America’s official unemployment rate is now below five percent. The past two years have been associated with the most job growth nationally since nineteen ninety nine. The U.S. economy continues to be among the strongest in the developed world, expanding more than two percent last year. While that’s hardly inspiring, it’s a far cry from an economic downturn.
Despite that, Americans continue to express pessimism. According to the latest CNN/ORC poll, fifty seven percent of Americans say that the nation is doing poorly. Fifty six percent of Americans believe that the next generation will be worse off than them financially.
While people can debate whether or not the average person is getting better off, what seems to be clear is that living standards are not improving as rapidly as they once did. Between nineteen sixty nine and two thousand and six, economic growth averaged more than three percent a year. Over the last few years, it’s averaged about two percent.
And as indicated by CNNMoney, the middle and lower classes aren’t receiving as much of the economic pie as they once did. The typical middle class family takes home roughly what they did twenty years ago. Many of the best jobs are in major cities, and those places are becoming increasingly unaffordable.
