Are you better off now than you were four years ago?

[Peaches-n-Cream]

Many people that I know have spent a portion of the last three years unemployed, underemployed, or temporarily employed. Their income has decreased as has the value of their 401K and other retirement funds. The question was "Are you better off now that you were four years ago?" My answer is "No." The answer for many of my friends, colleagues, and relatives is also "No." Maybe personal anecdotes aren't important when it comes to economics, but the question was a personal one.

Perhaps the economy of New York is different from other places because of September 11th. That was when I noticed that so many people were getting pink slips and were not able to find comparable jobs in a reasonable period of time. Those charts reflect the lives of the people I am talking about. They lost jobs in late 2001, 2002, and 2003. Personally, the last three years felt like the early 1990s all over again.

In the last three or four months many of my friends have found full-time permanent jobs with benefits and potential for growth, but that doesn't erase the last few years.

I do agree that problems with the economy began in 2000. I noticed many dot coms were downsizing, but it seemed to be limited to a very specific field. Also the value of the dot com and tech stocks began to decrease which made many people's portfolios decrease. I think that September 11th made the economy much worse.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by Peaches-n-Cream
Many people that I know have spent a portion of the last three years unemployed, underemployed, or temporarily employed. Their income has decreased as has the value of their 401K and other retirement funds. The question was "Are you better off now that you were four years ago?" My answer is "No." The answer for many of my friends, colleagues, and relatives is also "No." Maybe personal anecdotes aren't important when it comes to economics, but the question was a personal one.

Perhaps the economy of New York is different from other places because of September 11th. That was when I noticed that so many people were getting pink slips and were not able to find comparable jobs in a reasonable period of time. Those charts reflect the lives of the people I am talking about. They lost jobs in late 2001, 2002, and 2003. Personally, the last three years felt like the early 1990s all over again.

In the last three or four months many of my friends have found full-time permanent jobs with benefits and potential for growth, but that doesn't erase the last few years.

I do agree that problems with the economy began in 2000. I noticed many dot coms were downsizing, but it seemed to be limited to a very specific field. Also the value of the dot com and tech stocks began to decrease which made many people's portfolios decrease. I think that September 11th made the economy much worse.

Right, but 2004 and 2001 are very different, even in NYC. The Tech sector wasn't the only one to take a dive (in NYC there was Silicon Alley), but also so did the finance sector which is incredibly huge in NYC. I don't know what your friends did or do, but that sector has seen a rise in hiring and employment and the fear of 2000 is no longer there.

-Rudey

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

I know for my parents the answer of "are you better off than you were 4 years ago?" the answer is no- the medical field in Iowa is seeing budget shortages due to the medicaid/medicare gap- Iowa hospitals last year lost over a billion dollars because Congress is screwing them over. My father was layed off because of the budget problems at the last hospital he worked for. Took about a year for things to settle.

[hoosier]

Yes

[DeltAlum]

Four years ago I was making almost twice as much money as I am now.

Corporate merger, downsizing, recession effects on broadcasting (and everything else) and maybe throw in a little age discrimination in the mix.

The good news is that with all the kids out of the house, we don't need nearly as much and are doing OK.

(Thank goodness for National Merit and additional scholarships which pay nearly 100% of our son's college costs, though)

[Optimist Prime]

no, not at all

thanks for bringing that up, god

[Munchkin03]

I should ask my parents that question.

Hmmm...if Mr. Munch had MANBOOBS, would I consider those mine?

[AGDee]

I'm definitely not. Raises have been less than the rate of inflation and one year there weren't any at all. I saw 10 to 12 of my coworkers get laid off (those are the people I knew personally.. there were 500 layoffs altogether). I saw three neighbors go for a year without work and they are trying to catch up on bills that they couldn't pay during that time. They are all making about half what they had been making. The escrow portion of my mortgage payment has gone up $160 a month (they say due to 9-11 and the stock market problems). I'm paying at least $.50 more a gallon for gas. I'm spending twice as much on my prescription co-pay and doctor visit co-pays. My ER co-pay increased from $5.00 to $50.00. I am now paying part of the premium for health care insurance (for an HMO that the health care system I work for OWNS). One year(2002), our raises were 2% and didn't cover the increase in the cost of our benefits, so I brought home less money that year even though I'd gotten a raise. On my drive to work, there are 5 "mini-apartments" set up under freeway overpasses. In 20 years of working in Detroit, I had never seen that before until this year. My retirement plan at work is no longer increasing. I don't expect the 110% return I had in 1999, that was a fluke, but 5% would be nice. The price of beef has skyrocketed. My car insurance has almost doubled (granted I had one accident). My car is 4 years older and I can't afford a new one so I'm pouring tons of money into that one to keep it going. Day care costs have also increased tremendously. Back then, I was paying $40 a day for summer day care, now it's $50 a day. My cell phone plan is the same cost, but I get less minutes than I used to. My monthly cable bill goes up $10 every year. So, in the past 4 years, my monthly expenses have increased by about $800 and my take home monthly pay has gone up by about $400. And, that's a problem.

