The question returns
I know there are a few of you more ‘mature’ (okay, old fart) readers who remember when Ronald Reagan asked the electorate the famous question that Donald Trump should be trumpeting from the housetops:
Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
What do you think?
On the one hand, the Dow is flirting with the 40,000 mark. (Sadly I remember both the first two times when it broke 1,000, just to date myself – and the second time I was already in the Army.)
Economic challenges such as inflation, high mortgage rates, and increased living costs are central to these perceptions. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has risen to 7.06%, significantly increasing monthly payments for homeowners. The price of an average home has soared to over $400,000, making homeownership less accessible.
7.06% is a far cry from the Carter years (when Reagan asked the question) when mortgages were typically in the 14-15% range. Ouch!) 7% is actually a pretty middling figure, historically speaking. But at that time a house started around $80-90,000, so that $400K is an eye-opener. Let’s try a couple of other areas:
Similarly, the cost of new vehicles has jumped to $48,008 from $38,000 four years ago, with corresponding increases in monthly car payments. Grocery prices have also surged, with the average American family now spending $270.21 per week, up from $160.35 four years ago.
Guess I’m gonna keep flogging the old grocery-gitter a little further. In a long ago time when I worked around cars, $50K was solid Mercedes mid-size 300E or Corvette territory. Now it’s almost an entry-level truck.
Let’s circle back to the original question, though.
According to a February AP-NORC poll, only 24% of Americans feel better off since Biden took office, while 41% feel worse off and 34% feel the same. These figures highlight the mixed sentiments about economic progress during Biden’s presidency. Benzinga
When 75% think they aren’t happy – you have a problem. It’s nice that the rich keep getting richer, maybe, but as a wise man I know said: “Don’t tell me how the upper 30% are doing – how much better off are the LOWEST 30%. ”
Think we know that. Think if Mr. Trump wants to win, he should address that. Especially with Biden thinking he is running in 2020 Fox
Just think: if politicians actually said what they would actually DO for folks and how they would lift the country up. What a radical idea.
Category: 2024 Election, Economy
That along with the 10,003 other things that Joke Biteme & Company have fucked up.
I wouldn’t piss in a democrats mouth if their teeth were on fire. Its a fucking cult.
Waitaminute, I thought WE were the brainwashed cultists. I’m so confused.
Well, we are according to some UC Berzerkely cultist, we are.
Gone are the days when car companies offered 0% financing on new cars to consumers with good credit. From what I’ve seen, the best any financing can offer is no less than 5% – at least in my AOR.
FJB.
Got a new car a couple of months ago (Toyota Corrola cross) 32K out the door. The best I could get loan wise was 7.25% and that was with my credit union. For the record, I have a 740 credit score and I came in with 10K down. But then again I paid off the balance in 6 days. The credit union didn’t even bat an eye.
No way.
Indeed, no… and don’t tell me my wallet is “racist” or hates democracy, left/libtards.
The irony about houses is that everything the gummint has done to make housing “more affordable” has just driven the price higher. Make it easy for people to borrow money and reduce the entry cost (down payment) for something, the price of that something goes up due to increased demand. Look what easy-money loans did for college tuition.
If you are better off now than you were 4 years ago, you are either an illegal invader or San Fran Nan’s stock broker. Part of my escort duty today will get fur babies to the Doggy Doctor for a check up and annual shots. The other part will take me to the K Roger to relieve the swelling in my wallet.
All things big relative, I would say I’m better off now than I was 4 years ago. 4 years ago, Fauci, The elite and the media colluded together in the biggest scam, in the history of scams, to flatten the curve, which of course never happened. I was busy working my ass off all the time, and there was nowhere to go and nothing to do when I would get a day off. It was completely pointless and wasteful. Probably 2 million people would die from the flu over the next two years, mostly after bite me got elected. That b******* is all over until the next time. I work in law enforcement, and 4 years ago the unmerited harassment by the media and the left wing of law enforcement created a huge shortage of personnel, there by increasing workload. For a short period of time, we went to a catch and release system, which resulted in The same people being arrested over and over again for the same crimes, because there were no repercussions. Today the media and most of the left have become as forgetful as the leader of the free world. Because of the shortage in my profession, my pay has actually outpaced inflation, which was no easy trick. Our state has one of the highest murder rates in the country, the people are just sick of it. Our city, by being proactive, managed to keep crime down. So we never really saw the big surge, that you had in other cities. Due to successful life and financial planning, I will soon retire, at an age unheard of by the vast majority of my peers, without any loss of quality of life. I have all the toys that a man could want. At this point it’s fair to say, that if I don’t have it I don’t want it. I plan on spending most of my time touring about on motorcycles or sailing the seas. My kids, who are now adults, are also doing great, better off now. So far as freedoms go, the Trump Supreme Court… Read more »
You deserve all the credit. Joe gave you all the Job security you could handle, and you handled it well. Except for the fact that you’re a greedy, self-serving capitalist, life is good.
