Bill Moyers: The "Misery Index." and the Middle Class »
Posted By TechnologyExpert 10 months, 2 weeks ago in NewsWorking Americans, and that's most people, are experiencing the "big squeeze." In fact, they're trying to survive one of the most profound social and economic changes in our history. The middle class is disappearing, facing a decline in standards of living. So you'd hope that the Democrats in Denver next week and the Republicans in St. Paul the following week would confront this crisis head on and not just serenade struggling families with a chorus of sympathetic but meaningless sound bites.
As wages stagnate, prices are soaring. Economists call this pain the "misery index." It's a combination of the unemployment and inflation rates, and it's what politicians have in mind when they ask, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" Well, the misery index is the highest it's been since George Bush's father became president, seventeen years ago.
When it comes to feeling the misery index, however, you don't go to the economists or the politicians. You go to where regular people live. And that's what we have been doing on this broadcast for months now. We've seen how the mortgage crisis has devastated neighborhoods in Cleveland, how workers in Los Angeles are scrambling for a living wage, and how gas and food prices are choking the ability of food pantries to stave off hunger here in metropolitan New York.
This week, we go to the city of the hour - Denver, the site of the Democratic National Convention. Nearly 75,000 people will gather in the Mile High City as Barack Obama makes history by becoming the first African American to be nominated by a major party for president.
But outside the convention center doors, history of a different, more prosaic sort is being made. This year oil hit a record high - $147 a barrel when last year, it was less than half that - around $68. A loaf of bread is up 14% from last year, a dozen eggs is up 33%, and pizza makers have seen the cost of their cheese soar from $1.30 to $1.76. Flour used to make the dough has tripled in price. As these prices soar, the value of homes is sinking. One in three home buyers since 2003 now owe more than their property's estimated worth. Not only has home equity plummeted, so has the value of other holdings, like stocks and bonds and pensions, the investments families count on as a cushion during hard times.
So America's middle class, our "fearful families" as some people call them, is taking it on the chin. The history-making nominations aside, all the rhetoric from all the speakers at next week's Democratic Convention will be so much hot air above the Rockies unless the party comes to grip with how people are living and hurting today.
Just imagine what might happen if instead of going to all the shindigs being paid for by all the wealthy donors and corporations next week, the Democratic faithful - and their candidates - spread out across Denver's neighbors, and listened to people caught in the big squeeze. That's what our producer Betsy Rate and correspondent Rick Karr did just the other day.
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TechnologyExpert
I am Editor-in-Chief at Alice Hill's RealTechNews (http://www.realtechnews.com). I also have my own blog (Tech-Ex) at http://TechnologyExpert.Blogspot.com. Finally ...
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Lurch10 months, 2 weeks ago
The McCain campaign calls this the Whiner Index and they say anyone who pays attention to it is an elitist.
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Lurch10 months, 2 weeks ago
If you want to read something scary, read about the underemployment rate, which is a measure of how many people are only partially employed or employed below their capabilities and skill level. These are the programmers, engineers, or other who were laid off at some point and then were only able to find work say as a waiter for example. This has been estimated to be about 25%.
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As McCain`s buddies in the corporate world continue to shift jobs overseas, the underemployment continues to rise with no end in sight.
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Charlson10 months, 2 weeks ago
"Jefferson County's annual median household income is just over fifty-seven thousand dollars, which makes it part of the most affluent Congressional district in Colorado."
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$57,000 is the median household income in one of the most affluent Congressional district in Colorado and McCain puts the rich at 5 million or more? Now who is truly the one out of touch with the common citizen? -
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PainGoddess10 months, 2 weeks ago
The drug dealers do not seem to have a problem making ends meet.....LOL nice cars, clothes, weapons.......
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bigurn10 months, 2 weeks ago
What i see in a lot of people I talk to is a lack of understanding between needs and wants. For example, I work with the needy. They ask for help with electrical bills, gas bills, etc., and we provide it. Predominantly, they have cable and cell phones and don't imagine giving these things up to pay their gas bill in the winter.
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I wonder if a misunderstanding between needs and wants contributes to misery. And I wonder where the misunderstanding could be coming from. Certainly there is a large contribution from the commercialization of nearly everything. But there is also a personal responsibility component that I think is at least as responsible.
The reduction in the notion of personal responsibility seems to be growing in this country, without deference to class, color or background. If we were to solve this we might be able to improve the "misery" index because values would change. -
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simonsez10 months, 2 weeks ago
Nothing is going to happen in Denver or St Paul that will make much difference.
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Government creates problems ... they don't solve them. The best thing is that they do nothing negative and get out of the way and let the country get back to optimism and growth. -
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Harbeas10 months, 2 weeks ago
I have to laugh at the article's comment on wage stagnation. We have wage reductions and eliminations. Underemployment is another key phrase.
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We have a very serious situation here and neither of the main parties have a solution other than the same old same old. We have too many companies downsizing and moving their operations overseas. They are forcing huge wage cuts on the employees and yet the CEO's are still being paid tens of millions of dollars. Top that off with the speculator caused huge increase in oil and we have a totally unacceptable situation. Our do nothing congress says lets drill for more oil and tax the oil companies profits. Those two moves will not solve our problem! We need to elect an entirely new kind of politician that puts public service above his/her own personal agenda.
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