Bush says that the economy is very good how is it in your state,,,,

[butterfly77]

and do you any effects on friends and family. Are you going on vacation or are you cutting short family outings due to high gas prices.

[gully]

1. Anyone who compares their local jobs paper to the Clinton years

knows Bush is full of shit - again.

Anyone who compares gas prices to the Clinton years knows .......
Anyone who compares health care costs .........

Feel free to continue examining this wonderous economy.

David Gergen basically said what we all know on Hardball. The 'haves and the have mores' are doing great. The average American - not so.

[butterfly77]

5. But... it was hard to get that out of him

and matthews was at it again when interviewing the democrat from the clinton administration but he didn't let him get away with it. He always make sure to let them Know that bushit.

[gully]

2. Found a nice graphic to illustrate my previous point.

I think Americans (thankfully) are realizing Bush is a LIAR.

[Freedomofspeech]

3. Well...

One son just lost his job in Cleveland, due to downsizing of the company. Our son in NYC works his butt off as a locations assistant for movies (I'm talking big movies), and can't afford health insurance. We can't afford to pay for his health insurance. Just an example here in PA, every place that sells flowers has them dying on the shelves. No one, including me, is spending hundreds of dollars anymore on flowers. It's a luxury. I have a good friend with a large gift shop, whose business is dying (they voted for Bush, I feel bad, but they wouldn't listen). Let's face it the whole country is going down the drain, and it will never be the same. When I heard * say today that the economy is in great shape, I wanted to throw something at the tv, but I can't afford to replace it. We did not take a week this year for vacation as we usually do, but just a couple of short trips.

[butterfly77]

7. I have also cut down on my extracurricular activities...

[BrewAz]

4. Well lets see....

I live in a RED state...but like most of us middle income folks:
1. health care costs are up...medicare costs will be up another 12% or so
2. gas is hovering around $3 per gallon
3. no vacation travel this year for us
4. most of my friends still have jobs although some have had to change over to lower paying positions
5. an old neighbor got laid off from a management position because well...he was older
6. we have to start watching our expenditures on "fun" because everything else is up

I am a "small business" owner...someone who is supposed to be enjoying the benefits of the great bushco economy..and well reality is that company revenue is down some 60% this year...my tax burden has not decreased...but company expense associated with benefits and health care have gone up....and by the way my investments continue to go sideways...Can I still buy some Halliburton stock?

So, "how is the economy"...pretty darn tough.

BrewAz

[msongs]

6. $15 an hour jobs go begging -

field work, harvesting stuff. the illegal immigrant laborer being ripped of by low wages is not true in the farm business
much any more. there is more demand than labor.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/6for2008.htm

[BuelahWitch]

8. I just started a new job working in a call center

that outsources jobs for several major cable companies. My training class contains several people who would be considered over-qualified for these positions in a decent economy. Most of them are IT trained, and if they want to stay in and around where they live instead of commuting for their work, they have to take jobs like this that are far below their knowledge and experience level. Sitting in the classroom making $7.50 an hour, and they're happy they're not stuck at some service job making less! I'd say it's pretty bad...

[distantearlywarning]

9. I belong to a medieval re-creation society

Every weekend we have events in various places that are between 1/2 and 2 hours drive from where I live. Just last weekend, I was discussing with a few friends of mine from the organization how this summer attendance seems to be way down at every event. Where we used to get 50 people, now we are getting at most 25. This doesn't seem to be true for the local practices - in fact, we have MORE people at those than we ever did before, so it's not a membership thing.

It's a driving thing. This summer, for the first time, people don't have money for gas. And they don't have money to buy food on the road or to stay in a hotel or to take a day off work or any of those things.

To me, that's a clear sign that something is wrong with the economy that isn't being widely reported out there. I've been a member of this organization for almost 10 years, and I've never seen such a dramatic fluctuation in event attendance before.

Also, two of my friends who have college degrees can't find jobs in my very large metropolitan city. One of them, after searching for several months, managed to get an offer for work as a pizza delivery driver, and is going to take it because he's desperate to have anything to pay the rent. The other one hasn't even been able to find a minimum wage job after 3 months and may have to go home to live with his parents at age 24. :-(

[slackmaster]

11. Escapism is cheap

Especially if you shoot for the "good old days" before cars and high technology.

[slackmaster]

10. My present state is "employed"

So I guess the economy is OK.