I'm Living It

Unfortunately.

USATODAY.com - Economy goes forward but leaves many behind: "'If you add up what it takes to get to work, as far as food, buying clothes, gas, car, everything, almost half of what I make goes into just' that, Harris says. 'Things have to get better, because if they don't, I'm not going to make it.'

Harris is one of millions feeling pinched in a time of plenty. Broad economic data show the nation in the midst of a four-year expansion with strong growth, low — though rising — inflation, a muscular housing market and robust corporate profits. But they also show that prosperity hasn't been spread evenly. The poverty rate has risen. Wage gains are among the slowest on record. Many corporate pension plans are in a death spiral. Health care costs are rising. The personal savings rate has fallen.

The Census Bureau says inflation-adjusted median earnings for full-time male workers declined 2.3% from 2003 to 2004. Women's earnings dipped for the second year in a row. Though the drop was a smaller 1%, until 2003 women's wages hadn't declined since 1995. A separate government measure found wages and salaries for workers in private industry advancing at the slowest pace since its record keeping began in 1975.

Those trends, along with higher energy prices and a slower housing market, could spell lower consumption and growth. They have already created political problems for the White House, as polls show Americans souring on President Bush's economic policies."

I don't really care about the White House, I care about my own apartment and how difficult it is to make ends meet while the goal line moves further away every day. And I have that advanced education, which actually happens to be holding me back from some jobs because I'm overqualified and if the economy ever turns around in SiliValley I probably wouldn't stay in a dead end job which is why I went back to school in the first place.

This is going to get ugly.