The Economy today vs 1980

[5711-Marine]

It could be a lot worse. It **WAS** a lot worse in the early 1980s.

[Tootie]

It could be a lot worse. It **WAS** a lot worse in the early 1980s.

I never got the whole the 80's where worse thing. I never had a problem finding a job, I even had 3 at 1 time to pay for my clothing habit (designer jeans all the way @ $100 a pop) and I made $9 a hour at 1 of them. I never saw the inflation problems either. Maybe it was where I worked, where I hung out and all but things sure seem a tad more crazy now.

So if you look at it from my point of view. I made $7 a hour as a bank teller (days), $6.50 as a part time cashier (weekends), and $9 at haagen daz (evenings), how is that worse then it is today when most people can't find a job paying anywhere near what I made back then.

[phillyd2]

oh crap, now we need to worry about facts too? The must really be near....

[dc dalton]

It could be a lot worse. It **WAS** a lot worse in the early 1980s.

OK we need some fact checking here.

Did you know that ALL of those economic indicators have been 'realigned' since then? (with the one exception of the mortgage rates)

The numbers have all been 'rethought' by three different administrations and 'washed' to make things look better.

I have to find the info again but if we used the exact same economic indicators and calculations to come up with them they used in 1980 we are right at or close to those 1980 numbers.

Here's a good place to start and start understanding the 'numbers' as the government tells you are 100% bullshit

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data

[adymond]

I never got the whole the 80's where worse thing. I never had a problem finding a job, I even had 3 at 1 time to pay for my clothing habit (designer jeans all the way @ $100 a pop) and I made $9 a hour at 1 of them. I never saw the inflation problems either. Maybe it was where I worked, where I hung out and all but things sure seem a tad more crazy now.

So if you look at it from my point of view. I made $7 a hour as a bank teller (days), $6.50 as a part time cashier (weekends), and $9 at haagen daz (evenings), how is that worse then it is today when most people can't find a job paying anywhere near what I made back then.

I guess it is all a matter of perspective. Hell over the last eight years I have seen my annual salary increase about 200%. I have seen my household income almost double. I own a home and two new cars (cars are close to being paid off, but the home has decent equity also) now and was renting when Bush took office. Looking at my personal situation Bush would be the best thing to ever happen.

[wa3ra]

78-81 were absolutely horrifying. 18% mortgages, 19% car loans, unreal inflation...I was working as a restaurant manager back then; we sometimes had to raise prices twice in a week. Chrysler was failing, and had to ask the government for a loan, unemployment was around 10%...

We're still paying for Carter.

[CarolinaGuy]

I guess it is all a matter of perspective. Hell over the last eight years I have seen my annual salary increase about 200%. I have seen my household income almost double. I own a home and two new cars (cars are close to being paid off, but the home has decent equity also) now and was renting when Bush took office. Looking at my personal situation Bush would be the best thing to ever happen.

And that's great...save for the fact these aren't the United States of Adymond.

I'm not doing too shabby myself, but when I look at my friends and neighbors and see them not doing well at all, I do a little headmath and realize that Bush fucking sucked.

And the nation agrees with this by great majority.

[adymond]

And that's great...save for the fact these aren't the United States of Adymond.

I'm not doing too shabby myself, but when I look at my friends and neighbors and see them not doing well at all, I do a little headmath and realize that Bush fucking sucked.

And the nation agrees with this by great majority.

Neither is it the United States of CarolinaGuy and his Friends. I was responding to a post that referenced personal situation as a benchmark on the overall health of the economy. My point was that is not accurate. Neither is the headmath you do based on you and your friends and neighbors. None of my neighbors are in foreclosure. I have a few friends who are doing equally well compared to eight years ago. None of that matters though as I said in my post you tried to reply to. Try to keep up and read the posts that are being replied to before you try to cut the post down.

[Tootie]

I guess it is all a matter of perspective. Hell over the last eight years I have seen my annual salary increase about 200%. I have seen my household income almost double. I own a home and two new cars (cars are close to being paid off, but the home has decent equity also) now and was renting when Bush took office. Looking at my personal situation Bush would be the best thing to ever happen.

I guess you're right. Upturns and downturns will be felt depending on your situation.

[camper]

I guess you're right. Upturns and downturns will be felt depending on your situation.

Exactly, and location is EVERYTHING. You could make great money but live in a high cost of living area that would put you in a worse situation than if you if cut your salary in half and moved to a lower cost of living area.

We all need to keep in mind, that right now our unemployment is high because niche markets like Michigan are factored into it, but Michigan has been hurting for YEARS before there was talk of recession. The auto industry didn't come looking for a handout until the Fannie/Freddie-mac got one if you remember right, and a correction in the housing market was LONG overdue. When you watch these 'flip my house' shows on TV and some college kids screw up a flip ROYALLY and still makes a huge profit...you know people have lost touch with reality.

The people that are under the most amount of strain and stress are the ones that were depending on credit to get by month to month. If the interest rate on your credit card goes from 5% to 18% and that creates a hardship for you, you weren't doing well at all--you just thought you were.

A friend of mine was spouting off to me how this mess is Bush's fault, and people can't afford their houses because of HIM. I mentioned that it was more the fault of the fools who took an adjustable rate mortgage when rates were at historic lows to buy a house they couldn't have afforded and did so with a loan they never should have signed, and his mouth snapped shut. I suspect he was one of those fools, and it never occurred to him that *gasp* interest rates wouldn't go down to 0% and stay there.

I don't know if things are better or worse today than in the 80's, I'm too young to remember the early 80s in that way. I know my parents were in better financial condition, but they also didn't have the health problems then that they do now. They're also paying more in taxes then they did then too.

What I do know is that consumers have more stuff and spend more money on frivolous crap (cell phones & starbucks anyone?) then they did then. So if things are worse, I personally beleive its at the fault of the consumer, and all the debt we couldn't wait to take on to impress people we don't really care about is the reasons why.

camper