Are You Better Off Than @ Years Ago?

[M&K's Retrievers]

That should be 'Two" years ago.

Check it out:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/..._first_tw.html

[huntinman]

Nope...

.

[dnf777]

Definately yes. But not because of Obama or Bush or anyone else.

I do know that there are a lot of folks worse off now, due to the selling of jobs overseas and an erosion of our manufacturing base and lack of transition plans to a non-manufacturing economic base.

I posed the question on another forum: Can our economy recover and thrive without a manufacturing base? Can a tech/service economy sustain itself?

I honestly don't know. Not sure anyone else does either. The world has never seen it before, excpet for small scale exceptions.

[Blackstone]

I think anyone that is being honest realized things were going to get worse before they got better. We were on a downhill slide long before Obama took office. IMO, we had entered a perpetual downward spiral. Each industry that failed triggered the collapse of another industry. No one was going to be able to turn that around quickly. Most times it takes longer to fix things than it does to break them.

I cannot say I am better off than I was prior to Obama taking office, but fortunately, I’m no worse off. What I am,is more optimistic. I see signs of the economy recovering. My customers bought more vehicles in 2010 than they did 2009. Most are predicting to buy more in 2011 because they are expecting their business to be better. Construction companies, who traditionally lag an economic recovery by a year, have already started booking business for the 2012 calendar year. That gives me hope that we are headed in the right direction.

[Roger Perry]

I will have to agree with Blackstone there. Here is another question for you: Were you better off in 2008 than you were in 2000. Just asking
regards

[starjack]

That should be 'Two" years ago.

Check it out:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/..._first_tw.html

no........

[Blackstone]

I was in pretty good shape in 2000. However, over the next few years, I began to lose benefits at work and watched my income stagnate. Raises were basically put on hold for about 3 years between 2001 and 2004. By 2004, unemployment in MI, where I lived at the time, had become a problem. Realestate values were beginning to fall. Foreclosures were beoming common place, especially in Detroit where so many had lost jobs. The trend soon spread to neighboring suburbs. The neighborhood where I lived in Southfield had once been hot property, but it took more than a year to sell my house. I also owned a house in one of the nicer areas Det. where houses generally sold within weeks of going on the market. It took me 7 months to sell that house. Luckily, I left just as the market was starting to crash, so I managed to get a decent price for both houses. Today, those houses have lost about 60% - 70% of their value.

In 2004, my job was outsourced. By the grace of God, I was able to find another job within the company. It required that I relocate, but that wasn’t a problem for me. By 2006, the company went through a reorg and downsized. Quite a few of the people I had worked with were terminated. Had I stayed, more than likely, the same would have happened to me.

When I move to KC in 2004, economics here were pretty good, unemployment was low, and home prices were still on the rise. However, beginning about 2006, you started to see economic decline here as well. Unemployment began to spike, especially in MO, where it went from 4.4 in April ’06 to 8.9 by Jan. ’09 (it was 3.2 in Jan. 2000).

[TxHillHunter]

That should be 'Two" years ago.

Check it out:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/..._first_tw.html

Let's see....I have eliminated all debt except my residence, and it's CHEAP money at < 4%.

But my retirement funds are stagnant in value, despite a 10% contribution and 150% match on the first 6%.

Income has not quite kept pace with inflation, and fixed costs have increased around the home front.

More to it than that, but I'd have to say no. Of course the same can be said for the last 4 years, or 6 years because much of the above remains true as well.

[luvmylabs23139]

Absolutely NO!
Taxes have gone up. Local property taxes, state income taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes etc. Price of gas has almost doubled. Rates for electricity have gone way up. Food prices have gone up. Heck a bag of sugar is now a four pound bag rather than 5 to hide the increase. Car registration fees have increased. Just a few examples.

[Blackstone]

Absolutely NO!
Taxes have gone up. Local property taxes, state income taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes etc. Price of gas has almost doubled. Rates for electricity have gone way up. Food prices have gone up. Heck a bag of sugar is now a four pound bag rather than 5 to hide the increase. Car registration fees have increased. Just a few examples.

You shouldn't be eating all that sugar anyway!