Are you better off now than you were two years ago?

[MannyGoldstein]

The economy stabilized about two years ago. How has your own economic situation changed since then? Mine's gotten a little bit better, if anyone cares.

[gateley]

1. About the same, which isn't all that great. nt

[DJ13]

2. Same pay + inflation = worse off

[rurallib]

3. better off - not where I want to be - but Repubs had ruined the

economy then and are trying like hell to do it again.

[Cali_Democrat]

4. My economic situation is better

But my experience probably isn't common. Thankfully my job hasn't been outsourced...yet.

On the whole, I think Americans are probably worse off.

[Auggie]

5. Better off by a bit

I'm working my ass off and swallowing some pride, but I have a steadier income.

[xchrom]

6. I've lost a lot of money. Nt

[EFerrari]

26. We did, too. n/t

[mitchtv]

44. same here n/t

[SavWriter]

7. Medical coverage slashed

Employer granted waiver. Pay frozen due to economic situation. Longer hours, with inflation, less money. House underwater, but still required to pay for it. I would quit and show the employer a thing or too, but with me being one of 55% of the people in the nation actually employed, I figure I'm lucky to have a job.

[MrMickeysMom]

8. Were it not for my better half... I'd be so much worse...

No ability to get hours to earn "benefits".... What a permanent slap in the face... And, I'm in a field that should have options. It's just good fortune that he has done better after also waiting sooooooooooo long, and not sure if he would do better before retirement.

Face it.... you're not supposed to retire, not that we counted on it, but you pay in for years to help the safety net and... they want to take this away while telling you to grab those ankles and get ready.

Fueling a certain point of explosion... I'm pretty sure of it now.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

10. Wrong Thread-ignore

[leftofcool]

11. Better off now that we sold our home

We didn't make much in equity but it isn't costing us and we downsized and can when the time comes to live on about 12K a year plus have a little money in the bank for back up.

[Lucinda]

60. That's what we NEED to do

It would make a big difference for us.

[doc03]

12. I was sort of forced into early retirement because my employer

shut down. I am worried about my income in retirement, I get SS, a PBGC pension, a company pension and a union pension. They all don't add up to that much but it looks like the odds are pretty high I will loose or get a cut in one or more of them. I guess I could say I am worse off since I was forced to retire but I haven't regretted taking my retirement for on second.

[BeFree]

13. I was damn near homeless 2 years ago

Obama made a big difference. The switch from repuglycan rule was very very good.

[MannyGoldstein]

17. That's fantastic! It must be an incredible relief. nt

[BeFree]

21. Yes

Just having Democrats in power was reason for hope. So when I see poeple talking shit about voting out Democrats, it is a real pisser, know what I mean?

[indurancevile]

14. other: i'd vote worse off but an ad is blocking my ability to respond.

and it's typically the case that there is an ad blocking every poll i am interested in responding to.

i don;t mind ads, but when they block the text it's quite irritating.

and since there are so many ad revenues, to the point of obscuring the content, i am beginning to wonder why the need to solicit donations.

[Kaleko]

31. I use Firefox with adblocker.

Never have any trouble responding to polls with that browser.

[mopinko]

37. that's your browser.

that isn't the site. do you enlarge your text? sometime with larger font sizes things overlap.

[indurancevile]

55. no, i don't. i have no idea what you mean by it isn't the site. i use ie & firefox, happens with

both. it's site-dependent.

[yawnmaster]

15. I'm not seeing the economic stability. Where are you getting the 2 year stability data?

Plus I'm two years older and that sucks.

[MannyGoldstein]

19. Look at historical data - things stopped plummeting about 2 years ago

I was curious to see if people felt things were holding steady or changing since then, hence this poll.

[fascisthunter]

16. Everybody is worse off

to say otherwise shows how limited ones thinking is. When your country as a whole suffers, what money you or I make now, will mean very little... nobody is secure. What we are seeing right before our eyes, is a disaster.... what is considered success when your country goes down and you witness the death of the Greatest America Experiment, Democracy?

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MannyGoldstein]

23. Obama is better than Bush

But that's not such a high bar.

[FrenchieCat]

27. Your answer

shows that you have a really bad memory....
but I'm sure you will be working hard
as you have for so long, making sure
that shit happens so that you'll be able to remember!

[EFerrari]

25. It's this kind of supportiveness that makes DU a community. Thanks. n/t

[AndyTiedye]

36. Please Do Not Post THAT So Close to Dinner Time

You probably made several dozen DU'ers lose their supper. :puke:

[leftstreet]

20. Wait...what happened to stabilize the economy 2 yrs ago?

what did I miss?

[Coyote_Bandit]

22. MUCH worse off

Long-term unemployed with no prospects of finding employment anytime soon. Am depleting my savings. Haven't seen a doctor in nearly 15 years.

I'm living the Amerikkkan dream.

[MannyGoldstein]

24. That sucks. In what part of the country do you live?

So many people are having a difficult time. Certainly this is not the America we grew up to expect.

[Coyote_Bandit]

28. South Central Region

My brother died last year so I am now an only child left to care for my aging parents. That limits my options even more.

[MannyGoldstein]

29. My heart is with you. That must be very difficult in so many ways.

How do we end this nightmare?

[Coyote_Bandit]

39. Thank you

I have dreams of buying my way out of this country someday. I don't see it getting better here during my lifetime. That may not happen but I can dream.