My mom is not. I am in shock today as I picked up 10 of my mom's 14 prescriptions yesterday and wrote a check for $531 for her. I am totally in shock. She gets $793 in Social Security and $650 from her pension and 10 of 14 prescriptions cost $531. She only has to buy the other 4 every other month. I shudder to think what those cost. I wanted to cry for her. She traded a mortgage payment for prescription payments.

Now I'm depressed.

Dee

[Kevin]

Does the President have anything to do with any of the above items?

[AGDee]

The Republican President with a Republican Congress.. not the President alone.

Failing to address health care issues? yes. Proposing and passing a far less than adequate Medicare prescription coverage plan? yes. State taxes going up due to cuts in federal allotments to the states? yes. Lack of funds for road improvements? yes. The insurance increases due to stock market problems and 9/11, not as directly. Failure to make affordable child care available? yes.

Whether the president was directly responsible wasn't the question though. The question was whether I'm better off than I was four years ago, and the answer is no. Another question to add to it would be.. is the president going to make it better over the next four years or will you feel a continual downward spiral? With the national debt increasing as it is, I don't see how it's going to get better. We're going to get to a point where all the money goes to paying interest on the debt and there is no money for anything else. From what I see in my day to day life, society in general is taking a nose dive and nobody is doing anything about it. We're so worried about what other countries are up to that our own needs are being ignored.

Dee

[Rudey]

Originally posted by AGDee
The Republican President with a Republican Congress.. not the President alone.

Failing to address health care issues? yes. Proposing and passing a far less than adequate Medicare prescription coverage plan? yes. State taxes going up due to cuts in federal allotments to the states? yes. Lack of funds for road improvements? yes. The insurance increases due to stock market problems and 9/11, not as directly. Failure to make affordable child care available? yes.

Whether the president was directly responsible wasn't the question though. The question was whether I'm better off than I was four years ago, and the answer is no. Another question to add to it would be.. is the president going to make it better over the next four years or will you feel a continual downward spiral? With the national debt increasing as it is, I don't see how it's going to get better. We're going to get to a point where all the money goes to paying interest on the debt and there is no money for anything else. From what I see in my day to day life, society in general is taking a nose dive and nobody is doing anything about it. We're so worried about what other countries are up to that our own needs are being ignored.

Dee

No, no and no on everything.

Geez lady even the part about the debt is wrong. You don't just pay interest. That's not how it works. Bonds have a par amount which is pure principal. Every year principal is paid off on the bonds and usually there is interest that is paid off on a semiannual basis.

I wish Democrats would read just a little bit or at least stop making such audacious claims.

-Rudey

[honeychile]

Just answering the original question:

I make $5,299 more a year than I did four years ago, my health care benefits have improved, and my perks have esculated amazingly.

I can also say that our company has employed 300+ more people in the past four years, both full and part time, none of whom have manbreasts (to my knowledge).

The question really depends on what aspect of the working world you're in.

[The1calledTKE]

Originally posted by Rudey
I wish Democrats would read just a little bit or at least stop making such audacious claims.

-Rudey

She can believe what she want. She isn't forcing you to believe what she believes. And Republicans on here make silly claims but you say nothing then, because it benifits the person you want elected.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by The1calledTKE
She can believe what she want. She isn't forcing you to believe what she believes. And Republicans on here make silly claims but you say nothing then, because it benifits the person you want elected.

Opinions and Facts are different. You can have the opinion that red is prettier than blue. You can't have an opinion that pigs fly.

Republicans make silly claims? Truthfully I see little of it.

-Rudey
--You used to post quite a few political anti-Bush threads and posts...you went soft on us Brandon

[AGDee]

Interest Expense on the Debt Outstanding
The monthly Interest Expense represents the interest expense on the Debt Outstanding as of each month end. The interest expense on the Debt includes interest for Treasury notes and bonds; foreign and domestic series certificates of indebtedness, notes and bonds; Savings Bonds; as well as Government Account Series (GAS), State and Local Government series (SLGs), and other special purpose securities. Amortized discount or premium on bills, notes and bonds is also included in interest expense.

The fiscal year Interest Expense represents the total interest expense on the Debt Outstanding for a given fiscal year. This includes the months of October through September.

Interest Expense
FISCAL Year 2004
August $ 18,988,722,254.18
July $ 15,097,639,601.03
June 84,468,634,709.08
May 20,432,938,610.90
April 12,755,485,706.79
March 14,096,687,261.36
February 15,150,706,352.06
January 13,004,064,259.60
December 82,435,960,974.56
November 19,292,044,501.20
October 13,311,682,915.94
----------------------
FISCAL Year Total $ 309,034,567,146.78



From Treasury Direct, Bureau of Public Debt