Are things really all that bad?
February 18th, 2008 by Grant in: Commentary, GeneralI did a little surfing over at the Wall Street Journal, and while perusing the videos, came across a clip from on of my favorite comedians, Drew Carey. The title of the video was “The Middle Class is doing fine”, and it really touched on how bad we have it… err, how bad we think we have it… err, how bad we are led to believe we have it. Yeah, that’s it.
Our television sets force feed us stats and rhetoric about how tight our budgets have become, how fast we’re losing money, and how difficult it is to make ends meet. The truth is, we’re not that bad off, really. Especially if you compare the standard of living of today vs. 20 years ago. Heck, even 5 years ago.
Check it, out.
Tags: drew carey | middle class | standard of living
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February 18th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Good video Grant. But, I can’t help wondering how many of those “toys” were actually owned outright, and how many are being financed to the hilt by those living way above their means.
February 19th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Ah Mike you touched on one of my favorite topics. Living below your means. That is the key to a good life I think. One has to be diligent on what you purchase. Toys are fun but payments certainly aren’t.
By living this way, I was able to quit my old job and search for a new one without worry for 3 months. It didn’t drain my war chest too badly and my lifestyle didn’t really get affected (other than garage selling all the stuff I didn’t want anymore). By living this way, I was able to afford a pricey surgery for my dog. He is now referred to as the “investment”. By living this way, I never had to count on raises at work or constantly look for a higher paying job because simply I “needed” more money.
I would like to know how many of those people had healthcare?
February 20th, 2008 at 4:24 am
That comedian should win a peace prize. Middle-class folk have plenty of scope to save vast amounts of money, the ’siege’ the financial channels are talking about basically adds up to about 3% inflation in energy, and everything else falling.
The economist is absolutely right – 40-50 years ago people had to spend about 25% of their income just to buy food. Now the staples are paid for in a day or so. (Though I do think grain prices and similar are going to keep rising).
The real scandal is people have all this money buy don’t save any of it.
I agree with Mike though, you don’t know how much of that was really owned.