The middle class and disposable income.

[HereWeGoAgain]

Just how much piss away money do you blow a month?
Eating out,boat payment,ammo,guns,beanie babies,hummel figurines,star trek action figures,four wheelers,sports cars,week end property....etc,etc...

I'm curious because my disposable income is on par with my parents,but well above my grandparents. Obviously the depression had a lot to do with the grandparents disposable income so we wont even look at that.

Are you better off than your parents?

 

[PoliticalChic]

Just how much piss away money do you blow a month?
Eating out,boat payment,ammo,guns,beanie babies,hummel figurines,star trek action figures,four wheelers,sports cars,week end property....etc,etc...

I'm curious because my disposable income is on par with my parents,but well above my grandparents. Obviously the depression had a lot to do with the grandparents disposable income so we wont even look at that.

Are you better off than your parents?

That's an interesting question.

Much better than my parents.....largely because of their efforts.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Just how much piss away money do you blow a month?
Eating out,boat payment,ammo,guns,beanie babies,hummel figurines,star trek action figures,four wheelers,sports cars,week end property....etc,etc...

I'm curious because my disposable income is on par with my parents,but well above my grandparents. Obviously the depression had a lot to do with the grandparents disposable income so we wont even look at that.

Are you better off than your parents?

That's an interesting question.

Much better than my parents.....largely because of their efforts.

Really thought I'd get more traction with this thread.
When I look at the current crop of youth I just cant imagine them doing better.
Starting to look like the American dream died with the advent of PC bed wetters.

 

[Dan Daly]

The only reason I am better off financially now than my parents were at this point in their life is that I didn't have six kids! Give me another year and I'll be better off because I am still alive, something my Dad couldn't manage.

As far as disposable income, neither my parents nor myself had/have a lot of money to piss away. After necessities, savings and bills, there isn't a lot left...and what is left usually ends up helping out the kids, who are definitely nowhere near as well off as well are and have dimmer prospects of doing so.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

The only reason I am better off financially now than my parents were at this point in their life is that I didn't have six kids! Give me another year and I'll be better off because I am still alive, something my Dad couldn't manage.

As far as disposable income, neither my parents nor myself had/have a lot of money to piss away. After necessities, savings and bills, there isn't a lot left...and what is left usually ends up helping out the kids, who are definitely nowhere near as well off as well are and have dimmer prospects of doing so.

My dad died at fifty but he managed to do very well in the time he had.
I really think the generations closest to the last stretch of hard times do better than those who had it easy.
Todays crop of kids had parents that didnt go through the great depression or any other large financial crises like our grand parents did.
They just dont understand true sacrifice like past generations did and it shows in how the next generation is raised.

 

[Dan Daly]

The only reason I am better off financially now than my parents were at this point in their life is that I didn't have six kids! Give me another year and I'll be better off because I am still alive, something my Dad couldn't manage.

As far as disposable income, neither my parents nor myself had/have a lot of money to piss away. After necessities, savings and bills, there isn't a lot left...and what is left usually ends up helping out the kids, who are definitely nowhere near as well off as well are and have dimmer prospects of doing so.

My dad died at fifty but he managed to do very well in the time he had.
I really think the generations closest to the last stretch of hard times do better than those who had it easy.
Todays crop of kids had parents that didnt go through the great depression or any other large financial crises like our grand parents did.
They just dont understand true sacrifice like past generations did and it shows in how the next generation is raised.

Well, they're fixin to understand, the hard way, sooner or later. It's not a matter of if the wheels are gonna come off the wagon again, it's a matter of when.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

The only reason I am better off financially now than my parents were at this point in their life is that I didn't have six kids! Give me another year and I'll be better off because I am still alive, something my Dad couldn't manage.

As far as disposable income, neither my parents nor myself had/have a lot of money to piss away. After necessities, savings and bills, there isn't a lot left...and what is left usually ends up helping out the kids, who are definitely nowhere near as well off as well are and have dimmer prospects of doing so.

My dad died at fifty but he managed to do very well in the time he had.
I really think the generations closest to the last stretch of hard times do better than those who had it easy.
Todays crop of kids had parents that didnt go through the great depression or any other large financial crises like our grand parents did.
They just dont understand true sacrifice like past generations did and it shows in how the next generation is raised.

Well, they're fixin to understand, the hard way, sooner or later. It's not a matter of if the wheels are gonna come off the wagon again, it's a matter of when.

Yep...and it appears it's going to be sooner rather than later.

 

[waltky]

Average wage earner make less than when Obama took office...

Average Family Today Has Less Income Than When Obama Took Office
June 10, 2016 | What’s the most important economic statistic to gauge a society’s prosperity? I often use per-capita economic output when comparing nations.

But for ordinary people, what probably matters most is household income. And if you look at the median household income numbers for the United States, Obamanomics is a failure. According to the Census Bureau’s latest numbers, the average family today has less income (after adjusting for inflation) than when Obama took office. In an amazing feat of chutzpah, however, the President is actually arguing that he’s done a good job with the economy. His main talking point is that the unemployment rate is down to 4.7 percent. Yet as discussed in this Blaze TV interview, sometimes the unemployment rate falls for less-than-ideal reasons. Since I’m a wonky economist, I think my most important point was about long-run prosperity being dependent on the amount of labor and capital being productively utilized in an economy.

And that’s why the unemployment rate, while important, is not as important as the labor force participation rate. Here’s the data, directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As you can see, the trend over the past 10 years is not very heartening. To be sure, Obama should not be blamed for the fact that a downward trend that began in 2008 (except to the extent that he supported the big-government policies of the Bush Administration). But he can be blamed for the fact that the numbers haven’t recovered, as would normally happen as an economy pulls out of a recession. This is a rather damning indictment of Obamanomics. By the way, I can’t resist commenting on what Obama said in the soundbite that preceded my interview. He asserted that “we cut unemployment in half years before a lot of economists thought we could.”

My jaw almost hit the floor. This is a White House that promised the unemployment rate would peak at only 8 percent and then quickly fall if the so-called stimulus was approved. Yet the joblessness rate jumped to 10 percent and only began to fall after there was a shift in policy that resulted in a spending freeze. In effect, the President airbrushed history and then tried to take credit for something that happened, at least in part, because of policies he opposed. Wow.

One final point. I was asked in the interview which policy deserves the lion’s share of the blame for the economy’s tepid performance and weak job numbers. I wasn’t expecting that question, so I fumbled around a bit before choosing Obamacare. But with the wisdom of hindsight, I think I stumbled onto the right answer. Yes, the stimulus was a flop, and yes, Dodd-Frank has been a regulatory nightmare, but Obamacare was (and continues to be) a perfect storm of taxes, spending, and regulatory intervention. And even the Congressional Budget Office estimates it has cost the economy two million jobs.

Average Family Today Has Less Income Than When Obama Took Office

See also:

Gallup: Satisfaction With Country Under Obama Is Lowest Since Carter
June 10, 2016 | According to Gallup, Americans' satisfaction levels with the way things are going in the U.S. are low and President Obama will be leaving office with a lower overall satisfaction average of any president since Jimmy Carter.

Only 29% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S. according to the Gallup poll conducted during the first week of June. The Gallup poll asked, “In general, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time?” Americans' satisfaction has averaged only 24% across the 89 months of the Obama administration to date. The low satisfaction levels of recent years means that Obama will be leaving office with an overall satisfaction average of 24% for his presidency so far. Obama's numbers are lower than the average measured across the term of any president since Jimmy Carter.

The Obama administration’s numbers are far below the 37% overall average since Gallup began measuring in 1979. Gallup has only three measures of satisfaction taken during the Carter administration, all in 1979, and they average 19%. Recent satisfaction levels are particularly low compared with the high levels of satisfaction measured in the mid-1980s under President Ronald Reagan, in 1991 after the first Gulf War, in the late 1990s and after 9/11.

Gallup: Satisfaction With Country Under Obama Is Lowest Since Carter

Related:

$2,139,254,000,000: FY2016 Taxes Set Record Through May; $14,164 Per Worker; Feds Still Run Deficit of $407,099,000,000
June 10, 2016 | The U.S. Treasury took in a record of approximately $2,139,254,000,000 in tax revenues in the first eight months of fiscal 2016 (Oct. 1, 2015 through May 31, 2016), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.

That is up about $15,347,130,000--in constant 2016 dollars—from the approximately $2,123,906,870,000 in constant 2016 dollars the Treasury collected in the first eight months of fiscal 2015. (Tax revenues from previous years were adjusted to 2016 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator.) In May alone, the Treasury collected approximately $224,603,000,000 in revenue.

Despite collecting record revenues in the first eight months of fiscal 2016, the federal government still ran a deficit of $407,099,000,000 during the period--as federal government spent approximately $2,546,353,000,000 in those eight months. The record eight-month tax haul of $2,139,254,000,000 equaled approximately $14,164 for each of the 151,030,000 people in the country who, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics had a full or part-time job in May.

Chart from the Monthly Treasury Statement for May 2016​

$2,139,254,000,000: FY2016 Taxes Set Record Through May; $14,164 Per Worker; Feds Still Run Deficit of $407,099,000,000

 

[blastoff]

Just how much piss away money do you blow a month?
Eating out,boat payment,ammo,guns,beanie babies,hummel figurines,star trek action figures,four wheelers,sports cars,week end property....etc,etc...

I'm curious because my disposable income is on par with my parents,but well above my grandparents. Obviously the depression had a lot to do with the grandparents disposable income so we wont even look at that.

Are you better off than your parents?

Think you're confusing disposable and discretionary income. Discretionary income is disposable income minus the basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter, etc. Discretionary is what's left for "pissing" away on toys, hobbies, and whatnot. Smart folks piss little and save/invest more of their discretionary bucks.