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AP
Gas is among the expenses that may be pinching families these days.
Your bills seem to be going up, and yet you seem to be bringing in less money. Sound familiar?
You don't have to be unemployed to feel the nation's economic squeeze. Several recent economic reports have pointed to the difficulties even those who have held on to their jobs are facing.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported last month that personal income fell very slightly in August, meaning that overall people earned slightly less than they had in July.
Despite that drop, however, consumer spending rose a bit in August as Americans were hammered by higher prices for food and gas.
On Wednesday, the government said that consumers once again likely paid more for food and gas last month, as compared to the previous month. But consumer prices for everything else rose only very slightly in September.
The reports are discouraging because they come after years of tough economic times. Median income has fallen 6.4 percent since 2007 after adjusting for inflation. A deep recession that officially lasted from December 2007 until June 2009 has been followed by a sluggish economic recovery and a high unemployment rate hovering around 9 percent.
A story in the latest issue of Bloomberg Businessweek compares the state of working Americans today to those in the 1960s, when household debt was low, savings were high and salaries were on the upswing.
Cut to today and the case of Tamra Loomis, a 32-year-old single mom who earns $17 an hour but has to cut corners where she can, using coupons, growing vegetables and even using her parents’ Internet connection instead of paying for her own.
“At this point, I’m paycheck to paycheck,” Loomis told the magazine. “A lot of people aren’t hiring, and when they are, they offer even less than what I make.”
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Leave a Comment:
Obummer promised "necessarily higher" energy costs... he delivered.
And interesting thing... Bush is gone, over two years now... so who is profiting from all this? When the Shrub was president.... it was all his fault... so now that we have a Nobel Prize winning, rock star, travelin' man president who has played more golf than the last two presidents.... who's fault is it????? Dem control the last two years of Bush and the first two years of Obummer's rule... so we had 4 years of Dems doing their thing... and we still don't have a budget (Balanced or otherwise!), energy costs soaring and food costs out of control. BUT we have almost 800 Cheby Volts on the road and Solyndra is making all those solar panels with out gov't money..... well we got the Volts at least....
No inflation because the cost of washing machines hasn't increased. Food, utilities, gas don't count. The gov't is in denial.
Feel sorry for the young. 1968, I made $700/month. Had 2 new cars, a house, a wife and a kid. Still had money left over, if I hid it from wife #1. Kids today will never see that kind of life! We now have the haves (those with money or a job) and the have nots (everyone else).
You can blame it all on Reagan and George II and the so-called "conservatives". You elected them, then re-elected them, and will probably elect them again. It's not regulation, it's not Obama. It's all about giveaways to the wealthy, giving too much power to the corporate masters, lowering taxes on the so-called "job creators" who aren't creating jobs but instead sending them overseas.
YES we have learned something from GREECE and ROME.
Take a good look at our government today. It is bought and paid for. Now look at acient ROME, they went through the same thing and fell apart ( rotted from with in ). Looks to me we are going to suffer the same fate.
bob
I'm doing fine now but its always in the back of my mind, what if. I tend to stay on top of everything and if I get into a pinch, I know there are plenty of financial areas I can cut back. I can always go to to one car, eat out less, spend less and buy only what I need, but the one thing I will not give up, is saving money. I always know that when you have money, life is a lot easier.