Are you better off than you were four years ago?

[TheBigotBasher]

This needs to be addressed as an issue, it got the second worst President in history elected and could get one that surpasses the awfulness of W elected.

[MineralMan]

1. Yes. Very much better.

Four years ago, I had no idea what my next step would be. After trying several paths, I found one that works. So, yes, things are better for me in 2011 than in 2007. Much better.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. I am the same. I was very lucky through this all.

I kept my job. But have had only one raise in that time---freeze on all raises. I have shitty health insurance, just the same as I had four years ago. I have enough money to meet all my needs and a few wants, just as before. And my ulcers bother me as much today as they did four years ago. The world still has too many problems and I can't stop worrying myself over it all.

Just like four years ago.

[Dappleganger]

3. Worse than 4 years ago. Worse than 10 years ago.

Worse than 15 years ago, actually.

[johnnie]

4. Much better off

Than I was 4 years ago.

[FrenchieCat]

5. When did the bottom fall out of the economy?

Was that four years ago, already? Seems like just yesterday!

So what I will say is that I am better off than I was two years ago; yes.

We remodified our Mortgage to a 2% interest loan,
My eldest graduated from College, and is now in Graduate school
on a fellowship, so she doesn't have a bunch of loans to repay.

My health is also better, because I exercise more, have grown a garden full of veggies,
and have a life, instead of hanging out on the Internet tearing my hair out.

Also now, I have a President in office that I trust like 500% times more than I did the
last one. Naw, he ain't perfect, and he doesn't have anyone walking lock step with him,
but I know that this President was elected by voters and not chosen by the SCOTUS,
and I believe that after 4 years, I'll be even better off than I was back in December of 2008,
right before Bush was leaving.

[TheBigotBasher]

51. Exactly the point Frenchie

x

[Little Star]

6. Worse off. Can't even hardly afford to go grocery shopping....

But those rich must have their tax breaks and we must have our wars, etc., etc.

[TorchTheWitch]

7. WAY worse

Like my whole life feel in the toilet.

[Liberal_in_LA]

29. awwwwww

:hug:

[TorchTheWitch]

50. blub, blub, blub, splutter, gurgle, blub, blub

Sometimes if ya don't laugh ya cry.

Thanks so much for the hug.

[lutefisk]

8. Are you kidding- I'm a Wisconsin State Employee!

:hi: :cry:

[Sabriel]

34. Me, too, and next year I'll be much worse than four years ago. n/t

[nemo137]

9. I'm employed and no longer suicidal.

Yeah, I'm doing way better.

[elocs]

10. I was far better off 4 years ago, and far better off than that 8 years ago. n/t

[wickerwoman]

11. Not really.

On the plus side, I'm no longer borderline homeless and crashing with family. But that's because of student loans, not because I could find a job. I sort of have health insurance now (and didn't then) but again, it's because I'm a student and had to take out loans to pay for it. If the university didn't require it, I still wouldn't have insurance.

I guess it all depends on the job market when I graduate (in November :scared: )

I like the reforms to the student loan act that limit how much of my income they can go after, and the new online system for loans is awesome... really easy to see exactly how much you owe and when payments are due. Much easier to use and more transparent than the old system. He's done a great job of bringing govt IT into the 21st century. The IRS site is another example.

But a lot of the big stuff hasn't been resolved.
We're still in Iraq. Health care reform was inadequate- we need single payer. The Patriot Act hasn't been repealed and Gitmo is still open for business. Obama hasn't done enough to speak out against torture. I strongly resent the fact that Obama extended the Bush taxcuts while "investigating" social security. "Shared sacrifice" by any objective standard has not been shared at all. And he has his head up his ass about education reform.

So yeah, I'm about the same as I was 4 years ago. I know where my next meal is coming from, but I'm a lot deeper in debt. I can't point to many things Obama has done that have specifically made my life any better.

[crazyjoe]

12. I was doing GREAT 4 years ago, and i still AM!!!!!

[abelenkpe]

13. Same.

pretty much. No raises and increased costs of reduced benefits, higher school costs for kids....but that's pretty much san=me as last 11 years so...

I worry about this though:

GEAB N53
http://www.leap2020.eu/Global-systemic-crisis-Second-half-of-2011-Get-ready-for-the-meltdown-of-the-US-Treasury-Bond-market_a6091.html


Beyond its tragic human consequences (1), the terrible disaster that has just hit Japan weakens the shaky US Treasury Bond market a little more. In the GEAB No. 52, our team had already explained how the sequence of Arab revolutions, this fall of the “petro-dollar” wall (2), would translate during 2011 into the cessation of the massive purchases of US Treasury Bonds by the Gulf States. In this issue, we anticipate that the sudden shock experienced by the Japanese economy will lead not only to the halt in US T-Bond purchases by Japan, but it will force the authorities in Tokyo to make substantial sales of a significant portion of their US Treasury Bond reserves to finance the enormous cost of stabilization, reconstruction and revival of the Japanese economy (3).

(snip)

But beyond the Japanese and Arab shocks (see GEAB N°52 ), the process of US Federal debt market implosion in the second half of 2011 is accelerating under the effect of four other events:

. the introduction of budget austerity in the US (as anticipated in GEAB No. 47) which condemns US local authorities to a major crisis in the market for their debt ("Munis")
. impossible for the Fed to introduce QE3
. the inevitable rise in interest rates against a backdrop of global inflation
. the end of safe-haven status for the US currency.

Of course, these events are related and, characteristic of a major crisis, we are entering a period that will see a mutual strengthening of their effects, leading to this sudden shock in the second quarter of 2011. Incidentally, we could add a fifth event: the complete decisional paralysis of the US powers. The daily confrontation on virtually all subjects, between Republicans (hardened by the "Tea Parties") and Democrats (demoralized by an Obama administration that has betrayed the substance of its campaign promises (7)), tends to show, a little more each day, that Washington has become a sort of "Ship of Fools ", tossed about by events, without any strategy, without willpower, incapable of action(8); in other words, according to LEAP/E2020, when the US Treasury Bond collapse begins, one cannot expect anything from Washington other than a colossal squawking that will only worsen the crisis.

(more at link)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prolly just crazy stuff though, right? That couldn't really happen, yeah? Someone talk me down....cause if the global economy goes the way these cats think and misery really does increase that much then it is folly to think our Pres is a shoe in for 2012. Please tell me this is nutty!

Someone....?

Anyone....?

[etherealtruth]

14. The same

Still managing to hold our heads above water ... no more no less

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

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

[Hissyspit]

16. Honestly?

No.

[Warpy]

17. By 2012, I'll be able to say yes

but 4 years ago was 2007 and the peak of the market was just about to happen. I only felt rich for about a nanosecond and by 2008, it all fell apart.

2007 wasn't the bad year unless you were a crooked mortgage company or had bought a house at the peak of the market through a crooked mortgage company. Even then, you likely had a couple of years before the bottom had fallen out completely, you were out of work, and there is no way you could afford balloon payments or resell the property to some other sucker. One crooked mortgage company went under and the big one, Countrywide, came very close to bankrupting in August, 2007.

Next year, we'll all be able to say we're better off in some ways.

[tblue]

18. Worse. House is worth less. Health ins has doubled

Discouraged about this country's future and don't know what will make it better.

[CTyankee]

You and me both! Same thing. Also husband was laid off in 2009 and no job yet.

Still, I can't feel hopeless. I must look beyond the hopeless thing because all it does is make me angry and anxious and then hysterical. I can't do that anymore without hurting my health so I won't. I'll just keep my chin up and keep going...

[genna]

19. No. The hope has left the building. I am tightly hanging onto the belief he is better than W

[xphile]

20. Not at all. I had a job 4 years ago.

Now I'm a student because I got laid off. It's only a matter of time until I blow through my savings and have to either live in my car or try to see if a relative will put me up.

Getting this degree is the only hope I have for the future and I still have a ways to go before that happens assuming I can find a job when I'm done.

So no I'm not better off than I was four years ago and as a 99er I know exactly how much of a fuck the politicians give to my plight.

Nope not better off at all.

[ecstatic]

21. Yes and No... This time 4 yrs ago was shortly before the economy tanked

That was before the housing market collapsed, and my home value plummeted and everyone started going into foreclosure. Everything is the same (still have my house) but technically I'm underwater and overpaying. The housing market hasn't recovered yet. I need to refinance. If I didn't have a home tying me down, hell yeah I'd be way better off.

Other than that, I am good. I am so happy Obama is President right now--so I guess you could say that I'm better off as far as sanity.

[golddigger]

22. Hell no!

[Cali_Democrat]

23. Yes

I am better off.

[cbdo2007]

24. Yes, significantly better.

[FarLeftRage]

25. No....

Four years ago, I was working, had health care and my relatives still living.

Now, I am facing 29 months of being unemployed, 9 months without health care and my Mom and most of her family no longer living...

[Common Sense Party]

26. Yes, better off.

I don't know how much of that I would attribute to any politician.

[Canuckistanian]

27. Yes

But I live in Canada.

[Obamanaut]

28. Yes. nt

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

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

[wickerwoman]

31. Hang in there...

You're one of the decent ones and God knows we need you!

:hug:

[TNLib]

Not really

my income has actually dropped but my husband is now working so it kind of makes up for it. But I work more for less basically.

[TNLib]

32. Not really

my income has actually dropped but my husband is now working so it kind of makes up for it. But I work more for less basically.

[jwirr]

33. Only because I took a "poor man's" bankruptcy and used the money

I get from SSA?SSI to pay for an apartment instead of a cc payment. So I am not really better off just not homeless anymore.

[Urban Prairie]

35. I am better off AND am worse off at the same time

Our house was in foreclosure at this time four years ago, my wife had been unemployed for 11 months, with no extension after six, even though our state already was deep and well into a recession, that the Bush administration hid, and that we were going to enter by the end of the year. I was recovering from surgery for an illness that rendered me disabled, and had not received a penny of income for about a year...other than what I was earning at the time by selling off my extensive music collection on eBay and by the fall of '07, my wife and I were evicted from my home of 12 years.

Since then, I was approved for SSD and a partial disability pension from my ex-employer, that combined, total about 40% of what I had been earning when I became ill. My wife has not been able to find steady work after her job was outsourced, and other than a PT minimum wage job two years ago, that lasted about 8 months, she has since had zero income.

She was advised by her physician to apply for SSD last spring, due to being diagnosed with moderate to severe fibromyalgia and cervical stenosis/arthritis, of which she has received treatment over the span of 8 years. then waited until fall to apply, despite my nagging her to do so, she then received a rejection letter from SS last month, as apparently her physician's office staff failed to supply SS with her files. Had she applied soon after he first told her to do so, perhaps she would not have been rejected. I am of course, upset with her (as it will become more clear why below), and her doctor and his staff... :(

She also needs to re-apply for Medicaid, but she is VERY stubborn (further below explains why) and refuses to do so, since she had been receiving it for about four months two years ago, after which she was dropped for some reason, that she claims has to do with my income being too high. However, due to the fact that her meds and office visits costs us about $350.00 per month, plus my RX, office visit deductibles, and co-pays, for a total of about $470.00 which I believe that we now fall under the "medically needy" portion of Medicaid, dropping us below the max threshold to qualify. She has also become a more and more frequent binge drinking alcoholic since she lost her career job. She has been mixing very strong pain meds with her booze, which could become lethal at any time, and she desperately needs to get into a rehab program. With no money and no insurance, there is a 3 month wait for a bed with an organization in our region, that will help her free of charge from donations.

[femmocrat]

36. About the same? More or less...

I am making more, thanks to my union-negotiated contract, but my husband is making less because he works part-time and recently had his hours cut.

So probably about the same.

[Sisaruus]

37. Much better.

4 years ago I was coming out of a divorce and moving into a forced early retirement. Today, I've got a new job I love, my income has doubled and my post-divorce debt load is almost completely gone.

And I'm happpily single.

[Kat45]

38. No. I haven't had a steady job for over two years.

I'm much worse off and getting quite worried about the future.

[Incitatus]

39. Yes, I got a great deal on a new house.

Of course, many others didn't fare so well due to the circumstances that made it possible.

[shanti]

40. no

but i retired in december, so it was expected.

[NYC_SKP]

41. Much better than four years ago.

Not sure I would attribute much of it to the white house, though.

[jillan]

42. MUCH worse. I am a progressive living in Arizona.

[Poll_Blind]

43. No.

PB

[Zoeisright]

44. NO.

Of course, many people weren't better off in 2004 than they were in 2000, and that didn't make any difference.

[nc4bo]

45. No. Prices keep rising, we pay less taxes one way only for our states or counties to raise

them on something else.

Here's a NC soon to be classic about people's electric bills being doubled by the electric company. The CEO tells them to manage their power consumption better :wtf: - their bill has nothing to do with their useage.:

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/9288962/

Jobs are few and far between and the ones we manage to get are way small. Met a lady over a $7.19+tax pound of Oscar Meyer bacon and she sounded very much like we do here on DU. Pissed isn't the word for it!

Times suck royally but we're managing to keep our nostrils just above waterline but I know others are having an even more difficult time.

[cutlassmama]

46. mega better

[REP]

47. Way better. Just bought a house even.

[Rex]

48. Better. Gas prices are up, but not like they were under W.

I don't know if I am any healthier living as close to the BP disaster as I do, but so far so good.

[KG]

49. nope. lost job in housing bust. not sure when it will recover in FL, prolly years.

i'm over 50. i basically have no future.

[NorthCarolina]

52. Without health insurance since last rate increase in January; so, no. nt

[TheKentuckian]

53. Worse off than four years ago for sure. I'm down to about half income and very job insecure with no

benefits.

Doing better relationship-wise but that is offset by losing my mother recently and having my family falling apart at the seams.

The whole last decade has been a merry go round of building my self up and then riding companies down. The wage destruction is hellish and loss of benefits is worse.

[Marrah_G]

54. Yes and no

My living situation is better, I went from being the only adult to being one of 5 adults. However, My boss has mortgaged his home trying to keep the company afloat during this depression and frankly come June I might find myself jobless. Food is more costly, gas is more costly. I don't think things will improve any time soon.

[spanone]

55. yes

[Safetykitten]

56. No.

[bluestate10]

57. Yes. Waayyyy better off. nt

[walldude]

58. Not even close.

And it's getting worse fast. But hey, it's not the Democrats fault, they did everything in their power to help the people of America while standing up to Republicans and corporations. :rofl: :rofl:

[derby378]

59. Much, much worse

My wife is dead, I lost my job, I have no health insurance, and the temp job I have now doesn't pay anywhere near what I used to make - it keeps the lights on and keeps the kitty fed, but not much else.