Are We Better Off Than We Were Four Years Ago?

after being a full time employee for 5 years , I was put on lay off status by the hotel for the last three years, and thanks to DA UNION, I have been relegated to the extra board sometimes working 5 shifts a week,sometimes 1 shift, but never enough to file for unemployment until this spring...and according to union seniority rules, employees that have been there longer get scheduled full time whether they want to or not...I start my 9th year with the hotel on Sat, and I am now at the bottom of the full time board, only because a few people ahead of me,have been terminated and two others quit....I have seen first hand how union seniority fosters complacency and laziness in co workers, they only do the minimum required and we are in the SERVICE industry...I need to be on top of my game, every night and give the very best service in order to get toked well, plus its just the way I am...

REAL unemployment here in Vegas is in the low teens and we lead the nation in house foreclosures and homes that are upside down in value...

and yet the uneducated, questionable documented, mostly hispanic minions of my union continue to support Harry Reid and BHO...

I am not ashamed to admit 4 years ago my income was above 70k/year...last year I made half of that...

Is there any question of what my answer is ?

Fixed income investments were paying an average over 5% now .2% due to maturities & calls
Pension fixed the day I retired 20 years ago
SS - got a CoL last year, none the two previous years - I hate Bernanke & his ZIRP policy
Investments - have done fairly well with Dividend increases so helping us - the neat thing is our income is so low that the CG's are not taxed :cool:

We give more to charity than we pay in income tax whereas a few years ago our IT was considerably higher - for the libs :-P, even us fiscal conservatives can make a little lemonade out of the lemons ;-). I blame it on Barney Fag + McCain & Bush's unwillingness to wage a fight that would have avoided a lot of this housing fiasco.

So NO we are not better off, but we'll get by :cool:.

Gas was $1.70 / gal, a loaf of 12 grain bread was under $2.00, and my medicare Suppliment Ins was under $100.00/mo.
They are now pushing $4, $5, and $226.00 .............The list is longer but "don't get no better".

john

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Marvin S

.................................................. ............................................

So NO we are not better off, but we'll get by :cool:.

---

Your last sentence discribes our household very well. The trouble seems to be the constant rise in prices for gasoline and food. Everything keeps going up mostly because of the gasoline prices it seems. We aren't young anymore so we seldom wear out clothes from working in them ( overalls, jeans, etc. and well made shirts last a long time if you spend 90% of your time sitting in a chair or sleeping in the bed :-) The younger people who still work and are blessed with growing children are the ones that I feel sorry for. Also have a care for those who have no children but are paying for the upbringing of the ones who don't work.
We try not to drive around much anymore locally and we do not travel. So far the retirement check and soc. sec. covers our simple lifestyle. If either of those things change we will probably be in deep trouble.
I had never considered cremation as an option till lately but my investment that was planned for my funeral etc. may be needed for living expenses at some point. I have told my family......"you make sure I'm good and dead before they start burning my body at the funeral home. I sure don't want to burn twice and feel it both times, vbeg."