Why do some people say the USA economy is weak?

Question

The economy is strong. I live off of a $787.95 biweekly paycheck and I do not have any problems feeding myself, driving to work, paying my monthly apartment rent, etc. I want to be an actuary and the USA job market is very strong. Regardless, there are more quality jobs than we have people in the USA. I think that's good.

Do people use the goldeylox economy as a measuring stick? My adjunct economics professor said that the USA economy will never be as strong as it was in the 1990s. Perhaps some people should stop comparing our economy to the the economy of the 1990s.

Answer 1

People are saying it is a bad economy because A) The "rich-poor" gap has increased, B) The housing market has not been doing well, C) Subprime mortgages blew up, and D) Increasing oil and food prices.

For me, D is the only legitimate reason why our economy is not doing as well as it could be. I don't think the rich-poor gap is too bad (and it's always been increasing, not just this decade) - simply because people that are low to middle class are still getting iPods, videogames, etc! How is this a terrible recession if we are still doing all of this? I think there's a lot of people making bad decisions with their money, and the government is blamed.

The housing market is falling, but it was never that good to begin with! Prices went WAY too high in the 90s/early2000s, and this is a market correction, nothing more. People didn't deserve to make that much money on their homes.

Subprime mortgages can be blamed on wall street, along with the culture that says "Bad credit? NO credit? who cares!"

Which leaves D as the only real and good answer. High fuel prices have raised the price of nearly everything. Until gas reached this recent peak of $3.50+, I didn't think we were in a recession, but now we're probably getting close as people will cut back.

And your professor has to realize that while the economy was very strong in the 1990's, it took a big hit from 2000-2002. Tech speculation was out of control and this led to the dot-com crash shortly afterwards. So yes, the economy was good, but it was not without its collapse.

Answer 2

I think it's great that you are able to make it on less than $800 every two weeks.  HOWEVER, when you grow up, and have a family, your expenses go WAYYYYY up.  An apartment won't cut it for a family, you'll need a house.  That should more than likely raise your housing (just housing, not electric, water, trash, etc, etc, etc) by probably 2-3 times.  And when your spouse needs a car to get around, there's another expense for the car, gas and insurance.  And don't forget those crying babies because they get hungry and need clothes and toys.  Single life is fine in this economy, but as a family and an adult, it sucks big time!

Answer 3

Some people Because gas and food prices have gone up slighty, people belive it will keep going up.

Some because were in war and they think it is costing them cash.

Other people think that just because others and the media states the economy is bad.

I dont think the economy is bad ether, but you know how the power of influence is.

Answer 4

The economy is not as strong as you might think.  It's strong in the sense that you can live with your pay and your lifestyle, but that's not the economy that is dying.  Stocks are plummeting, the dollar is REALLY weak to all the other foreign currencies, oil prices are at an all time high.  You may be able to live on what you have, but some people like myself who is stationed in Germany, or England etc... it is hard.  Are you invested in stocks, bonds, portfolios, retirement funds, ira's, CD's?  That is where it hurts the most!  Trust me if you have any of those then you would completely understand the economies weakness.

Answer 5

The folks who are complaining are the ones who are living beyond their means. They bought too big of a house, too much car, took too many vacations to Hawaii, racked up too much debt.  Those are the folks crying about high fuel prices and a doomed economy.

Those of us who live within our means enough so that we have plenty of buffer space for a few pennies rise in fuel are scratching our heads wondering what are these people fussing about.

Answer 6

u might be able to live off that but when there is someone that has to support a family on that paycheck it is very hard

Answer 7

It depends on where you live. I just moved from California to Florida. I did a 30 mile radius check for jobs on CareerBuilder just as a comparison. There is 22 pages of jobs for the area in California I lived, and only 1 page of jobs for the area of Florida I'm in. I lived here before and it was not this bad. I've been making money on the internet for about 3 years now. This is definately the worst year. People are not spending money, for whatever reasons they have. As far as gas prices, im sick of hearing about it. The people who complain about gas prices are just doing it because they heard their neighbor doing it. Its like this cool thing now, to complain about gas prices. Its a cool club, your either in or your out. I cant have a conversation with anybody without hearing about gas prices. If your job gives you at least a .65 cent raise every year (I dont know any job that wouldnt), thats an extra $1300 each year. Gas has only gone up $1 in 2 years. That means that most people are making $2600 this year then they were 2 years ago if they still have their jobs, and only paying an extra $500 in gas, considering you use 40 gallons a month like most americans. The ones that really annoy me are the ones who drive farther up the road because gas is .10 cents less. That's just ridiculous.

Answer 8

The level of wages and the weakness of the economy are two different questions. People say the economy is weak because of the slow growth and the decline in the number of people with jobs over the last 2 quarters and many economist think we are entering a recession.