Are We Better Off???

Every four years we get asked the question, “Are we better off than we were four years ago?” The party in power says yes and the party out of power says no. Are they both right?

I remember four years ago September 2008 as being a very bad time for America. We were on the verge of a depression! The banking system was in collapse with many people loosing their homes to greedy bankers.  Wall Street was in a melt down with 401K’s loosing value. Millions of workers were loosing their jobs every month and two auto makers GM and Chrysler were about to close. The un-necessary war in Iraq was costing millions and pulling troops and money from the fight against ben-Laden. The trillions of dollars for that war was extra budget with no plan to pay for it. It is still costing us in veteran rehab cost.

So are we better off than that?

In many ways we are much better off than we were then. Every month more people have been going back to work. Wall street is almost back where it was and 401k’s are doing better. We are out of Iraq and ben-Laden is dead. GM and Chrysler are recovering and making a profit. The housing market is on the rebound.

In some ways we are not better off because the national debt is growing at an alarming rate and no one is talking about paying it off. Both parties are only talking about deficit growth reduction and that is not good enough.