Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Friday, September 26, 2008

Are You Better Off in 2008 Than You Were in 2000?

[via Center for Economic and Policy Research]
In his closing remarks during the final presidential debate of 1980, Ronald Reagan famously asked the American people: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"

The table below updates Reagan's question by comparing the state of the economy in 2000 and 2008. We use 25 indicators of economic well-being and economic performance and find that 23 of the 25 indicators are worse in 2008 than they were in 2000.

Even if you already know all of this, I must say it is always rather stunning to tick down a list like this, one item after another, one turn of the screw after another, surveying the ongoing neoliberal confiscation and precarization of everyday citizens. Here's hoping more people see this and come to care about it than seem to care at the moment about whether or not a candidate knows how to bag a moose. Click the link for all the gory details.

No comments: