Oh? Wait until february 2013 when the tax cuts are going to expire, and let me know if politicians matter to your pocket. ;]
I'm definitely better off. My wife's business is booming, and my 401k has mostly recovered. I just refinanced at 3.5% (used to be 5.25%) so my mortgage payment is dropping a couple hundred bucks a month. One kid is out of a daycare and in first grade, so that saves me $500/mo. I ditched Directv and my landline (went with Ooma) and now save another $180/mo. Everything is coming up Milhouse. That said, both of my brothers and my dad are underemployed. But they all seem somewhat optimistic. Interestingly, most of what makes me "better off" has little to do with the money, though. I have a great family and good friends, and they all just seem to get more interesting the older I get. The significant material improvements in my life aren't that expensive. Websites like Reddit and Facebook are enriching my life for free (when they didn't exist to me 4 years ago). Podcasts and GPS mapping and camera and browsing on my smartphone all happen for much less than a thousand bucks a year. My internet is faster, my car has more features for less money, programs like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad are vastly superior to anything back then.... Personally, in the past 4 years I lost 80lbs and can run 3 miles straight. I hiked 20 miles last weekend over brutal country and am not sore. My six year old told me yesterday, "Huh, Dad, you aren't fat now." Not bad for a 39 year old. Did Obama make a huge difference? Obviously not on the tech or entertainment or my personal changes. On the economy? I don't know. Given where I am and where the country is right now, I find it hard to say that voting for him 4 years ago was a big mistake.
You said it well--"Are you better off" is a stupid way to determine whether to vote for an incumbent politician. He controls very little of whether we're better off. Another stupid line that Reagan started was to ask after a debate, "Who won?" Before him, the media never thought that way. The purpose of a debate was to educate us in the issues, not to win as if it's a sport.
I am doing a little worse. Wage freezes, 401k dipped a lot, my home value is lower, etc. things like that.
The debates are completely meaningless at this point. It's just a series of soundbites firing back and forth without much followup. Politicians answer whatever the hell question they make up in their mind without even addressing the questioner. It's basically two stump speeches occasionally interrupting each other.
For the record, I'm only there because I had to be at one point in time due to my wife's child custody issues. But I'm a native born Oregonian and true to my creed I hate Californians.
Without a media filter, though. The candidates do get to get their messages out directly to the audience.
This is pretty much true. For some people, whether or not they're doing "better" or not is really a matter of timing or luck. To be sure, some things should always improve over a 4 year time span, ie, wages raising (as a national average), unemployment improving or if already low staying stable, stable rate of inflation, houses raising in value, increase in 401K/savings, lowering of personal debt... and again, this should be taken as a national average. Then there's national scale things like is the national debt higher. If so, did it raise more, percentage wise, than the previous 4 years. Are we sticking to a balanced budget? If not, how much over and how does that relate to the prior 4 year average, is college more expensive, and if so did it raise up more than the prior 4 years... Those things are worth comparing.
I guess. Although if you want to hear completely unfiltered reports about what Romney or Obama thinks about something, there are a million youtube videos of speeches out there. This Wikipedia entry tells the story as it really is with the current "debate" system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_debates
The thing about the debates is that no amount of money can drown out what the candidate wants to say directly to the viewers. YouTube is fine, but not necessarily so timely or as big an audience. The debates also come at a time when a lot of people get interested in the race.
I think the results of this poll are pretty interesting. All the gloom and doom that one sees on this board doesn't seem to be reflected in the survey. If you believe the results, most people here are doing pretty well - 80% of respondents are better off than they were. Should we believe the results? Obviously this is a very non-scientific poll. Maybe people who aren't better off were too depressed to answer the poll? Maybe S2 posters are much better off than the average man on the street? Maybe the poll was rigged by the same evildoers that destroyed WTC7 and stole the ENORMOUS AMOUNT of gold beneath? barfo
Denny Crane, PapaG, MaxieP, Masbee and Shooter are all worse off than 4 years ago. Its explains one man's anger.
