Money – Offering the gloomiest assessment of personal economic progress in close to half a century, a new survey has found that most Americans think they have not made economic progress over the past five years, as their incomes have stagnated and they have increasingly borrowed money to finance their lifestyles.
"Borrow money to maintain their lifestyles" is a key phrase that concerns me.More and more Americans are borrowing just to survive.I just hope this economy can prop up long enough so people can readjust out of debt and see a future.
The question that scares me the most is, Is the middle class a dying breed and how will "middle class" be defined?
Sometimes maintaining a lifestyle can simply mean NOT ending up under a viaduct in a refrigerator box.
Very well put.I know I'm coming from a lower income perspective but am seeing more and more people in the situation you just mentioned.
But even from my perspective I also see families trying to live frugally while making a combined income of maybe 15 bucks an hour also.Glum is a mild word.
And if we listen to our benevolent gov't say things like not spending more than 1/4 of your income on housing the math just doesn't work.And saving for a future.How?Food,shelter and clothing is about all if any the newer middle class can handle.
Sadly, saving has almost become a thing of the past, more and more i find myself having to dip into savings for the simplest of things, like food! The cost of food is going through the roof right now, and as long as gas prices continue to rise, i don't see any relief in sight.
I don't see any relieve either. That's why I mentioned working people and add in childcare it doesn't pay to work.
And where I volunteer we're seeing a huge increase of HARD working poor. In three months we've increased from 1000 to 3200 families a month and their projecting 4200 this month.
We are about to open a 690,000 sq. ft. facility(Huge)and already expecting it to be to small.Of course were Christian but feed anyone one but I always tell them when your starving Christ is someone to cling to and with a full belly is someone to follow.I'd rather have someone follow.
I didn't know you did volunteer work rdy, GOOD FOR YOU!! What do you do? Is it a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen for the needy?
I haven't been able to go lately but I sure miss it.It is a catch all thru my church. We're 12,000(most people think uh-oh mega-rip off) but we do everything from childcare, self-help classes and so many things it would take too long. This new Healing Center we want to be a one stop shop for all needs.
But were a church that runs by dimes. It takes 1200-1500 people a week to keep the church up and 1000 have volunteered for the New Center.Me?I'm technically on a "prayer team" but my calling is just to go around the mobs seeking food just being the shoulder to cry on, the listener, hanging on to somebodies kids while they get through the mess.Prayers are great but a lot of people just need to unload and get things off there chests.
But I need to get better. The Lord has answered my prayer and somehow lifted me up out of 12,000 and is going to institute a new minitry called "The Listening Post."(cont'd)
You are always so pleasant i wasn't aware that you were ill either rdy. So sorry to hear that, get well soon my friend. Take care of yourself.
Thanks for the concern. Mines degenerative but my blessings are many. I have a roof, I eat, I have internet(LOL).Looks like my other post didn't go.
But I miss most is walking the walk(Christs). "Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men."
I lived with a homeless vet for 2 weeks in the winter and in the worst ghetto for a month because I figured how can I talk without showing.I love the Church because they understand me because I'd rather let them know that they are loved and if the Lord wants to call them he will.
The worst was when I went to Mexicos garbage dump cities.The other missionaries at the end of the day would go back to tents.Not me. I stayed in the garbage they did. But the hardest thing was not to cry. It was a huge insult.I would shove myself up at night against the garbage and shudder and the mother would pat me singing until I went to sleep..
"Small Things done with Great Love will change the World."-Mother Teresa
My husband has degenerative bone disease. He is in a lot of pain a lot of the time. He had to have hip replacements at an early age. The Dr's seem to think that it could be because he was a paratrooper and jumped out of heliocopters over Nam, and the stress caused damage to his hips and ankles.
Mother Teresa is so very right.
N2N,
I can remember when a bank rep came to my 4th grade class to offer us the opportunity to open a savings account. That savings account paid 5 1/4% compounded annually.
Back to the present, one cannot find a bank providing these rates for your savings. The reasons are very obvious; deregulation. Now many banks offer everything but savings accounts. The free toaster? That's the slow burn one does every time your job's anniversary comes up and your raise is an "atta boy, you can keep your job for another day....maybe."
Banks now do offer their customers a wide and varied assortment of fees that you can choose from.
wlden,
Ever try negotiating a better deal?
For all the deregulation, a system exists that precludes any "free market" ideals when its your money versus the banks. It's all been a lot of lip service paid to the capitalist system and free market ideas as the backbone of American economics. There are so few, if any, independent banks that are ready willing and able make deals for the common folk.
Besides, banks are supposed deal with people's money, not insurance, travel, and anything else.
When it costs more to live than people can now earn, it can get depressing. The disparity between the haves and the have-nots is getting wider and was one of the reasons for the great depression of 1929.
Some good comments above, thanks to all!
Thanks not2needy!
thank you tex, always good to see you.
Can anyone believe that CAT7 thought it was a good idea to neg me telling tex that it was good to see her.
That has to be one of the pettiest people that comes into this site.
Can anyone believe that CAT7 thought it was a good idea to neg me telling tex that it was good to see her.
N2N CAT7 has this need to neg anyone who says something sensible or nice
We have had our differences on other threads, but on this one I agree fully with anything you have said
Ace I agree with her too, So don't feel like the lone ranger. Except about the negs. If anyone disagrees they have the right to show their disagreement. Oh I guess that negs the agreement.LOL
Hiya ranch!
I don't have a problem with negs, if i or anyone says something you or i disagree with, that's what the comment ratings are there for.
But to neg a statement like, "nice to see you tex" lol.. it's really funny, i have to laugh about it because it just so silly.
But hey, maybe CAT7 doesn't think seeing tex is nice, ROFL!
I don't even look at the pos/negs. Who cares what strangers think about you? If CAT7 is a jerk why do you wants its approval anyways? Wear the neg proudly.
I don't care walden3, just pointing out CAT7's pettiness.
I'm with both of you but admit I've been looking lately being nosey(LOL).I got me my very own personal stalker like a chihuahua.I take him out and walk him once a day,feed him and spank him when he's bad.
And I do walk him proudly walden because he negs me because I refuse to hate.:)That's a pretty good neg.
LOL They have their marching orders from the GOP, neg any comment made by anyone who posts as a liberal.
or vice a versa:)Personally I neg anyone who doesn't think EXACTLY like I do.LOL
Those of us who are on a fixed income or who are disabled and receiving SSD, we have been hit real hard. These are hard times. Without a sufficient cost of living increase for many years and with the increased cost of food and gas, we are having tough time keeping food on the table.
Shopping for food has become a depressing task. We have given up eating foods that we used to be able to afford regularly. I'm diabetic and get not eat too many carbohydrates, which tend to cost less.
It is sad to see that we have followed in the footsteps of the former Soviet Union. I used to think about what it cost to buy a piece of fruit in Russia -- back in the 70's and 80's. Now, the cost of an apple or a tomato, a loaf of bread, flour, ... it's insane. It's shameful.
I can't even think about this subject too long because it sickens me. But, thanks for posting a story that needs to be addressed openly. Millions of Americans are hurting financially and the worst has yet to come.
I hear ya SC, and i'm right there with you! Disabled, on SSD, both my husband and i, but we both have a retirement from our jobs as well, which helps soooooo much. I thank God for having the wisdom to stay on my old sucky job.
:)people don't understand me n2n when I say I'd give anything to work.I'd work 80 hrs a week in a sewer to do so.But unfortunately I do know some people who are on SSI for no reason and sit on there butt and enjoy it.
I'm real sticky about be a fink but a couple of times I got so mad because I figured they were bringing in 25 bucks an hour on the side and what happens. Nothing.
You gave me a pulpit n2n(LOL).The above is not about me or even Jesus. The pointis we all can do a "small thing."Make someone smile.Hold a door open for somebody.Leave your change at the gas station. Just little things add up
What do you expect? Dollar lost about half of it's value. EUro was 76cents to 1USD. Now 1EURO to 1.56USD. We have mad man in the whitehouse, who spends like drunken sailor. We are in the fiscal disaster, our trade deals working not in our favor.
Bush response is trade deal with Colombia. Time to pull out of WTO, and nafta. Any future trade agreements should be equally profitable.
I agree Spade. I can't believe how much produce is costing these days. I told my wife that we may have to begin cutting down on our purchases of freshies.
If you are able to garden I highly recommend it - you get exercise, it helps to relax, get outside in the fresh air, help the earth and get some homegrown tasties too. It's way easy to grow one or two tomato plants and be careful of zucchinis because they will take over.
BTW everyone is on a fixed income. There are very few who really have the ability to increase their income.
This explains part of the problem with the spiraling cost of fresh fruit and vegetables:
My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)
As a small organic vegetable producer in southern Minnesota, I know this because my efforts to expand production to meet regional demand have been severely hampered by the Agriculture Department's commodity farm program. As I've looked into the politics behind those restrictions, I've come to understand that this is precisely the outcome that the program's backers in California and Florida have in mind: they want to snuff out the local competition before it even gets started.
Last year, knowing that my own 100 acres wouldn't be enough to meet demand, I rented 25 acres on two nearby corn farms. I plowed under the alfalfa hay that was established there, and planted watermelons, tomatoes and vegetables for natural-food stores and a community-supported agriculture program.
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94)
FTA:
As many Americans struggle with declining housing values, increasing food and energy prices and growing unemployment after a long period of flat wages, well over half of respondents said they are either losing ground economically or are stuck in the same place, according to the report released today by the Pew Research Center. Only four in 10 said they have moved forward in the past five years -- a record low, Pew says, and far off the record 57 percent who in 1997 said they had moved forward in the previous five years.
Pretty bleak picture.
Just about everyone was doing better in the 90's. It's really sad to read and hear that people have lost hope of getting ahead and the only thing they can think about IS keeping their head above the water now. I know quite a few people who are barely and I mean barely making it and sadly a few friends who have lost the fight to stay a float. I hope things improve before to long.
Yes, it's sad, and i know a lot of people who are in the same shape.
I am so glad my husband and i planned for our retirement, but if something happened to one or the other of us right now, i don't know if the one left could hang on with the way things are!
Scary times we are living in right now.
This mess has been in the making since around 1970, when China started their currency manipulation gambit and they started getting support from the US presidency (Nixon & Clinton, to name a couple - Nixon for recognizing red China instead of Taiwan as a legitimate trading partner, Clinton for selling off missile technology). It accelerated in 1984 when France attacked and took over the only profitable export center in the US - the US chemical industry (through it's so-called national champions). And furthermore, the dollar has been artifically propped up for over a decade to make sure that when our currency crash came it would be too abrupt for us (the middle class especially) to adapt to economically through retraining and increased investment. In addition, the school system in the US was under attack from the early 1900s in an attempt to make socialism appealing to the citizenry through miseducation (artificial ignorance). Had enough yet, or should I ask in 2 years?
My one disagreement with the article is that I think our children will have it worse than we did. With diminishing oil reserves, energy costs will continue to rise. I don't see us going any faster into alternative energy sources very soon, which will hurt them in the long run.
The US is continuing to overreach itself, and it won't get better with passing time. These wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and fighting terrorism are taking their toll on us financially. Our children will be paying dearly for our mistakes. It's too bad.
Very True.
Oh republican economy keeps getting better and better everyday.
You borrow and then spend spend spend, and spend some more. After all it is so important to spend billion/week to patrol streets of Iraq.
Nothing wrong with $4/gal price of gas - it is economy stupid. Rule of supply and demand. It is a perfect republican economy: everything produced in china, all engineering - china, IT - india. US just need fast food workers and CEOs.
And let's face it it will not get better. CEOs making too much money on china. They will get the best government money can buy. Keep voting same old crooks. Heck McCain proposes to cut corporate taxes! Wow in fiscal crisis!
It's not a Republican economy, it's an economy from ALL of the crooks in China.
It started when Clinton started giving the Chinese money and technology while passing NAFTA letting all of our corporations go to Mexico. We just started seeing the results of it during Bush.
All of our economic problems started in 1996 under a Democratic President with a Republican Congress. They continued in 2000 with a Republican President and a Republican Congress. They still continue now with a Republican President and a Democrat congress. Next year, when Barry is president and has a Democratic Congress they will still continue.
Anyone who thinks that anyone currently in Washington is going to fix the economy overnight and undue 16 consectutive years of bad economic policy is a serious sheep.