Financial Armageddon with more signs of a non-recovery
Not to pour cold water on the rally — though a little water-boarding might be just the trick to jar loose those rocks substituting as brains in the heads of all those “Dow 12,000″ hat-wearing bulls – but I wonder if any of them noticed a recent poll (via Market Digest) that reveals nearly half of the population is having a hard time staying afloat?
Four in 10 Americans Struggle to Pay the Bills
Despite signs of recovery from the “Great Recession,” 4 in 10 Americans find themselves living lives of economic struggle, and worry about whether they’ll keep a middle-class life in the long term, according to a new Public Agenda survey.
Even with their short-term worries about paying the bills, the public’s biggest concerns are about affording college and a secure retirement, and they put their faith in long-term solutions like making higher education affordable, job training, and preserving Social Security and Medicare, the report found.
The survey shows how widespread the struggle remains to make ends meet in America. Four in ten Americans (40 percent) say they’re struggling “a lot” in the current economy, while fewer than 2 in 10 say they’re not struggling at all – and those two groups live in different worlds, according to the telephone survey exploring the views of 1,004 adults, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Half of those who say they’re struggling “a lot” (52 percent) say they’ve had trouble paying the rent or mortgage since 2008, compared to only 4 percent of the non-struggling. More than one-third, 34 percent, have lost their job in the past two years, compared with 9 percent of the non-struggling.
Fully 77 percent of the struggling who also have children say they’re “very worried” about paying for their child’s college education. In addition, nearly one-third of those who are employed (32 percent) say they’re “very worried” about losing their job. Of the group overall, 61 percent are very worried about being able to retire, while 45 percent say they’re very worried about paying back debt.
By contrast, 8 percent of those who aren’t struggling are worried about retirement, and only 2 percent are worried about paying back debt or losing their job.
Again, I say: What a recovery!
