Posted on 05/11/2006 11:54:32 AM PDT by AzNASCARfan
/sarcasm... (but I got you to look)
I saw this thread on DU and felt compelled to respond to it,
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1154762#1155046
but since I dont have an account there, my response is posted here. I am confident they will find it as my challenge earlier in the week was posted there with a few minutes.
The following is the DUmmie's original post:
Yesterday I heard Sean Hannity ask this question. 'Why don't people see that the economy is doing well?'
Well, here's why Sean.
Then
Under Clinton (before YOUR President) the economy was thriving and most people were making lots of many.
Three Years Ago
Many of those people were looking for jobs; which means that many were out of work for a long period of time. If they found a job, it was probably less than they were making prior to Bush's recession.
Now (In your great new economy)
Let's look at how people's incomes have changed over the past years. If they haven't lost their job.
1) Those lower salaries are still the same.
2) Minimum wage hasn't gone up in 9 years.
3) Most people are spending anywhere from $40-$100 more a month on gas.
4) YOUR Republican tax cuts are giving people about ~$4 more a month.
5) The only extra money people have made has been thru home equity loans, but...
6) Now they might have $1,500 a month in a mortgage payment instead of $750 (new home purchases), and that ARM they got is hurting them because of higher interest rates.
7) Tuitions, Grocery costs, and Healthcare costs have all gone up. etc, etc, etc...
Oh yeah, I forgot about the great 'screw those in need' Republican bankruptcy plan.
The point is people's financial lives have either stayed the same or, in most cases, gotten worse. They really don't care that the super rich and corporations are making huge profits Sean.
6 years ago
I gave up being self employed, so I could try to dig myself out of the hole I created while being self employed. I went to work in the office of my primary client. At the time the office consisted of my boss, one other structural engineer and myself. Today besides the boss, we have 3 engineers, two cad drafters, 4 field inspectors and a secretary... are these low paying jobs?? ONLY the secretary and she gets almost double what minimum wage is!
Three Years ago
My alcoholic friend got fired from his job and somehow managed to improve his pay scale when he found a job the week after his unemployment ran out.
NOW (under the Bush economy)
1) I have gotten a buck an hour raise since I started in 2000, actually I have gotten an average of a buck an hour since I started drafting in 1984 except the 6 years I was self employed (1994-2000)
2) No minimum wage has not gone up and it should not, it is meant for entry level jobs (read students) and not intended to live on or raise a family! My oldest son will be 18 in August and working at the same restaurant for just over two years. Started at minimum wage and just got a raise to either $7 or $7.50 an hour... Wow why did they give him a raise when they did not have too?? More than enough money for a student living at home!
(3) compared to what?? As I said in my "What have YOU done to decrease the amount of gasoline you use" post, I am spending much less now, even with gas costing much more!
(4) Thank you G.W.B.!
(5) I can make extra money whenever I want by just taking on extra "side" work that I continually turn down, because I choose to spend the time with my family.
(6) I just refinanced our house last summer and took 30k out to put on a new roof and do some badly needed remodling. I did a 20 year loan so I did not add years to how long it would take to pay it off. Our payment went from $640 to $980. That $980 would have been much less if we had some credit, but since dont have any credit cards or car payments and we bought the house from a private party and paid them, instead of a bank, we had absolutely ZERO credit. We paid $59,900 for it 10 years ago and it appraised at $124k last year. The lender offered us an ARM three different times and the third time I told them either give me a fixed rate loan or quit wasting my time, I wont sign any papers for any ARM!
(7) Tuition has gone up continually for ever. I paid $4000 for my tech. school education in 1983, when I got out in 1984 the same class was $5500. My grocery budget has gone up about $20 a month each year, for the past few years... since my boys hit their teens. Healthcare costs SUCK, but I saw a story on the news last night that said because so many people have refused to pay high health insurance premiums that they are actually headed down because of competition.
we had lived paycheck to paycheck since our first son was born in 1988. It was sometime about a year or two ago that I finally started having a few bucks left in my account when I got paid... not alot, but something. Not to mention somehow in the past few years I have managed to accumulate at least a little bit in a 401k account, for the first time ever.
ibtz
Don't pollute FR with DU nonsense. I mean, you can't catch crazy, but it sure is annoying.
Wait a second, did you get that post from the DU or from some protectionist tread?
Looks like Willie Green landed on his feet.
The sad fact? This is a Loser with a capital L who blames a scorching hot economy because HE can't achive success. Truth hurts.
"you can't catch crazy,".....Cum'on, U jus red the evidens
Well, the Bush economy is certainly working MUCH better for us.
But to be honest, it probably has more to do with us making better decisions for ourselves.
Looks like you did a fine job dealing with the professionally unemployed. These people are not happy unless everything is handed to them. Having to work for anything is considered demeaning.
.. and companies getting back on their feet and profitable.
This DUer must have missed the "Money Bad" meeting.
Some people have a knack for creating a little bubble of economic depression around themselves, no matter how much economic booming surrounds them. Just a day or two ago, I was reading yet another "news" story about NYC landlords begging to be allowed to increase rents to cover their costs. Among the "oppressed" tenants was a guy living in an apartment at about half it's market rate, and describing himself as a "musician" -- said they mustn't be allowed to raise rents, because he just didn't know how he could make ends meet if his rent went up. TRY GETTING A REAL JOB, LOSER!
Ok, well, that too. ; ).
He WON'T achieve success, which is very different from "can't".
Let's see:
- Personal income rose 0.5 percent in March after rising 0.3 percent in February, according to estimates released today (May 1, 2006) by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Over the past twelve months, personal income has risen 5.6 percent.
Doesn't sound like incomes are going down to me.
-
My tax cuts are giving allowing me to keep much more than $4 of my own money every month. Not to mention making my investments much more valuable.
If the economy improves any more, I'm gonna have to hire even more folks. My staff has "only" tripled in 18 months.
What does it say about a person in the US who can not find a job or want to work when 95.3 people out of 100 can and do?
hmm.. where to start... during the 90's we had this thing called the dot com.. I know I took advantage of it... Clinton had nothing to do with it. There was mad money flying around. But, all good things must come to an end.. the dot bomb. companies went out of biz and big companies (cisco) ate their shorts. Clinton had nothing(relatively speaking) on the dot com burst and gwb is not really responsible for the fall that happened after that. That's the way capitalism and big biz work.
He may be back on his feet, but his head is still you know where.
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