I think people answering need to state where they are. I know some people are doing badly around here, southern BC, but most are doing the same as they were. Everyone is nervous about how Trump is going to fuck things up next. Rich are still rich. Impoverished are still impoverished and the in-between still run a spectrum of how they are doing. Not everyone is honest. One family member alternately crows about how well his stocks are doing, while saying everything is going to hell, while vacationing (expensively) for 6 months of the year. An Albertan relative is complaining of being in the poor house although he just drove his family all around Western Canada in a 350 pulling a big trailer - that was $1000s in fuel alone. Meanwhile a recently divorced friend thinks she’s living the life on $70K income because she no longer has to support deadbeat alcoholic husband. My kids are Millenials and they and their friends are getting married, having kids, buying townhouses or sometimes even houses. How people are doing is very subjective. How they feel they are doing is often a measure of how anxious they are about their future.
However the median of the population isn’t getting better. Incomes are only rising for a small percentage. Remember that in the good old days big businesses and their owners - not mom and pop operations - paid taxes that contributed to society’s needs. Since Reagan this has disappeared, not just in the US but also Canada in order to compete. The average person’s income has paid the price. All to create the billionaire class who see all workers as an expense to get rid of.
I’m all right financially, not rich but not poor, but I worry alot about how others are going to make it through.
I think people answering need to state where they are. I know some people are doing badly around here, southern BC, but most are doing the same as they were. Everyone is nervous about how Trump is going to fuck things up next. Rich are still rich. Impoverished are still impoverished and the in-between still run a spectrum of how they are doing. Not everyone is honest. One family member alternately crows about how well his stocks are doing, while saying everything is going to hell, while vacationing (expensively) for 6 months of the year. An Albertan relative is complaining of being in the poor house although he just drove his family all around Western Canada in a 350 pulling a big trailer - that was $1000s in fuel alone. Meanwhile a recently divorced friend thinks she’s living the life on $70K income because she no longer has to support deadbeat alcoholic husband. My kids are Millenials and they and their friends are getting married, having kids, buying townhouses or sometimes even houses. How people are doing is very subjective. How they feel they are doing is often a measure of how anxious they are about their future. However the median of the population isn’t getting better. Incomes are only rising for a small percentage. Remember that in the good old days big businesses and their owners - not mom and pop operations - paid taxes that contributed to society’s needs. Since Reagan this has disappeared, not just in the US but also Canada in order to compete. The average person’s income has paid the price. All to create the billionaire class who see all workers as an expense to get rid of. I’m all right financially, not rich but not poor, but I worry alot about how others are going to make it through.