortunes with those of other Western countries. Most of the Western world has suffered the same misfortunes as the US. One prime cause is the deregulation of the already advantaged financial sector in the West. Behind that is the modern reliance of Western economies on their financial sectors to balance the books. Industry and its jobs in the West have been passed to Asian countries and consumers have happily accepted the resulting cheap imports rather than cut their financial cloth and buy locally made goods. While some Western countries have also come to depend in part on the 'military industry', some Asian countries have been quietly building economic links around the world.

The responsibility for the present sorry state of affairs in the West is down to all governments and to their citizens who welcomed the short term gains with no thought for where it all would lead. The governments of left, right and centre are all in the same pickle. Instead of pointing the finger at individual politicians, voters should be looking at themselves and changing their own behaviour, if it's not too late.

Here's the big danger for the future in the West. People may soon be told that to get economies moving again they must copy Asian, especially Chinese, tactics. That involves very low wages, very little in the way of legal rights for employees and virtually no social benefits or pension rights. Just consider the implications of that. If you run a company that's losing money you can, amongst other things, get some employees off the pay role - get rid of them. Imagine that policy being applied to a country rather than a company.

The West, perhaps with one or two exceptions, has been heading economically downhill for several decades. The impact has been felt mainly in the last four years or so but the build up to it has been going on for much longer.

 

[DennisK]

I feel like my life has gone into a defensive siege mode. My income will not increase, yet I see that the cost of living will be considerably higher. Fortunately, DW and I have acreage that we own without debt and we are building onto that to use to brace against the coming onslaught. I am making a game out of the situation in that I would like to get to the point where we can hunker down for a full year without needing to drive into town for supplies. I am currently making a list of supplies we will need …… “Hon, how many rolls of toilet paper do we use in a year?”
For all of us, 2013 will be a very interesting year.

 

[Red Barn Farms]

In some ways we are better off and others we are not. We're both in our middle to late 40's and our two children have been on their for a number of years. We do not get to see them as much as we'd like to. They both live some distance in opposite directions away so it's no short trip to see either one. Our son is in the Air Force and lives miles and miles away. Across a few states to be exact. We'll probably get to see him only a few times a year. Our daughter is a different matter we'll not get into. Lets just say she is 23 years old and has a lot of growing up to do.

We are better off in knowing we are financially stable and our home is paid for as well as our automobiles!

and we do have good health! That's the best thing we have going for us.

 

[ScottnLydia]

Everyone always blames the politicians. The mules blame the pachyderms, and vice-versa. I don't like politicians, but I don't think they're the cause of all the problems we are having now either. I blame the REAL power, the money that got them there in the first place! That's who they actually serve, not us.

Consider:

The foreclosure mess, it's tragic. It was caused, mostly, by unbridled, greedy, predatory lending by a bunch of unscrupulous banks and mortgage companies that took advantage of over-inflated house estimates during a housing bubble that they knew would burst, without care or concern for the borrower. They weren't politicians, they were thieves.

The banking fiasco. When they were de-regulated, big banks began buying up all the small, independent banks. Then they could charge any crazy, exorbitant fee, surcharge, rate they wanted to, even a fee to close your account! They keep on sticking it to even the smallest depositor while their CEOs get multi-million dollar bonuses each year. They even get multi-million dollar 'golden parachute' payouts when the bank goes insolvent and all the little employees lose their jobs!

The credit card industry. Now there is a choice bunch! They would take a person who had perfect credit, perfect payment history, and a low rate, and suddenly institute the '20 day billing cycle'. This little beauty was designed to ensure that your payment would be late BEFORE YOU GOT YOUR BILL! This way, they could charge you an outrageous "missed payment fee", a "late fee" and bump your single digit rate to 36%. You then had to make sure that you paid each payment within 20 days in order to avoid those added fees! Of course the bills came every 32, 33, 34 days or so. Best of all, If you disagreed with any of this you have the option of paying your entire bill (plus all those fees) immediately. They weren't politicians, they were vampires.

The medical industry. Thanks to the legal industry you can't afford to get medical help without insurance. And thanks to greed in the insurance industry, many people can't afford insurance. So people who just can't afford insurance take their chances, and when they need health care, often just go to the local E.R. When they can't pay, the hospital has to pass the loss on as higher rates, which get billed to those that DO have insurance, those insurance companies pay more out and need more profit so they raise their rate, and so on, and so on, and so on.... Obamacare may be seriously flawed, but at least it is an attempt to fix this situation.

Pharmaceutical industry. Why should people have to die because they can't afford their medicines? I know, I know, there are programs... but the difficulty of jumping through all the hoops is too much for some of the elderly or seriously ill people. I know, I've seen it, I've tried to help. Some of the drug co-pays are just too much for some people and they would rather not take them than starve. That is a shame!

Speaking of feed for livestock, yes, it's expensive! With corn being genetically modified by Monsanto to produce more starch than protein so that it's better for ethanol production, and kills its own bugs, and resists Roundup, it just HAS to cost more! And soybeans too! Oh, let's not forget that drought thingy! Around my neighborhood you can say "drought" and that lets you charge (currently) $15 a bale for hay that a year ago last spring was $3 a bale. Of course if the drought ended today, please don't expect them to lower their prices to 'pre-drought levels'. That would just be un-American! So there goes your price of meat.

And how about Walmart. They come into small to medium sized towns and drive all the locally owned stores out of business! Sure, they hire some folks, at minimum wage, with no or few benefits. And what do they sell? Junk made overseas. Look at the labels! China,Taiwan, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam. That's where your hard earned American money is going, folks! Even the food products, just check the labels.

Internet sales. You can't hardly FIND a book or music store anymore! Internet stores have put all of them out of business. Barnes and Noble is the last of the chain stores and they can hear the clock ticking. Why? Internet stores don't need employees. There's one of your sources of unemployment right there. Amazon can supply almost anything to anyone , anywhere in the country with a few employees in a building in Seattle. Much of it is drop-shipped, sometimes from overseas. Again, your money goes out of the country, jobs lost, what a pity.

Perhaps in the 50s or 60s the idea of a "trickle down economy" might have worked. Today you'd be kidding yourself to believe in it. All the big corporations, for that matter wealthy individuals, keep the bulk of their assets tax-sheltered in overseas accounts. We couldn't tax them if we tried! So there goes that source of funding for schools, health programs, roads, elderly. Oh, and that 'trickle down' effect that everyone is waiting for is trickling down in Bangladesh, India, and wherever else these fat cats are farming their labor out to in order to get it cheaper! Yup, another cause of unemployment and another funnel of our money going out of the country.

They aren't politicians. They want you to look at the politicians. They own them.

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, ..." -Wizard of Oz

"Be afraid,...be VERY afraid!" -Newt