I was listening to one of my new favorite shows on NPR tonight, and the discussion was centered around life in the recovering economy. Lots of the callers seemed to have feelings and perspectives that were similar to mine, and I felt it would be interesting to start a thread where we all could share how we've been managing since the economic recession, to hear what it's like trying to make ends meet in other parts of America and all around the world.
Here's my story (hidden due to length):
[hide]I had to take out some hefty student loans to pay for my college education in STEM fields. When I graduated and first started working, the recession was really beginning to hit the US economy pretty hard, so I ended up making a lot less than what my starting salary would have been had I started working five years earlier. After a couple years of work, a stint in graduate school, a divorce, and a year of soul searching, I wound up back in the same field of work that I started in after college, this time on the right end of the recovering economy, happily with a better salary than before. Even so, I find that I am still living more or less paycheck to paycheck - paying the monthly bills, rent, and insurance, managing some debt, paying off student and car loans, and occasionally entertaining myself leaves me with almost no money to put into savings. Despite this, I see some light at the end of the tunnel, and expect that if I work hard for some good early career raises over the next several years, I just might be able to get out from under my debt and loans and hopefully really start saving, investing, and maybe even support a family.
What worries me, as always, is the possibility for me or someone in my family to get really sick. Health insurance these days really only goes so far, and though the ACA did significantly improve coverage for many Americans, lots of people still end up with unmanageable debt if they get a serious illness. I've also heard of some people my age who weren't as lucky with work after school and are now carrying around a whole lot of debt, and some worry that they'll never be able to pay it all off, much less achieve the same level of success as their parents.[/hide]
In the mid '80s, Americans with a high school education could easily find work for wages of around $10 per hour, but now you'd have to be really lucky to get the same wage with the same basic education. And that doesn't even account for inflation of the cost of living since then. Lots of people in our generation seem to be particularly unhappy with the obvious trend of increasing economic disparity between the wealthy and the middle class. With all of our growing anxiety about the state of the economy and the perceived decrease in quality of life and work since our parents' generation, it seems like something is ultimately going to have to give.
What do you think, care to share your story? How do you define the middle class, and do you count yourself part of it? Have any ideas about how the economy could be changed to work better for everyone? If you live in another country, then what's life like for you, and how do you feel about the changing world economy?