• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Are you better off today then you were 3 years ago?

Are you better off today then you were 3 years ago?

  • Total voters
    86
sawyerloggingon said:
It has been on a steady decline. My wife just had a realtor over to our rental in town and he advised we keep it as a rental a few more years. We bought it 15 years ago for 120K and renters have paid it off so thats good but it was worth 275K a while back and we were counting on that as part of retirement but it's worth around 190 K now, oh well. Good news is my colon exam went well. LOL
Click to expand...

Okay to little there for me to determine much other than you colon is good. :)
 
Kandahar said:
The person who is most responsible for your success or failure is YOU. Not Barack Obama, not George Bush, not anyone in Congress.
Click to expand...

To some extent I agree but the government you are under can and does make it easier or more difficult to succeed economically, obama has made it more difficult. I should say obama and the Dems in DC not just him alone.
 
Dirt Racer said:
Thanks. I am not much on real estate investing. It was more a sentimental buy plus I needed a home for my family.
Click to expand...

Real estate has put me where I am today financially speaking, I have lost lately but all my working life I bought homes and rented them out and during the boom I fixed up and flipped two houses. My wages have never been that great, I owe it all to real estate and it will come back in time.
 
sawyerloggingon said:
To some extent I agree but the government you are under can and does make it easier or more difficult to succeed economically, obama has made it more difficult. I should say obama and the Dems in DC not just him alone.
Click to expand...

if it wasn't for Obama and the Dems, we would still be in a major Recession today.
 
sawyerloggingon said:
Real estate has put me where I am today financially speaking, I have lost lately but all my working life I bought homes and rented them out and during the boom I fixed up and flipped two houses. My wages have never been that great, I owe it all to real estate and it will come back in time.
Click to expand...

Hang in there. I have a buddy who owns a couple pieces of property and is about to start renting them out due to not being able to sell. Hope it works out for him.
 
sawyerloggingon said:
Real estate has put me where I am today financially speaking, I have lost lately but all my working life I bought homes and rented them out and during the boom I fixed up and flipped two houses. My wages have never been that great, I owe it all to real estate and it will come back in time.
Click to expand...

I don't think you will see a boom like what happened. IMHO I think the next boom will be in energy.
 
clearly I am better off than 3 years ago. Stock market was crashing, companies laying folks off in droves, including mine. I have more job security today, the stock market has been up 3 years in a row and I am making money there.
 
I'm doing pretty good. I would say that my doing better is a direct result of how the economy has been. Now I have my job thanks in part to manufacturing picking up. People who have worked where I work for 6 years+ say this is the busiest its been in a long time, and despite the setbacks of the tsunamis of last year, things are good.

Three years ago I was hmm...I was losing my car, kicked out of my apartment, lost my girlfriend after I found out she was pregnant and after being gone from my parents since I was 18, moved back in with them at age of 24 while I regrouped. Now I am married, have a house, a car, 2 dogs, a cat, a bunch of wicked guns and fishing poles, got a bunch of comic books, etc and best of all my beautiful daughter which is cuter than all of your guys kids. Take that to the bank!

So yeah I win at who has it better than they did 3 years ago. Obama 2012!
 
Its really funny how the people in DP see this and those on the national level...........The results here are right along partian lines......I guess it proves that the lefties no matter how much he ****s up love Hussein Obama and us on the right think he is the worse president this country has ever had.......Thank God people in the real world don't see it the Hussein Obama way....
 
Yes I am. HCR rewarded the facility where I am contracted for having state of the art care and EMR and we are finally in the black. I am now allowed to keep my sons on my private health insurance . Billions have been saved with HCR on medicare fraud.

My 401 k is at the highest in 7 years.

I just finished successfully finished a project. My son graduated from college and landed a real job and can now pay 80% of his bills and my other son just started college. Yikes! ... on the tuition yet I am determined they will both graduate with no debt and paid for by me.

At the end of 2008 it seemed we were heading into another depression era and although not ideal ... it was averted.

The terrorist who plotted 9/11 is off this rock!

I am 3 years older yet I feel younger and healthier than ever ... and live in the land of organic farms and pure water.

Overall yes ... !

I feel better about my government ... although I will never be satisfied until we have complete finance reform.

I have had several personal tragedies and the biggest challenge for me is I am surrounded by people who are either dependents or have serious health issues ... that is tough yet I know I can do it.
 
Last edited:
winston53660 said:
I think you have a rude awaking coming up.
Click to expand...

