<p>Resume grumbling about how everything sucks.</p>
<p>Just paid $1.89 a gallon for gas. Unemployment at 5%. 215,000 jobs added in November. Looking forward to reading all about it on the front page of the NYT…oh, nevermind. Silly me. Probably didn’t meet economists’ expectations.</p>
<p>Cutting taxes and free markets work. Somewhere Howard Dean and Pinch Sulzberger are crying.</p>
<p>How nice for both of you that you are financially secure and satisfied.</p>
<p>Cheapest gasoline yesterday for me $2.49 at Cosco. </p>
<p>Husband had to “let go” two valued employees last week. They were making somewhere in the $50,000 range. His investment firm’s haunchos with their seven-figure salaries thought the company could gain a few dollars by eliminating support staff. More restructuring coming down after the holidays. (Company making very good profits - it makes my husband ill)</p>
<p>Worked at an event downtown Los Angeles last month for a benetit run. Estimates of over a million homeless downtown. </p>
<p>Cutting taxes to the bone works for the halves. Congratulations on being one of the halves. Anyone who thinks our economy is in great shape isn’t paying attention. Medicare and SS will be cut next to pay for the war and the deficit. Lucky you, you won’t have to worry!</p>
<p>Tell it to the GM, and Merck employees and their families this Christmas. My gas prices are still 50 cents higher than last year. And Alan Greenspan is wondering if the failure of the Republicans to pay for their oil war will tank the world economy.</p>
<p>Social Security was first raided to pay for Vietnam. </p>
<p>I have to worry - I’m paying 6% of everything I make for “my retirement,” which went from a self-funding means of insuring against old age into a pyramid scheme - and my generation is at the bottom. Y’all aren’t the ones worrying about that - and y’all are at least going to do better than a 0% return on your contributions.</p>
<p>Are there any Libertarians out there?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Bush’s Fault, all of it.</p>
<p>gas in Sammamish is $2.51
costco gas probably cheapest in area is $2.15</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So, why don’t Americans actually FEEL BETTER about the economy??? Because they have no more money in their pockets than last year!! With health care way up (our family health care expenses went up $5,000 last year - that’s our new out-of-pocket before any insurance kicks in), tuition increases (!), gas and heating way up – and with a Congress who simply DOES NOT CARE about issues regular families are facing – it’s no wonder nobody’s celebrating.</p>
<p>And don’t you just love Bush trying to make us all feel good with 10 more Marines dead? The creep.</p>
<p>
Just read the article that you posted for your answer. With a frontal attack by the Democrats and the media about how bad things are (whether true or not - doesn’t matter) and the obvious attempt by the media to shroud any attempt by the administration to announce good news with a barrage of bad news, is it any wonder why people think things are bad? An interesting poll result that seldom gets reported is that when most people are asked how their personal economic conditions are, they respond that things are going well. However, when asked how the country is doing economically, they have a more negative view. This can be nothing but good news for the Dems who see that their doom and gloom PR effort is working.</p>
<p>If only taxes had been cut to the bone. Unfortunately they haven’t been cut enough. Taxes have been cut, yet tax revenues have expanded dramatically. Why is that? Because it’s not a zero sum game. Cutting taxes stimulates the economy…thus more jobs. As Martha Stewart would say “it’s a good thing”.</p>
<p>funding father: Perhaps you can name the source for that poll?</p>
<p>Browninfall, <a href=“http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_luskin/luskin200507120940.asp[/url]”>http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_luskin/luskin200507120940.asp</a></p>
<p>Revenues have expanded…what are you talking about?</p>
<p>I love this chart by a conservative.</p>
<p>It shows the opposite of what he is saying. GDP since 2000 is up 30%+, tax revenues are lower.</p>
<p>We now need an economy 30% larger than in 2000 to get the same federal revenues.</p>
<p>CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll. June 21-23, 2004. N=1,005 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.</p>
<pre><code> .
</code></pre>
<p>“Would you say you and your family are better off now than you were four years ago, or are you worse off now?”</p>
<pre><code> .