Do I really need to put a SARC tag here…
The ironic part is, I knew what I wanted to do with my life and so I went and did it. I never asked what was in it for me, for me, contesting evil and protecting the innocent was enough. I always figured I would have to work out my financial future on on my own, so I did.
Now, so many of my peers, who focused on what was in it for them, are now financially unstable. I find this very strange because I know a lot of them made a lot more money than I did over the years. I’ve certainly made mistakes over the years, But I never took my eye off of what was important.
You and I both seemed to have learned that lesson about “living within your means”. It does make a difference.
Living well is the best revenge.
I don’t think we’ll ever see those days again.
The most lopsided election in history of elections. The four years after that were pretty good too from what I remember.
Democrats’ll fix all that now…
I remember watching the news on the night of that election. Ronald Reagan was represented with blue, and so were the states that he won. Walter Mondale was represented in red, resulting in Minnesota and Washington D.C. being the only red in a sea of blue.
The coloring scheme was different then, as blue is the actual color for conservatives, and red is the actual color of leftist ideologies like communism, socialism, fascism, etc.
Our media made the switch, portraying the Republicans as red (playing on cold war fears) and portraying the Democrats as blue (again playing on cold war fears). In other countries, specifically in Europe and South America, red is still used to represent the left, and blue is used to represent the right.
@5jC – I envy you and I am happy for you. I am not better off than I was 4 years ago. Costs have risen far more in my opinion than the inflation ticker indicates. I actually work as a price analyst in the electrical industry and my company (French Owned) are dangerously flirting with how much margin (profit) they can extract from the market- even though for the most part raw material inflation has steadied. My salary has not grown proportionately to the record profits we have reaped in the last few years. As a touring motorcyclists my self I just returned from a 9 week trip through the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and Montana. I work remote so I combine my travel with work but the cost of fuel and food both eating at home (Toy Hauler) and out was way more than I had anticipated. We stay in state parks and avoid RV Parks in general to keep cost to a minimum. Don’t get me started on taxes – property taxes went up 15% this year alone locally because of overinflated real-estate values. Pretty depressing when you start looking at how much has changed in the last few years – and god I sound like an old fart but I guess I am now. I believe over pricing is here to stay as long as we or someone that can continue to pay. I am 100% for regime change but not sure it will impact me positively in any way (monetarily) as that seems to be what I dwell on the most lately.
Inflation was far from consistent within the country. For example, electrical rates went up 30% in some states, but here they barely notched. Most of that had to do with the natural gas prices, due to the war in the Ukraine. My area uses a lot of nuclear and hydropower which is why our rates held steady. Natural gas climbed here, but if you use it for heat, they cap The increase per year so people don’t freeze to death.
Our property taxes have gone up as well. 58% to the schools is what sticks out the most. I don’t have the bill in front of me, but it says how much schools, county government, local government and townships get.
Can some school districts be consolidated? Sure, but do you think the school administrators are going to give up their cushy 6 figure salaries? Not a chance.
Nobody can tell me why an elementary school principal, needs to make $150,000 a year. I’m willing to bet somebody will take the job for less.
And it’s likely that new hire will bring their progressive ideology and drag queens with them.
I do agree, $150K does seem excessive for someone who parrots what the Board of Ed tells them to say.
They’re being paid to be a reliable shill as opposed to being the most qualified for the job.
Now that I type my thoughts into words, maybe being a reliable shill IS the qualification for the job. They’re just paying for their cooperation.