Yeah, something like half of recent college grads are unemployed right now. What a fantastic economy all the trickle down crap has produced, huh? Higher education is a profit driven business, ensuring that every young worker is riddled with debt for the whole of their working lives. Pretty much the message that I've been getting for the last few years is that a recent college grad shouldn't expect to make more than minimum wage, ever. I was born into the middle class, but the economy seems geared towards ensuring that I don't stay there.

Apparently no amount of knowledge or expertise can earn me a good position. The only thing that can get a person into a satisfying or well paying job is to have already worked that job. How could this country possibly be well served by pushing an entire generation into the lower class?
 
Take this for what its worth from someone repulsed by BOTH parties...but...

Well this is just AWESOME! With all this happiness, those 99%er assholes sure do look like clowns, as do all those people still pretending to be unemployed and 'no longer eligible' for unemployment benefits because they SUPPOSEDLY have been 'out of work', wink wink. Buncha liars! And it sounds like the housing market has fully recovered if this thread is an indicator. Im guessing with everyone doing so well, they are doing so because the government giveaway programs. That and they are probably heavily invested in the oil and commodities markets.

And Im very happy to hear that people like Iguanaman have embraced those security measures that Bush put in place and Obama has managed to build on (and I applaud as well!) and forgotten about all those silly 'freedoms' arguments. Bush's Patriot Act was a doddle compared to the 'necessary' expansion of detection and prevention policing authority implemented recently. Whatever could people have POSSIBLY been worried about?

No budget in several years, ridiculous annual deficits, doubling of the national debt in 3 years...this is just a great recipe for future success! Your grandkids are gonna be so happy!
 
I'll try to answer the ORIGINAL question.

Personally, compared with April 24, 2009, I think I am about even. Just like during the Great Depression, some will suffer and some will find opportunity. Some fail, some succeed.

I have been buying houses in my complex since 2009. I pay less for each one. I've paid $73K, $63L, $45K and I just closed on my new low of $37K. I have bids going on 3 more and expect to get 2 of the 3 at least. I will have a total of 10, 2 of which I occupy myself. So, technically, I have been losing money. However, I rent these out with a very good cash flow and eventually, I may yet be a hero. These places sold for $225K in 2005. Not so good for those who bought then, quite a bargain now. The replacement cost alone is about $90K.

IMHO, most of the money printed up by the USG has landed in the pockets of precious few. However, some of it got away and eventually, as they always do, things will get better. For now, most of my friends have good jobs. Some of my elderly neighbors lost theirs. Just depends I guess (pun not intended).
 
Navy Pride said:
Its really funny how the people in DP see this and those on the national level...........The results here are right along partian lines......I guess it proves that the lefties no matter how much he ****s up love Hussein Obama and us on the right think he is the worse president this country has ever had.......Thank God people in the real world don't see it the Hussein Obama way....
Click to expand...

Did your thread not go the way you want? Would it make you feel better if I told you I was homeless and I never got to see my child? I bet it would.
 
Well, let's see.

Three years ago my husband and I had one kid, expecting another (8 months along in fact), living off of a little less than $2K a month, in a little 2BR apartment, both having a pretty high chance of getting called up to go to either Iraq or Afghanistan and we we're wondering if he would actually ever get a date to go to active Navy. Oh, and the only insurance we had was high copay med and dental (although the premiums were pretty low). We owned a truck that was over 15 years old, so it had some problems.

Now, he found out his transfer to active duty date around May '09. He makes about the same amount, but we don't have to pay rent or utilities. Plus, since I started school, we also get additional housing money. The family has really low cost med and dental insurance, with little to no copays (military insurance). We have a new car that we can easily afford payments and insurance on. Our house is more than big enough for our family and we can easily afford renter's insurance, plus we have additional safety features with this house that are absolutely wonderful. With the current downsizing going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of IAs going out from the reserves is greatly decreasing, so less chance that I will get IA duty. His job has a decreased chance of having to do IA duty anyway.

Overall, we are doing much better than we were 3 years ago.
 
winston53660 said:
I don't think you will see a boom like what happened. IMHO I think the next boom will be in energy.
Click to expand...

The recent real estate boom was created when congress demanded banks loan to people that didn't qualify. It was a great ride if you got out in time before the bubble burst, I sold several at top dollar and got stuck with a couple after the collapse. I don't want a boom like that again, just the slow steady growth real estate has historically had.

As far as energy, we could be having a boom right now lik SD is experiencing if obama would allow Keystone and open up fed lands to drilling. I think you mean some new age boom in alternative energy but that is a long way off imo.
 