[Skittles]

30. other than the fact I don't have to see/hear dubya as much

hell fucking NO

[MH1]

32. I am a thousand times 'better off', but it has nothing to do with the economy.

However I answered yes anyway because objectively, I'm better off there too, even if it's not huge.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

33. I'm better off, but only because of a small inheritance

Business is still down from its previous levels.

[Solly Mack]

34. I've moved back to the states. Food prices are higher here overall.

That's been my experience anyway. I was kind of surprised by it.

So, my grocery bill has gone up (& quality has gone down). Still, I'm doing OK otherwise. I wouldn't say better but we haven't lost any ground either; not really. I was doing OK before & still doing OK now.

[guitar man]

35. Ha!

It's like trying to bail out the titanic with a teacup :(

[udbcrzy2]

38. I'm not better off - 2 years ago I had a shitty job at walmart

today I have none at all.

[BoWanZi]

40. Far worse off. Had a great job, laid off and out of work for 1 1/2 years.

Way worse off.

Not even a hint of better things to come.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

41. I'm a lot better off.

I also know I'm fortunate. I saw all this coming back in 2005/2206 and got out of all my debt. If I didn't need it I sold it. I should write a book about how to downsize and get back into a sustainable spending pattern. My home is paid for now and I have no personal bills other than utilities, insurance and property taxes. It is the most liberating, and wonderful feeling to not have to worry about repossessions anymore. Also, I'm finally able to stash back a sizable sum per month to help me to further weather out the future storms on our economy.

[spanone]

42. 2 & 1/2 years is not near enough time to recover from the bushing we got

[NRaleighLiberal]

43. worse. then I was working. Now I am not.

55 and unemployed...overqualified...fixed income for the first time in our lives. Not fun.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

45. employer put me on the path to Canadian permanent residency

gotta be pretty grateful for that.

[MannyGoldstein]

47. Do you notice a big difference in Canada?

I'd imagine that you would, but can you tell us a little about it?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

48. Other than prosperity, not really.

The 49th parallel is a geographic technicality, I find the culture of Alberta and BC more familiar to me than the culture of the US east coast. I look at it as a bomb shelter, but having worked in Canada off and on week to week since 2006 I might as well get something out of it more than a tax headache.

[MannyGoldstein]

50. I get the sensse that Canadians feel more economically secure

compared to Americans these days. Any thoughts?

[pa28]

46. Income is roughly the same but my feelings about the economy have changed deeply.

We now see the results of a three decade policy agenda to re-distribute wealth upwards. I'm sorry to say that up until 2005 I was going along thinking everything would wash out, the theories were valid and we were moving into a "new economy". Well, the financial crisis ripped the veil off that idea didn't it?

The wolves are lurking around the campfire now and if you think someone in the government is going to protect you from the predators who are after pensions, Social Security and your personal assets you are fooling yourself. This is the kind of thing I never lost sleep over five years ago.

[Kat45]

49. Worse off.

I was laid off two and a half years ago, and though I've had some short-term things here and there, I haven't had a steady job since then. This year, I've hardly had any short-term things. I'm forgetting the software skills I used to have and wondering what kind of job I can even get. (I'm in my fifties.) And I've got a lot less in my savings account, which was not meant to be used for living expenses, than I had two and a half years ago. At this rate, not sure how much longer the savings will last.

[MannyGoldstein]

51. Sorry to hear that.

What kind of software work are you looking for?

[Kat45]

54. I'm not looking for software work.

I'm just talking about the software I'd have to use in administrative (and most other) jobs. I haven't used them in so long that I'm lucky if I remember any of the software listed on my resume. Word, I know, and I think I remember some of Excel, but not a shitload of it. I don't think I remember how to use any of the others because I didn't use each one for that long and it's been a long time. These days, anyone that hires you expects you to already know absolutely everything you might ever have to use on the job; so many people are out of work, that they know they can find somebody who knows it all.

I got a job last year and they fired me after about 4-5 weeks because I couldn't step in and do it all immediately. One of the problems was that I didn't know Microsoft Publisher, which I had never used before. They won't train you and give you time to learn something anymore. You have to get up to speed and be totally productive within a week or two, and now that I'm older, I don't pick things up as fast as I used to. Doesn't make me real confident for interviews, not that I've had any for months. I now always feel that if I'm not perfect, which of course I'm not, I'm going to get fired quickly from any job that I might get. Sucks.

[sakabatou]

52. About the same, but I'm now under SSI

[OhioChick]

53. Far worse n/t

[begin_within]

56. Kinda wish I had gone into banking...

...good money - and easy money - pouring into that from what I read.

[bhikkhu]

57. Two years ago was rough - fixed expenses and income about equal

so every month was finishing out plus or minus $15 bucks or so, and I didn't have much more than that in the bank.

Now is better - I've mitigated some of the fixed expenses (I'd already quit smoking and drinking, then started bicycling to work) and I make a little more on the job, and I've been frugal enough that there is a little cushion in the bank account. Things are comfortable, and life is better and easier.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

58. Better.

[Lucinda]

59. Worse. Quite a bit.

I still have a roof over my head though. :)

[woo me with science]

61. K&R

No, and I hear that sentiment from many, many people.

[ProgressoDem]

62. Was in college.

Now have no job. Awesome!