What Color is the Sky on Your Planet?

[kevin_standlee]

Over on another community -- some of you reading this may still be following that discussion, too -- I had reason to question the economic assumptions of someone claiming that we're in a "bad economy." I asked how long we've been in a "bad economy." The reply, cut-and-pasted here exactly so I can't be accused of misquoting, was:

i think our economy has been in a primarily steady decline since the 50's with the occasional boost.

This is someone a few years younger than me. I was born in 1965 and grew up in different parts of northern California. I am not from a wealthy family, nor have I won a lottery. I'm pretty middle class, I reckon. For the record, I do not think that the US economy has been in a sustained 50-plus year decline.

It makes me think that the dot-com boom did even more harm than we thought at the time: it convinced some people that the running with a high fever is the "normal" state, and than anything else is a depression.

Comments

[howeird]

Depends on what he means by decline. If he's talking about what a dollar can buy, I'd have to say he's right. But if he's talking about things like jobs and GNP and the usual leading economic indicators, he's way off base.

[(Anonymous)]

As Howeird notes, it is all a question of what measures you use. Inflation is certainly one, although the fact that the purchasing power of the dollar has declined steadily over the past 50 years does not mean that Americans have got poorer; they have generally got richer.

There are, of course, many other measures you could use. It seems fairly likely, for example, that over the past 50 years more and more of the nation's wealth has fallen into the hands of (gasp!) women. There are some who will see that as a Bad Thing.

An environmental campaigner might note that the US economy has seen a period of sustained growth, and that in consequence every year Americans need more and more of an unfair share of the world's natural resources in order to sustain their lifestyle. That's certainly "bad" by many people's definitions.

Then again there is the question of the increasing gap between the rich and the poor. Even though poor Americans are getting richer, the very rich are getting richer much faster, which many people view as bad. This one, however, is probably a relatively recent trend, and not something that has been sustained over the last 50 years.

Also, of course, it depends what you are comparing. Is the US economy "bad" in comparison to Sweden? To Argentina? To Cambodia? To Zimbabwe? Or simply to an ideal standard of affluence that your correspondent believes The Government has a duty to provide?

- Cheryl

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Um, no, he's pretty much right. The real income (adjusted for inflation) of everyone except for a handful of plutocrats has been dropping for at least thirty years. This may be disguised by the fact that most individuals coming of age in that time rise more quickly within the falling stream than the rate at which it goes down, and by the increasing cornucopia of things you can buy with your less money.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

There is a factor around when you entered the job market and where. I graduated in 1991 and found the next 7-8 years to be pretty heavy going with poor economic conditions being the norm until the boom.

There were some personal circumstances which helped things downwards in the late 90s and then the end of the boom was bad when we had to relocate back from California.

Times are pretty good now though.

I think it's trickier looking forward and making comparisons to people older than I am - then I do worry more. Saving enough to retire at the age my father did (55) seems impossible, at least to save enough and have as much money as he did and certainly looking at my mother who has half his pension plus her own state pension - she has pretty significant disposable income and short of working to my late 60s I can't see myself managing that.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

I finally saw that exchange...

I think the bit about Pantheacon having a kick-ass staff is incomplete. Much like BayCon, they have a kick-ass staff that's overworked, to the point that many staffers are working 10-16 hour days and don't have the time to enjoy the convention. It's the nature of a convention where the staff is an expense.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

Purple. The color of the sky on my planet is purple.