Your Chart is quite telling. Add to it former President Bill Clinton's 50-1 ratio of millions of new jobs created under Dem. Presidents' administrations vs. the 1 million created with the GOP guys in control ever since Truman to date. And add to it a Chart that I will attach to an email to you and that should do it for whence the Economy with Harris-Walz on the job. (Somehow, I could not attach the Chart or add its content to this note so a separate email will have to do.)
Yes, it's the economy. Between us, we have 17 nieces and nephews - ranging in age from 25-46. Three of them own their own homes - the other 14 cannot afford to. They all work full-time jobs and a couple of them make a hellava lot more money than I do - but they can't qualify and/or come up with the down payments.
None of them are starving, but they're also not getting ahead. Some are still paying off student loans that they will probably be paying for years to come.
Most are married and have kids. Some are subsidized by their parents.
The record stock market isn't doing them any good. Savings accounts are non-existent and retirement accounts only exist if their employer funds them.
Fortunately, we come from deep blue families and the kids all will be voting blue - but their situations need to be addressed. I don't think any of them are as disgruntled as many - but they also ain't all that happy about things.
I have the same assessment as you do. And we also share the history of having been through the inflation of the late 70s and early 80s - we have the perspective of interest rates more than double what they are now. And back then, if you wanted a house, you had to have the full 20% to put down AND a reserve. I remember my husband and I talking to the banker. We'd both been working multiple jobs, and had the 20% - and he looked over our budget and said "what if you need a new roof?" We said the townhouse we wanted was brand new - but he sent us back to add more to our savings. I also remember stopping at the grocery on the way to work to get a yogurt and a piece of fruit for lunch, and thinking I needed butter, and then didn't buy it because I didn't want to have to leave it in the company shared fridge, from which things sometimes disappeared. On my way home that same pound of butter was a whole dollar more.
The major problem with student loans isn't the loans, but the interest -- if the government would just drop the rate for government-backed loans to 0%, people could catch up. And damn the GOP judges for nixing so many of Biden's loan forgiveness. It's not like when I started college when it was $60/credit.
You're SO RIGHT about the stock market. It's a huge win for those of us who have been squirreling away dollars for 40+ years, but of little use to those who can't pay rent, and therefore certainly can't invest.
Your Chart is quite telling. Add to it former President Bill Clinton's 50-1 ratio of millions of new jobs created under Dem. Presidents' administrations vs. the 1 million created with the GOP guys in control ever since Truman to date. And add to it a Chart that I will attach to an email to you and that should do it for whence the Economy with Harris-Walz on the job. (Somehow, I could not attach the Chart or add its content to this note so a separate email will have to do.)
Yeah, you can't attach things -- it's a Substack limitation.
Yes, it's the economy. Between us, we have 17 nieces and nephews - ranging in age from 25-46. Three of them own their own homes - the other 14 cannot afford to. They all work full-time jobs and a couple of them make a hellava lot more money than I do - but they can't qualify and/or come up with the down payments.
None of them are starving, but they're also not getting ahead. Some are still paying off student loans that they will probably be paying for years to come.
Most are married and have kids. Some are subsidized by their parents.
The record stock market isn't doing them any good. Savings accounts are non-existent and retirement accounts only exist if their employer funds them.
Fortunately, we come from deep blue families and the kids all will be voting blue - but their situations need to be addressed. I don't think any of them are as disgruntled as many - but they also ain't all that happy about things.
I have the same assessment as you do. And we also share the history of having been through the inflation of the late 70s and early 80s - we have the perspective of interest rates more than double what they are now. And back then, if you wanted a house, you had to have the full 20% to put down AND a reserve. I remember my husband and I talking to the banker. We'd both been working multiple jobs, and had the 20% - and he looked over our budget and said "what if you need a new roof?" We said the townhouse we wanted was brand new - but he sent us back to add more to our savings. I also remember stopping at the grocery on the way to work to get a yogurt and a piece of fruit for lunch, and thinking I needed butter, and then didn't buy it because I didn't want to have to leave it in the company shared fridge, from which things sometimes disappeared. On my way home that same pound of butter was a whole dollar more.
The major problem with student loans isn't the loans, but the interest -- if the government would just drop the rate for government-backed loans to 0%, people could catch up. And damn the GOP judges for nixing so many of Biden's loan forgiveness. It's not like when I started college when it was $60/credit.
You're SO RIGHT about the stock market. It's a huge win for those of us who have been squirreling away dollars for 40+ years, but of little use to those who can't pay rent, and therefore certainly can't invest.
An article just popped up on the Times, which compares and contrasts the two approaches. Let me know if it's behind a firewall for you, and I'll gift it to you. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/26/us/politics/trump-harris-poverty-policies.html
Firewall. We cancelled our NYT subscription back in March.