During one of the 1980 presidential debates with incumbent President Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan famously asked the American people whether they were better off than they were four years earlier.
For the vast majority of Americans the answer was a no-brainer. Four years of Carternomics left the country with soaring inflation and interest rates, historically high gasoline prices, and a dramatic loss of influence and credibility in foreign policy, just to name a few of the problems.
The country responded to Reagan’s question by throwing Carter out on his ear.
Thirty years later, Americans need to ask that question once again. In order to help with that comparison, we have identified several key economic indicators—indicators that affect the daily lives of average Americans.
Between December 2008, just before Obama took office, and June 2011
Energy — Gasoline was $1.67 a gallon; it’s now $3.79.
Food — Average cost of a gallon of milk was about $2.65 then; it’s about $3.50 today.
Housing — The median home was $229,600; today it’s $217,900
Budget Deficit — We fell $438 billion short of balancing the federal budget in 2008; we missed it by $1.4 trillion this year—nearly four times higher.
U.S. Debt — Total federal debt was $10.7 trillion then; $14.5 trillion now—nearly 50 percent higher.
Unemployment — 7.3 percent of Americans were unemployed then; 9.1 percent are unemployed today.
Employment Rate — 65.7 percent of Americans had jobs then; only 64.2 percent have them now.
Even if the vast majority of Americans are not better off today than they were in 2008, there is one group that has prospered: government employees. Mercatus Center (George Mason University) economist Veronique de Rugy noted in January that “federal employment has grown by 98,000 employees since the start of the recession.”