Why don’t we feel it?

Once again, the economic news is positive.  Scott Pelley, on the CBS Evening News, called it “Great!”  Serious Tony the Tiger enthusiasm there.  And it shouldn’t be surprising.  On the whole, we’ve been on a continual, seven year long recovery since around 2009.  Almost every news cast has looked at some positive indicator, or lamented the fact that Americans weren’t feeling the positive vibes.  Now, that’s not to say the reporting doesn’t mention the problems.  And we all know the crash in 2008 was the worst since 1929.  That recovery didn’t happen over night, and it took the worst war in history to push us over the threshold.

Nonetheless, despite almost eight years of more or less positive spins and putting the best face on the economic news, most people I know and hear from don’t seem to feel it.  At church, at work, my kids’ friends parents, family, even people on Facebook or who I have met through my blog – the majority don’t feel the bounce.  I know it’s out there.  I mean, stats never lie do they?  But there is a gap between the ongoing narrative that things are just getting better all the time, and have been for years, and what people seem to be experiencing.

That also seems to go across the board.  Many who supported Bernie cited economic hardships that needed serious attention, and Trump’s supporters are very open about their concern about our economic situation.  Why?  What are we missing?  I know the Stock Market has been running on perpetual record for quite a while now.  But we learned during the Bush years that a robust Stock Market doesn’t always translate to bountiful harvests on Main Street America.

What is the issue?  I’m not doing this for some set up for my sage wisdom.  I really don’t know.  As I say, I’m not an economist.  That’s an area well outside my world of competency.  I just know that liberal or not, Democrat or Republican, most people I and my wife know do not feel, on the day to day level, that we are really on the verge of prosperity and happy days again.

I can make a few guesses.  Skyrocketing college costs; the inability for many to get back into their old lives after being thrown into the street eight years ago; the fact that wages are still low, and many of these jobs are part time, temp, contract or other; that healthcare costs, not insurance availability, manifested in out of pocket expenses, are still plaguing people; that pensions, retirement, and end of life living is, for so many, beyond imagining; the sneaky idea that some of this uptick in wages is the result of a select segment, rather than the majority, of our nation experiencing widespread increase in salaries.  Those are just guesses.  I don’t know.

I just know for almost eight years the story has been one of ongoing recovery, hopefulness and economic turnaround, and yet for those same years, the experience of so many I know is one of being increasingly left behind.