New political coalition: Selfish Bastards for Bush
Quote of note:
"It depends on where you sit," said Kim Wallace, chief political analyst at Lehman Bros. "If you've got a college degree and a job that's paying $70,000 or better, your answer almost invariably has to be yes…. Everybody doing less well than that, on both the education and economic front, is probably going to answer no."
Better Off Than 4 Years Ago? Nation Is Divided
By Warren Vieth
Times Staff Writer
August 30, 2004
WASHINGTON — Linda Caterino and Bill Ellis don't need a stack of government statistics to tell them whether the nation is better off than it was four years ago. All they need are their own eyes.
Caterino, a self-employed tax accountant in Somerville, Mass., has watched her net worth rise along with Boston-area housing prices. She sees evidence of an improving economy all around her.
Ellis, a retired auto service department manager in Falls Church, Va., has been dipping into his diminished retirement account to make ends meet. He sees a similar decline for the country as a whole.
Their divergent views did not budge last week when the Census Bureau reported that family income had flattened out last year after falling for the previous two, while the ranks of the poor and uninsured had swelled.
Just as all politics is local, perhaps most economics is personal.
"I form my view of the economy based on personal experiences," Caterino said.
What matters, Ellis observed, "is what's happening in my neighborhood, like the man next door who was out of work for almost two years…. Things aren't exactly average in everybody's neighborhood."
Since Ronald Reagan posed the question with devastating effect in his 1980 bid to unseat President Carter, it has become an economic litmus test for incumbent presidents: Are you better off than you were four years ago?
