Some stats from Robert J. Samuelson’s column in the Washington Post:
Although only 32 percent rate the overall economy as “excellent” or “good,” 52 percent judge their personal situation as excellent or good.
Most Americans (60 percent) think their own living standards are rising; parents of children under 18 (54 percent) think the same will be true for their children.
Almost 70 percent of Americans say they’ve attained or will attain the “American dream,” as they define it.
So why do most Americans think the economy isn’t doing well, even though they are doing well personally and are optimistic about the future? One reason, Samuelson thinks, is that people are uneasy about the instability of the economy. But this instability — and its creative destruction — is a key to economic growth, he argues.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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