When I think back to "between 2001 and 2008", I think of huge flat panel tv's, fancy cell phones and video games and computers, bigger and fancier houses, shiny new SUV's, granite countertops and "professional " appliances, fabulous vacations, even StartBucks Coffee. It was by far the most prosperous time this country has ever seen! It seemed like, overnight, a lot of ordinary people started making enormous salaries. Investment opportunities were rampant, the market was hitting a new high every week. (Don't post back to me and say, not you. You had to have noticed how good things were for a large part of the population.)
The bush years were incrEdible. Best years of my life.
Even Obummer agrees with you. That is why he constantly tells us that we need to cut back on those items to fully appreciate his vision of America. Unemployment checks, Food Stamps and the Chevy Volt.