A proposal for a new misery index.

[Greyhound]

I was thinking about something mentioned on one of the sunday morning shows. The premise was that the economy is strong, but the sheeple give *Co. a failing grade on its performance. Once I got done yelling at the screen, I remembered the misery index that was always mentioned in the 80's. So I did a little googling and found it was simply the unemployment rate added to the rate of inflation. Not a very good indicator of anything when they are constantly fudging the numbers, so I though we could use a real misery index that would give a real indication how we're really doing as a country.
First I think a real indication of inflation is the cost of goods and services in relation to real wages is needed. For example, in 1960 the price of a 3 bedroom 2 bath home ($13,825) was roughly 2.5 times the annual median household income ($5,737), today it ($195,000) is about 4.5 times the median household income ($43,417). In 1960 the median income typically was earned by a single person working one full-time job, today the same income is almost exclusively earned by two salaries, effectively doubling the inflation of the cost of housing. The price of gasoline ($.29 compared to $2.50) really only a little more expensive, when compared to the same median income, although the doubling of work hours to gain said income makes it even more expensive. The average price of a new car was about $2,000, today it is about $28,000, almost 1500% increase while income has gone up 750%. Other factors that I haven't figured out how to demonstrate are the less tangible factors such as job insecurity, access to health care and the decline of corporate participation in the communities they exist in.
I think we need something along these lines to graphically show the sheeple the reality of how their standard of living is eroding. Do you think this would be helpful?

[Warpy]

1. I've been thinking that the cost of health care

reflects the true inflation in this country. We've enjoyed a period of inflation that's been artificially low because we've exported all our industries to countries whose currency exchange rates make their labor costs seem much lower than ours. That's kept the price of goods very low. The health care industry is the only one that relies on equipment manufactured here plus a huge service component.

Our wages have reflected the fake inflation rate, not the real one evidenced by health care. Yes, housing has also inflated at a ridiculous pace, but that, too, reflects a huge service industry plus things that are actually made here, although the heavy equipment and power tools now are mainly made in the far east.

The bill is about to come due, though, and it's going to be very ugly for a while. You can't starve your consumer base for long without having your economy collapse, and that's what is about to happen. People are drowning in debt, their houses (if they own them) are mortgaged and remortgaged to the max, and their wages just aren't paying for necessities now that we are seeing inflation again.

Stupid blowdried bobblehead quote of the week: "When you deduct food and energy, you see that the inflation rate is still fairly flat."

[Greyhound]

3. Exactly the point. The sheeple never see real numbers and seem

to have lost their memory. They are perfectly happy to be told how great they're doing and how they're better off than ever and they just believe it. As long as they do they will not support change.

[LiberalEsto]

9. Our co-pays have gone from $5 per doctor visit

and $5 per prescription to $15 per visit and $20 per prescription in just 5 years. Some prescriptions cost a co-pay of $35 or more, while Aetna refuses to cover some medications at all.

[mrcheerful]

2. Nope.

The sheepicans will just blow it off as these people choose to be in their situation, they use their credit cards to much instead of banking their income. Or they chose the wrong job to be in. Sheepicans are so disillusioned they can't see anything outside of what Fox news tells them. Look at the way they ignore any facts on any subject. Fact there are more whites on welfare then blacks. Sheepican fact-welfare is made up of lazy blacks thhat refuse to work and only their tax dollars are paying for those lazy black people. BTW, sheepicans think they are the only ones paying taxes.

[Greyhound]

4. They believe the lies because the repukes are so good at

making sure it is all they hear. We are finding our voice now and the word is getting out, I just think we need to have something simple and direct to say to them when they are listening. "We're better than they are" is not a reason to vote for somebody else.

[mrcheerful]

5. That is what they do hear

from GW. GW is a moral man, GW is a christen, GW is a man of integrity, So GW is better then any dem out there to sheepicans. They only listen to his good intentions and never look at his behaviors. Where liberals were watching his actions and ignored his good intentions. Sheepicans for example, saw his inability to admit to making mistakes and took that as he stood by his convictions. Liberals saw the same thing and took it as hard headed and foolishness. Thats also why they voted for Delay and the rest of the crooks, if GW is good so is everyone in his party. They spun the ''we are better then them'' approach and it worked.

