Poll finds debt-dogged Americans stressed out

[The Northerner]

WASHINGTON – The economy trudges ahead yet debt dogs many Americans, stressing them out even as they firm up their own financial foundations.

There are new jobs produced but old worries persisting for people despite belt-tightening and boosted savings, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll.

About 46 percent of those surveyed say they're suffering from debt-related stress, and half of that group described their stress as "great deal" or "quite a bit." On the other hand, about 53 percent say they feel little or no stress at all.

That's in line with findings from last year, even though times seem better today: The economy is growing and generating jobs, and households have made progress in repairing their financial footing, trimming debt, watching spending and saving more.

It's a big turnaround from a year ago — a shrinking economy, jobs jettisoned as businesses struggled to survive the deepest recession since the 1930s.

So why aren't the stressed — and the not-so-stressed — feeling better?

For starters, it just doesn't feel much like a recovery to many people.

Unemployment is stubbornly high — 9.9 percent. The jobless face fierce competition for work. Those with a job are watching their paychecks shrink.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100530/ap_on_bi_ge/us_ap_poll_stressing_over_debt

[rzemanfl]

1. I haven't had a raise in five years. My wife either. I lived through

8 years of Bush. BP is filling the Gulf of Mexico, which I live very near, with oil and will continue to do so for months. My car died and I had to buy a new one. What stress?

[prolesunited]

6. I've gotten laid off from two jobs in five years

and currently don't have one. What stress?

[FrenchieCat]

2. Maybe if Americans start making sense, they could be part of the solution

instead of being part of the problem.

When I read that a majority still support offshore oil drilling,
yet they want it stopped and cleaned up yesterday,
while many support small government with less regulation,
then I suspect that a big part of the reason that we are fretting this mess now,
is because that's pretty much the mess that many, in the majority, help make.

[county worker]

4. It is amazing to me that so many people haven't made the connection to what is going

on with the economy and their lives and the policies of the last administration. I blame the lack of consequences the last administration had to face and the ignorance of the large majority of citizens that supports the right wing noise machine.

[RKP5637]

13. Very good point. Bush and the republicans got to skirt out, and Bush and his

cohorts never had to suffer the consequences of their mismanagement for 8 years. And so many Americans are ignorant, gullible and easily lead by RW propaganda.

[FrenchieCat]

16. I blame the media and I blame the American people....

they both have their own job to do, and don't seem to have a clue as to what it is.

[RKP5637]

12. Yep, and very well said. As usual, America is its own worse enemy, we have

a history of that and seemingly ever growing more ignorant as a nation.

[CountAllVotes]

3. no recovery here

income was about $5,000.00 less in 2009.

Thanks for nothing but bigger and more bills.

:mad:

[David__77]

5. I just a few days ago paid off my final debt.

I'm better off now, but I think that it looks like a bottomless pit to many. And, indeed, it kind of is. The household debt that was accumulated particularly from the housing-related credit bubble is tremendous. It will take more than a year or two to right this.

[jwirr]

7. I envy you. I will never get mine paid off. I lay awake at night worrying

about it.

[David__77]

9. Bankrupty?

I have no idea if this is a practical solution any more.

[burnsei sensei]

8. Without enhanced buying and producing power

across the board, there is no recovery.
My experience tells me much more than their numbers.
It also has more authority.

[jwirr]

10. And that is the point isn't it. They keep saying it is getting better - but

if personal debt is not fixed then none of us can buy. Furthermore, the workers who are being helped by the stimulus do not trust the system and they are not buying either. Even when we do buy it is often something made in another country. Even our food.

[burnsei sensei]

11. And blessed few people understand

that to depend on imported foodstuffs to the point that local agriculture is undermined is a real threat to survival.

[RKP5637]

14. +1, n/t

[jwirr]

15. My guess is that most do not even know we are importing so much

of our food.

[burnsei sensei]

17. I think people make the assumption that

because we lived off the "fat of the land" in the 19th century, nothing has changed.
The American capacity to produce since the mid-20th century has been so undermined, its allocation of labor so counter-productive and wasteful, that I question whether or not we have the skills any more to support our sustenance on domestic products.
The cause of this, I think, is the powerful upsurge of labor in the mid-20th century and the fear it generated in the elites.
It produced Taft-Hartley, and it also prompted the abandonment of the U.S. labor force to its own devices apart from sympathy strikes, general strikes, and powerful unions.
Unions do not engage in unfair labor practices. Managers and investors do. Let's get that straight.
If anything, Taft-Hartley must be defied.
It is an unjust law.
It has impoverished people.
The expansion of agro-business has had the same effect here that Stalinist collectivization had in the Soviet Union.
It has dislocated a significant class of people, closed business to them, and in the end, less has been produced.
The prices we pay for food are the result, and they will get higher. And who is happy? Why, the agro-businesses of course.
This policy has impoverished people, thrown them off the land, and onto their own devices. Just as with labor.
The people are dispossessed.
The corporations are in control.
And the government? Unresponsive.
Something has to give here.

[NNN0LHI]

18. Depends on what they use that buying power for

If people keep purchasing imported cars that will only help the unemployment rate, tax base and pension programs in the countries where they are built.

Won't help ours.

In that situation you are right. There will be no recovery.

Don

[marshall]

19. The President has the right idea, and others ought to arrange to follow

Take a breather for a few days, go back to your roots, regroup, don't make yourself miserable over things you can't control.

Then come back better than ever.

[Populist_Prole]

20. I'm not into blame the victim but

I can't see why many people I know knowingly spend money on more and more "stuff" all bought on credit...then complain about their debt loads. It's not like they're buying food. I mean, walking into their houses is like going into a Circuit City showroom. Most are loyal GOP-ers ( the ones I know anyway ) due mostly to the "god & country" issue.

Lemmings; The lot of 'em.