WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR ECONOMY?
Throughout our history the United States has experienced many booms and many busts. You can track the origin of these reasons, most heavily, to human emotions and desires. One thing has always been the same in our history of the United States; in every expansion since World War II and ever since the Government has been keeping records, the buying power of most American families grew while the economy did.
However, history has changed its pattern within the past decade. In 2000, at the end of the previous economic expansion, the median American family made about $61,000. This is according to the Census Bureau’s inflation-adjusted numbers. What is interesting is that the latest expansion American families have seen ended in 2007 with the housing boom. History would tell us that buying power of American families grows as the economy does. Amazingly, to many economists surprise, the median American family made less during this period – about $60,500.
“We have had expansions before where the bottom end didn’t do well,” said Lawrence F. Katz, a Harvard economist who studies the job market. “But we’ve never had an expansion in which the middle of income distribution had no wage growth.”--- this statement published in the New York Times---
As part of a poll that was released by the Pew Research Center, they asked people how they have done over the past 5 years. Keep in mind that during these past five years the economy grew every year and in some cases very significantly. Pew Research Center stated this was the most downbeat assessment of personal progress in almost a half a century. Many of those polled stated that they either had been stuck in place or even had fallen backwards.
This all leads back, in my opinion, to human emotions and desires. The economy has allowed us to become passive in educating ourselves and more importantly-our children in understanding the basics of credit, debt and finances. Because of these disgusting passive actions by many of us, we have deemed it appropriate to buy now/pay later, over extend our budgets, and not expecting enough education to be given to us or our children.
If we continue to deem it appropriate for this “fast-paced financial world” to dictate to us how to handle our financial future while at the same time never educating any of us affectively… I’m sorry to say, but our country that our Founding Fathers created on values, principles and ethics will diminish into history because of our spoiled, selfish and passive ways we have been taught and are teaching our children. We all need to slow-down, demand proper education and take notice of all the dangers living in a “financially fast-paced world.” We all need to start Making Opportunity Reality!