I'm not feeling the pain, myself. The myth of the horrible shape of the country doesn't hold water.
for you, that may be the case....not everyone is as fortunate as you seem to be....
i bought my house up here in 2006, it is now worth 30% less than what we paid, our gasoline bill has near doubled, our heating oil bill has doubled in 2 years, our health care insurance for the two of us, went up 32% this year alone, food is up more than 35% up here, primarily due to transportation costs to get it up here...oh, and my hubby got a 5% raise to compensate...yeah....so things are NOT pretty....