This recession, stupid
Another day, another article on the price of gas.
USA Today:
Gas prices rattle Americans
(print: Gas costs squeeze daily life)
Well, do they now.
I have to admit that all the hoopla and hysteria about $4.09+ has me feeling a little bit smug. Okay, a lot smug. I think I'm entitled to some smugness, though, given how completely worthless I feel sometimes in our society. Like it's actually some failure of mine that I live such that I don't need to drive, a stain, a stigma, a glaring piece of proof that I still haven't grown up and made something of myself. I don't have a successful car-free life, I just plain don't have a successful life. I deserve no respect, should take no pride. I don't buy gas, so I don't count. I'm a loser; my concerns can be ignored.
So forgive me for being smug. Often it's the only thing that can get me out of bed in the morning: "Hey, I can bike to work! And then I can bike home! Lucky me!"
Thing is, I know perfectly well that one of these days our nose-diving petroleum-based economy is going to bite me in the ass anyway, and that's what has me worried. It's completely unfair, but that's the way the world works. And I'm worried. Very worried.
And that's what keeps me up at night. I can avoid driving all I want, but it still might not make a damn bit of difference in the end, 'cept that I could be one of those really annoying smug people who won't stop telling everyone "I told you so." And I hate those kinds of people.
posted by Jennifer @ 10:34 PM
15 comments
15 Comments:
Apparently it's leading to more people riding bikes:
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/news/944210,3_1_EL12_A12BIKES_S1.article
It is increasingly unlikely that we are currently in a recession:
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The Recession of 2008 That Wasn’t?
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Well, we must be in something, or else why all the whining?
I figured out a while ago that I make essentially no difference, but I tell myself that I'm at least doing the right thing ethically. When another child dies from starvation in Africa or Bangladesh or New Orleans because all of his food has been taken to fuel our automobiles, I can tell myself that I'm not the direct cause of his starvation.
And then I scarf down another big helping of carne asada. See, I'm as capable of self deception and hypocrisy as the next guy.
"Recession" means the economy is contracting, but the more important issue is whether the average American is better off economically now than he/she was last month or last year. Sbvor may argue about the former, but the latter is pretty clear.
Wage increases have been lower since 2000 than in previous decades, so workers' earnings aren't keeping up with expenses. The housing market is falling apart, which hurts the people who lose their homes as well as many others who can't get loans now to take advantage of falling housing prices because credit is tighter. It's affecting renters, too (since fewer people can buy, apartments are scarcer -- especially since the recent condo boom took so many rentals off the market -- driving up rent). The stock market has performed poorly this century, which has boomers sweating over their retirement. Fuel prices have risen, which affects everyone, even the Jennifers among us: eventually, prices will go up for all goods to reflect increased transportation costs. Food prices, especially for grains, also have risen lately (for other reasons). Plus, the weak dollar is a problem because we import so much stuff (some economists say the weak dollar has contributed to high oil prices, too). And I haven't even mentioned the wealth gap between the rich and the poor fomented by Bush's tax policies.
Put all that together, and almost everybody has something to whine about regardless of whether we are in a recession.
Oh, wonderful. We're all going to be living in cardboard boxes while perfectly good housing units stand empty.
David sez:
“Wage increases have been lower since 2000 than in previous decades”
I bet a so-called “journalist” planted that lie in your head.
Where, in this chart, is the evidence?
Looking at the same chart, but in terms of “change from year ago”, I see solid, quantitative evidence that Personal Income revived quite nicely after the bursting of the single largest speculative bubble in human history (the NASDAQ dot.com bubble, March, 2000) was compounded by the single most deadly enemy attack on American soil ever (9/11/2001).
In the bursting of that bubble, the NASDAQ lost 73% of it’s value from top to bottom.
Do you think home values will decline by 73%? I don’t.
David sez:
“workers' earnings aren't keeping up with expenses”
But, this chart quantitatively proves that Personal Income has continued to rise faster than inflation.
Note: Readers can recreate each of the above charts by starting here and following the instructions.
"Sez"? Come on now, none of that.
Sbvor, you are aware of the widening income gap, correct? The income for the bottom half of Americans is essentially unchanged over the past two decades, while income for those in the top 1% has exploded. People like me can buy more stuff, but much of the working class are trapped at the same place they were in 1979. Those $40 million executive bonuses skew the numbers quite a bit, and the only rebate after corporations "underperform" is to lay off the rank and file.
Jenn,
Sorry mom. ;-)
Thanks for indulging me.
Fritz,
1) If you can substantiate your class warfare assertion, I will then consider addressing it. Please avoid, if you can, echo chamber assertions from so-called “journalists” (aka propagandists).
2) Every attempt I’ve ever seen to close the gap between the wealthy and the less wealthy has only served to make everybody less wealthy. Be careful what you ask for.
3) By the sound of it, you have a considerably higher income than I do. I get by (quite happily) on less than the average annual salary of a grade school teacher.
Class warfare and limos? How did those work itself into the discussion?
I agree that efforts to redistribute wealth can end in disaster, and I don't know why you claim I wished for it. I also don't deny that real creation of wealth has occurred over the past three decades and I'm one of those who has benefited, but that doesn't negate the truth that executives today make up to 400 times what they're employees do, versus 40 times back in the 60s. I've made no statements about whether this is "fair" or not, just that this growing income gap is very real and probably accounts for the income growth that you cite.
I suppose I could post charts to my blog using the same source material as you and I might even work up the effort some day if I'm sufficiently motivated.
Well, if it could keep "class warfare" from turning into actual warfare, would that be so bad? I for one am tired of seeing people murdered for pocket change. Maybe when muggers realize that everyone else is just as broke as they are, they'll quit bothering.
I say that with my usual amount of sarcasm, of course. But I suppose I won't be able to get away with that much longer, now that I apparently have enough readers to spark an argument on political ideologies every time I whine about being broke. Or whatever it was I was whining about in the first place. I can't even remember anymore. Did I even have a point? Somebody invite me to LiveJournal; I think I need one of those again.
By the way, the article Jessica pointed out is here. I don't understand why these things have such a hard time breaking URLs. Our printer does it all the time, so it can't be impossible.
Sbvor, I said that wages aren't keeping up with expenses, and you compared wages to inflation. Those are different issues. Inflation is only one factor in rising expenses; I already cited others (i.e., fuel and food).
Also, I never said home values would decline by 73%, but anyone can see that housing is having a negative effect on the economy right now. I suppose you have a chart that says I'm wrong.
I don't know why you are so hell-bent on convincing us that the economy is just ducky, but I'm not buying it. Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining.
Oh, and that was a nice, unwarranted ad hominem attack on Fritz -- exactly what I expect from an anonymous blogger.
Enough! I see that subtlety is not working, so consider this thread closed, unless you want to talk about bikes. Actually, if you want to talk about bikes, move over to a more bikey post; I'm done with this one.
I know this is probably going to make me look like Evil Leftist Blogger who silences opposing viewpoints, so I'll remind everyone that I'm really just an incredibly self-absorbed 20-something who had better things to do all day than try (badly) to moderate this thing.
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