</code></pre>
<p>Better Worse Same (vol.) Unsure<br>
% % % %<br>
49 36 14 1</p>
<p>Note that this was from over a year ago when the economy was just starting to get back on to its feet and the Democrats were in peak election year form of bad mouthing the economy (“worst economy since Herbert Hoover”). If taken today, the results would be even more positive from a personal perspective.</p>
<p>Sorry, but I don’t think a 16-month old poll really reflects today’s issues. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, not from my “personal perspective!” (Who cares about one person’s personal perspective anyway?!)</p>
<p>Seems to me that there’s sometimes a huge difference between economic indicators and the experience of the “man on the street”. Yes, gasoline is down (why is that such a huge indication of “good times”, when the price for home heating gas is predicted to inflate by 30% this winter in our area?) Yes, companies are managing to do well, but as ASAP indicated, these good projections are sometimes helped along by slashing jobs. General Motors, Eastman Kodak, and several other companies that directly affect our area are giving the heave-ho to thousands of workers. Yes, the folk on the right side of the balance sheet will do just fine, but don’t blithely toast your good fortune and tell the rest of us that because the “numbers” look good, the thousands of unfortunates should be happy too - It’s our own fault after all… right?</p>
<p>““Would you say you and your family are better off now than you were four years ago, or are you worse off now?””</p>
<p>Four years ago was four months after the economically devastating attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Yep, we’re much better off now than we were when the economy tanked in response to those attacks.</p>
<p>Which means that we’re ALMOST back to where we were FIVE years ago.</p>
<p>**I remember clearly what I paid for gas on 9/11/01, because I went out and filled the tank of every car we had then. $2.04/gallon for premium. Today, at the cheapest station in Bellevue it was $2.59/gallon for premium.</p>
<p>Why are measuring your “economic” happiness by what you are paying for gas at the pump? Having to pay $3.00 is bad and paying $1.50 is good? What kind of pathetic rule of thumb is that? The sad reality is that we should pay MORE for a commodity destined to extinction. The United States lives in lala-land when it comes to gasoline costs. Other countries survive with gasoline prices that are easily double or triple ours. The problem there is that the difference goes to fund the sins of liberal governments. The United States COULD have the luxury to extract additional revenues from our sinful consumption of gas. If would serve us well to invest the extra revenues in the development and support of alternative energy. Will it happen? I am not holding my bated breath! The United States and its citizens are very keen to demonstrate how they prefer to spend TODAY, reward the past generations regardless of their paid contributions, and bury future generations with the cost of their shortsighteness and stupidity. </p>
<p>If you want to complain, you’d be better off checking the increases of natural gas prices. Most people could -and should- change their gas guzzling appetite. However, not too many citizens can change their need for heating houses. Also, while you are checking the cost of driving, check the evolution of the percentages of the cost represented by gas versus insurance and taxes. </p>
<p>Indeed, the answer to all our problems ought to be cheap gasoline. :D</p>
<p>PS Dmd, the economy did not start tanking after 9-11. It started a good 18 months before that, when the bill for our excesses became due, and our lack of investments and necessary spending brought us full circle.</p>
<p>Actually there was not a lack of investments–there was way too much investment in lunatic DotCom stocks. Poof–trillions lost.</p>
<p>Xiggi, I was pointing out that in many ways we are not better off now than four years ago. Gas is an easy example, esp. in a thread that says gas prices are down and that things are better now than 4 years ago. I did NOT say that I think higher gas prices are a bad thing.</p>
<p>AND the peak for the Nasdaq was March of 2000, just over 5 years ago. If you look at this chart for Dow (last ten years) <a href=“Dow Jones Industrial Average, DJIA Quick Chart - (Dow Jones Global) DJIA, Dow Jones Industrial Average Stock Price - BigCharts.com”>Dow Jones Industrial Average, DJIA Quick Chart - (Dow Jones Global) DJIA, Dow Jones Industrial Average Stock Price - BigCharts.com; you’ll see that the Dow took a HUGE dip following 9/11 and stayed down through the beginning of '03.</p>