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

[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.