Are you better off today then you were 3 years ago?
Click to expand...


Why yes, yes I am. But then again I am the Greatness that is The Good Reverend... how could I not be? :pimpdaddy:
 
I have a job that (ultimately) pays more than the last.
I'm back in college.
I'm buying a house.
I have little debt.

But why did this happen? I got lucky enough to find work in two industries that are fairly recession proof. I also came of age for FAFSA so that I could file independently w/o my parents information so that I actually qualified for financial aid via grants. And I saved every single extra penny I came across while paying off credit cards (with increased interest rates thanks to ****ty legislation). In other words, I did it through luck, timing, and hard work/frugal living....just like most people have for decades.
 
tessaesque said:
I have a job that (ultimately) pays more than the last.
I'm back in college.
I'm buying a house.
I have little debt.

But why did this happen? I got lucky enough to find work in two industries that are fairly recession proof. I also came of age for FAFSA so that I could file independently w/o my parents information so that I actually qualified for financial aid via grants. And I saved every single extra penny I came across while paying off credit cards (with increased interest rates thanks to ****ty legislation). In other words, I did it through luck, timing, and hard work/frugal living....just like most people have for decades.
Click to expand...

I always say success is based on hard work, perseverance and luck.
 
I am, although it has nothing whatsoever to do with the government. I'm making more than I was, I'm more stable, have bought two new cars in the past year, etc.
 
sawyerloggingon said:
If you people think this is a good economy....
Click to expand...

The question wasn't whether or not we thought this was a good economy, it was are we, as individuals, doing better than we were 3 years ago. And it looks like the majority of people are doing better.

If you think that someone admitting that they are doing better than they were three years ago means they think that we are now in a good economy, then you are leaping to false conclusions.

This is because, despite what some people will try to claim, the economy is doing better than it was three years ago. As I noted earlier, the economy was completely ****ed 3 years ago. Being better than completely ****ed =/= good. It can mean partially ****ed, mostly ****ed, almost completely ****ed, slightly ****ed, or even just plain ****ed.

The economy is recovering. It doesn't care who the president is. He doesn't deserve credit for the economy, nor does he deserve blame for it. The president's actual effect on the economy is nowhere near what politicians and pundits would have us believe. It is great political fodder, but it's preying on the ignorance of the masses. Any president would have seen an improvement in the economy over the last three years. It doesn't matter what party they belong to, nor does it matter whether or not they support certain policies. It would have been damn near impossible to not see any improvement from where things were 3 years ago.

If one wants to make any partisan points about the recovery, they should limit those points to what is logical and rational: Has the recovery been helped or hindered by Obama's policies? Because at most, that's all a president can have an effect on with regard to economic recoveries of this sort. They can hinder them, they can help them, or they can have little-to-no effect in any direction (That last option being the most likely scenario, by the way. Ignore the credit taking and blaming that comes from self-serving douchebag politicians. That's all bull**** they spew in order to get votes for themselves and their party and only an idiot would assume there was any truth to it without researching the ever-living **** out of the information first.)


Does overall improvement in the economy mean every individual is doing better? Of course not.

But I'm a "personal responsibility" type of guy, so I don't buy the "it's the government's fault I'm not doing better right now" line of bull****. Not four years after the market collapsed and the economy fell in the ****ter. It's not the government's job to save us from ourselves. If someone is not doing better now than they were three years ago, it is almost certainly not the government's fault. More often that not, the lack of improvement over the last four years is the person's own damned fault. They either didn't adjust to a changing situation, failed to plan appropriately, or were just too damned stubborn to take responsibility for their own future.

Some people might be in worse situations than they were through no fault of their own, of course. Illness, injury, Natural disaster, etc. If the primary cause of their decline is something that really was an unpredictable event of some sort, then their misfortune isn't their own fault.

But for most people doing worse now than they were three years ago, they just didn't do a damned thing to make sure they'd be doing better.
 
sawyerloggingon said:
To some extent I agree but the government you are under can and does make it easier or more difficult to succeed economically, obama has made it more difficult. I should say obama and the Dems in DC not just him alone.
Click to expand...

Not in the US. The president is merely a variable in the overall situation. Your ability tot adapt, anticipate, and adjust to those variables is what causes you to fail or succeed. If, after three years of the same variables in place you continue to fail, then you have nobody to blame but yourself because you have failed to adjust, adapt, and anticipate.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom