Posted on 07/16/2008 11:50:04 AM PDT by JZelle
Where will you be in five years? Many claim the American dream has died. Earnings have supposedly stagnated, even while corporate profits boom and health coverage disappears. Most Americans believe the economy is in a recession. Pick up any newspaper, and it seems the days when most Americans could work hard and expect to get ahead are over.
But look more closely at the polls. They show most Americans think it's harder for other Americans to get ahead, but that they personally will be better off in the future. How can most Americans believe opportunities are vanishing for others but not for themselves?
Partly because the economy faces many real challenges. The rising price of gas is one, obviously. And food is more expensive - partly because of laws that call for turning one-eighth of the global corn crop into ethanol.
Reports that most Americans are not getting ahead mesh with their daily financial pain. But despite these problems, few believe they have no chance of getting ahead. And they're right. The claim that working Americans are falling behind has little factual basis.
Take workers' earnings. We often hear they've stagnated over the last eight years, but that's not true. Yes, the growth of cash wages has slowed since the tech bubble burst. However, a third of workers' earnings comes in the form of benefits, such as paid time off, retirement plans and health insurance. The average American's total hourly earnings have risen 17 percent over the last eight years. The typical employee today earns 20 percent more paid time off, 33 percent more in retirement benefits and 50 percent more in health benefits per hour worked than in 2000.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
“Where will you be in five years?”
Out of California, I hope.
I think we headed for a Depression, but hardly anyone wants to say the "D-word" for fear of provoking a panic.
My savings have taken a hit (gone from six grand to a little under four), but that’s mainly because I finally moved out of my parent’s house and am living in my own apartment.
I pull about a thousand a month, with about seven hundred going to rent and whatnot, leaving me around four hundred for myself. I’ve talked to some people at work, many making more than I do, and they either don’t have any saved up or not as much as I do (I’ve found one person so far who has more saved up than I do). All in all, I think I’m doing pretty good for a guy my age.
And in five years, I hope to be either a firefighter or an EMT.
As similar as this crisis is to 1929 — credit crisis, MASSIVE debt at all levels leveraged well out of proportion to any assets or earnings — I just can’t mentally bring myself to accept the possibility of a depression. For me, it is like trying to imagine being dead or flying without wings. It is this far-off, shadowy ghoul that I just can’t let get within arms distance.
I know history repeats. I am not so dense as to be in the camp that thinks our government overlords have such mastery of finance that a depression is no longer possible. I think a depression is possible and this crisis has all the makings of one. I just can’t bring myself to accept the possibility. I expect a long, deep recession, high unemployment, stagnant economy, lots of high-profile bank failures, and a housing market that won’t recover or another decade (I said “recover”, not “bottom”.)
I just can’t mentally accept the real possibility of a full out and out depression. I’m in denial about that.
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