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Are you better off now than you were four years ago? (I count now as election day.)
On the weekend talk shows the Obama people seemed reluctant to take this question on. They are more agreeable to answering it on TV today.
There are at least two ways to interpret this "you": personally or nationally.
Personally:
Four years ago: One of the two earners in our family was retired and the other was contemplating retirement. Our retirement accounts had just plummeted in value by about 25%.
Now: Our retirement accounts are significantly up from what they were BEFORE the drop four years ago. We felt like we were OK enough that the second earner was able to retire. Consequently, our income is a bit down in retirement as we always expected it would be.
Nationally:
Four years ago: All of the smart guys said that we were staring into the abyss of another great depression.
The causes included our irresponsible financial behavior which the politicians seemed to think they could fix with smoke and mirrors.
Now: The joint actions of Bush and Obama converted the (real or imagined) depression into the great recession from which we are slowly recovering. A lot of individuals are still hurting. However, even some politicians are starting to acknowledge that our irresponsible financial behavior cannot be fixed with smoke and mirrors. So overall it looks better.
Therefore with either interpretation of the question my answer is: yes.
.
Are you better off now than you were four years ago? (I count now as election day.)
On the weekend talk shows the Obama people seemed reluctant to take this question on. They are more agreeable to answering it on TV today.
There are at least two ways to interpret this "you": personally or nationally.
Personally:
Four years ago: One of the two earners in our family was retired and the other was contemplating retirement. Our retirement accounts had just plummeted in value by about 25%.
Now: Our retirement accounts are significantly up from what they were BEFORE the drop four years ago. We felt like we were OK enough that the second earner was able to retire. Consequently, our income is a bit down in retirement as we always expected it would be.
Nationally:
Four years ago: All of the smart guys said that we were staring into the abyss of another great depression.
The causes included our irresponsible financial behavior which the politicians seemed to think they could fix with smoke and mirrors.
Now: The joint actions of Bush and Obama converted the (real or imagined) depression into the great recession from which we are slowly recovering. A lot of individuals are still hurting. However, even some politicians are starting to acknowledge that our irresponsible financial behavior cannot be fixed with smoke and mirrors. So overall it looks better.
Therefore with either interpretation of the question my answer is: yes.
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