Hey Americans! Are you better off now than 5 years ago?

[LiberalEsto]

Just asking.


I think this short, simple but powerful question -- needs to be placed before the American public everywhere between now and the 2006 elections.

Bumper stickers would be nice.

There is no way in hell that my family is better off than 5 years ago. College costs keep going up, utility, phone and insurance bills rise relentlessly, and of course the price of gasoline is sky-high and climbing. I went to the supermarket yesterday and saw that food prices are also soaring.

People can't afford homes that cost, on average, more than $300,000. We couldn't afford to buy a house today in our own neighborhood, just 7 years after we moved here. So many more people have sunk into poverty in the past 4 years.

The only people doing better are the few obscenely wealthy, and now they're waiting for their latest treat, permanent elimination of the estate tax.

As AFL-CIO President John Sweeney wrote today in a Washington Post op-ed column, it's time to raise the minimum wage. After all, Congress has voted itself seven raises since the minimum wage was raised to its current $5.15.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. This is what my boss told a repuke at the coffee shop

and then he went on to say, "My business is doing worse. Now I have to charge sales tax on my service, which means extra bookwork and has cost me customers. The soaring price of gas makes it hard for me to send my men out to job sites. And you think this ___ ___ __ _____ is a good president?" He related this to me when he came to the office, adding that he almost decked the repuke guy.

This took place in Arkansas, btw. The repukes are really lying low.

[SmokingJacket]

2. Hell no.

:grr:

And it's not just the emptier bank account -- there's a sense of pessimism and lack of hope for the future that pervades everything...

I remember five years ago, we were thinking about buying a modest little lake house some day, had even gone to look at a few... daydreamed about taking the kids out of town for weekends of swimming and fishing...

But now? HAHAHAHAHAHA! I just hope I can keep my ONE house. That's all I dare hope for now.

[Cascadian]

3. An overwhelming NO!

Personal problems coupled with spending months without a job and this assclown in the White House, my stress level has gone up! Need I say more?

John

[Deja Q]

4. Including the last vote a few months ago... talk about being out of touch.

More tax cuts while they give themselves tax increases. Those vultures and sharks are truly out of touch with their voter base.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

5. But... but... I dun't want them queers to marry!!!

:sarcasm:

[Joey Liberal]

6. HELL NO! n.t

[mbee]

7. Some pugs here in MD have been complaining about the gas

prices. Guess it's time for them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps!

[Booster]

8. No one in the world is better off now.

[Vinca]

9. Absolutely not - had to give up health insurance. nt

[AntiCoup2K4]

10. Of course I am! I own stock in Halliburton & Texaco!

God Bless the Bush Criminal Empire!
:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Quakerfriend]

12. I am slightly better off now than I was 2 yrs ago.

Hubbie lost his hi tech job to outsourcing then. I will never forget sitting across from him at the dinner table when he told me that after the lay off he felt that he would only be able to find something making a salary that was six times (YES 6X) less than he made in '98. And, that turned out to be true. Fortunately he was able to move in one year to something better, but still only 1/2 of what he was making during the Clinton yrs.

We feel VERY fortunate. No car payments, no debt. But, no vacations in several yrs, and very few extras- no eating out, no real house repairs etc.

The "excellent" health care we have costs us an arm and a leg! Two years ago we stopped monthly deposits into kids accounts for college. etc. Bare bones really. But, still thankful.

I'll tell you what though. My RW relatives are getting really peeved about this administration!!

[kineneb]

11. Nope.

Got $5 in the checking account until payday. Hours have been cut so next weekly paycheck will be $220. Hubby will be having surgery soon to remove gall bladder and cancerous kidney; then he will be on dialysis and officially "disabled". So, no, we are not doing as well as 5 years ago. And it doesn't look like things will get better soon.