Firing PATCO was RR’s crowning moment in my political evolution. He warned them, they did it anyway, and then he fired them. Definitely got my attention.
After the abomination of Carter, it wasn’t particularly difficult to do 🙂
But the problem is that of that 75 or so percent that are not happy with the situation, a good many of them, socialist democrats mostly, have no interest in mating the reasons for their discontent, which go straight to their bullshit party and its shenanigans. they refuse to see that and will continue to vote for those who screw them blind.
Exactly. The GOP needs to be hammering dem policies that got us into this mess, not the doddering old fool who happens to be at the helm (very loosely) right now. “It’s the policies, stupid!”
IDK, Biden has a lot going for him. Medicare has never been beaten before.
I honestly wonder just how much of the DC Insider Crowd gets regular kickbacks, I mean dividends from the money spent on Medicare and Medicaid, that includes that which has been passed on from one blueblood generation to the next?
This guy gets it… left/libtard elites destroy or let our country be destroyed to show how virutuous we are:
https://x.com/GadSaad/status/1810147980743245856
I have seen Mr. Saad before. Yes, he gets what is going on.
I’ll confess, I was able to vote for Regan (and did), and that it was not the first time I’d voted for a President.
My thought on the DOW et al – it is all potential money. “If I sold my stock today, what would be my cash in hand/in the bank?”
Mrs. GB inherited quite a tidy fund of stock from her very-hard-working 3-rd grade educated father. We’ve watched the ‘value’ of that stock rise and fall for decades. On a lark, I did a comparison once on the value of the stock after we held it for about 10 years or so and what it was valued at when she received it, adjusted for inflation. Basically, no change in buying value was realized.
It’s all smoke and mirrors.
Joe Biden assuaged America’s concerns about his mental ability during this evening’s press conference, and “Vice president Trump” concurs.
“Vice President Trump…”
😆😅🤣😂
Welcome Home. gabn/rtr/hbtd too soon?
He also mixed up zielinsky and Putin.
So, who’s on first?
“Assuaged”? Is that what that was?
I think he meant sausaged.
I was a Libertarian for 30+ years. They have great ideas but aren’t a serious party.
They care about legal weed and dismantling AmTrak and that’s pretty much it.
I was a Kinky Friedman voter for fuck’s sake!
Bottom line is that our RULERS fucking hate us. They hate our fucking guts. They HATE us!
The problem is when people think there is a sliver of hope that perhaps, maybe, my guy, isn’t like this.
I’m voting Trump for a third time. It doesn’t matter though.
We are FUCKING HATED!
imho….
Kinky just passed a coupla weeks back. They ain’t making Jews like Kinky any more.
No my family is not better off now. I had to make some major life decisions 4 years ago. I cannot physically do what I did for 40 years and made good money doing it. We pooled our money and moved to a place where we have a nice home with a low mortgage and that we were able to get what my wife worked her whole life to achieve. She has since taken a part time job just to afford her passion, and I work as much overtime as I can. I went from driving my Dodge Ram diesel to a 23 year old Honda I fixed up just to keep costs down. Trips are gone,eating out is very sporadic, no more movies etc it’s free concerts at the court house square. We still have a decent life compared to a lot of people but it is not what we budgeted and saved for. The concrete in my garage doubled and the wood did too. This meant my electrical budget went out the door and it has no power to it. Our home is steadily increasing in value but they tried to charge 20% more to build it, I had already put money down and signed contracts, so a threat to get my lawer involved stopped that. Now their contracts have a clause that they CAN increase building cost due to market fluctuations. I know boo hoo, but we worked for this and 1/3 of what we worked and saved for was snatched away in a few short months. Nancy Pelosi got richer, Biden got richer and Bernie got a new house while Hunter got high, burns my ass.
No way in hell I’m better off now than 4 years ago. Inflation, health insurance, etc., have more than tripled any pay raises I’ve had since 2019. I live out of a suitcase. Imagine having to beg your employer to direct bill hotels because there aren’t any available for approved rates because GSA rates have been pretty much flat while the hotels are 50 percent more per night than 4 years ago. And it’s not getting any better.
Anyways….
Your video of the day.
https://youtu.be/MLgb32OajVE?si=gZR5D-2spHICf-DD