[Greyhound]

6. Yes they did. Don't you think we need something like this too?

I hear Dems (I assume) on this very board talking about how good the economy is, too. Do they just not know how it was not too long ago, or is it the "somebody else's problem" effect?

[mrcheerful]

7. Therein lies the real problem with

americans, I got mine, screw you. The compassion for others is about gone from the american mind set, we have become a nation of egotistical,self centered assholes. Lost your job? To bad, I still have mine and thats all that counts. Same with the union problems, unions used to fight for workers back in the day, but the unions of today bear little resemblance to that union. Why? Because the workers got lazy and decided to give the unions a free hand on everything, sure members voted, but how many members were active in seeing that the unions kept on track? Its the same attitude that got republicans elected time after time. You'd think after Watergate and Nixon the american people would have seen the republican party for what it was. Yet less then 10 years later they put Reagan in the white house. Whats left is a small group of liberals that want changes for the better but we lose because america is caught up in these moral quagmires.

[Greyhound]

10. The result of the slow conversion from citizen (remember how they pounded

that into us in school?) to a mere consumer? Baa, baa, time for another shearing.
The OG unions would shut down an entire industry in support of one union, today they won't even strike for their own.
Apparently we are the only ones concerned with this here and I agree with your assessment of the average amerikan, but I like to hope they will wake up before it is all gone.
I just ran into the old numbers and realized I had no real idea how bad it has become, and I try to pay attention, so I can only imagine how ignorant most sheeple are of the decline of our nation.

[LiberalEsto]

8. Don't forget college educations!

In 1969-70 I attended Rutgers University in NJ as an in-state resident for $500 tuition per year, $65 in fees, and about another $1000 for room and board.

My daughters attend University of Maryland and commute from home to save money, but it still costs each of them about $8,000 plus various fees and parking permits per year. Room and board would make it impossible, so they commute 50 miles round-trip every day on the nightmarish Washington Beltway.

[Greyhound]

11. Good point. Education, even higher education, is another area

where we are losing it. With the rise in corporate diploma mills and our Universities having to compete with them for loan money (another self-inflicted obscenity), our standards are falling rapidly, particularly in the 'working class' State Universities. No longer are our universities considered the best in the world. If they can't get into the Ivy League The ruling elites from other nations are going to European schools today. If a functional illiterate like * could get through Harvard and Yale in the 60's, imagine how much worse it is today.

[Greyhound]

12. When they set up the U.S. government one of the primary duties

of congress was to ensure that there was enough money available in circulation to make capital investments. There was no interest charged, no profit to be made from simply making the loans. This was how they deliberately planned to keep the European banking families out of our country. The Federal Reserve Act was the bought and paid for repukes end run around this ingenious system.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. We kind of did our own version at Univertity

we had the unemployment, plus inflation so far so good... plus the whole basic goods and services... the last one is not part of the official index or the official inflation rate... oh and we used a scale of 100... gosh darn it I need to look for my notes on this... We also added the purchasing power in real terms...

When we did it we tried to calculate it to things like I don't know the French Revolution where it reached over 90%... so did the US and Russia in 1916

[Greyhound]

15. I, at least, would love to see this. A friend teaches Sociology at a

State University and one of her favorite class projects is to have the students calculate a real living wage. She does this every semester and to date the lowest figure any class has come up with is $22 p/hour. And our "leaders" argue over making it $7 or $8?!?

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Peoblem is theya re in storage, but will see if I can come up with

the math... it wasn't that complex but it has been years... but I have made reference to this in the past.

[Greyhound]

17. Thanks, don't worry about it. I was just stunned when I ran across

the prices - wages figures from then. I just though there must be others that, like me, hadn't really thought it through. I always new my Dad had it easier, but just didn't realize who much easier.

[leftofthedial]

14. excellent idea

and health care really screws us