Better off, no...

But I have Trust Fund and stuff

Better off... sure I'm better off - in everything EXCEPT my finances.

I work, live, move and have my being in the manufacturing industry, and everyone I work with has been hammered. Federal regulations, the cost of money, the cost of healthcare is creating such an amazing burden that almost everyone I know, work with or sell to is struggling in some way.

In environmental concerns alone, my company spends millions of dollars that would be unheard of in other parts of the world. We are very socially & globally conscious, but the measures we're forced to take because of regulators justifying their positions creates a huge drag on the growth of industry in general.

When you combine those issues with the amazing trade imbalance, it makes things pretty damn difficult! We're fortunate, and we're doing fine, but we have 500 families that are hit with the higher prices of absolutely everything they buy, and we can't keep pace with their wages, and its not because of "corporate greed" - in fact our margins are the smallest they've been in our 80 year history.

If you truly believe that and that it will be so decisive, then i would expect you to sell everything now, and short everything you can.

Better 4 years ago than now, in Florida, thats funny. Just check Craigslist skilled, or general labor lists. About a hundred jobs on each list per day now. Used to be about 10 on a good day. But they say first in, first out.

NO!!! Not since Clinton was in office.
But did buy gold and silver ETF's this week after Bernake's debackle 🤦

She's always been busy, even back those happy carefree college days when Obama was hanging around with Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn.

have to say I am better off in many, if not all, ways that matter. I assume the first thought the op conjures up is personal finances, but Stinkdyr did make me think with his "less free" answer. But that happens no matter which party rules, might explain his Libertarian stance. So that's a wash, been losing ground since 1968. But I have a pretty nice story.

Had my pay cut of 5 years ago reversed 2 years ago, with a nice bonus to help make up for the damage.

My company, that I care about deeply, is poised to have it's biggest year ever in 2012. 2011 was one of our top 4 years ever. We have been in biz for 27 years, I have been there 18, have known the owner since 7th grade and he recruited me.

We have absolutely no government contracts, though a small percentage of our sales are to local Housing Authorities, but it's always for lower end, lower profit goods.. We are a cabinet distributor and manufacturer, and fabricate countertops of all kinds from laminate to corian to marble and granite. We market to the trades and they send their customers to our showrooms. We do not compete with our customers as we do not install, except for granite. We were HIT bad as the economy tanked. 4 day work weeks for labor, 8% $$$ cuts for management and designer/sales people, 4% for labor. 401K matches were discontinued. But we also had just completed our manufacturing expansion before the dark settled in and were able to survive (competition thinned out a lot) because we no longer tied up money in stock cabinets hoping for buyers. Virtually all of the finished product we were holding had been ordered and had at least 50% deposit on it. The warehouse was hardly filled, but there would never be a liquidation sale!

New home starts died, and even safely employed people held back on remodeling, but the slack was picked up by Property Management companies, huge, large, and small owners of multi unit rental housing and others with tenants and turnovers in apartments. Our edge was that even if we were not cheaper than say Home Depot, our turn around time meant new tenants in and paying rent a few weeks sooner. A lost month's rent is not recoverable, and makes a $1,000 kitchen cost a lot more. We cost more, but we turned out to be a lot cheaper.

Massachusetts really is always in better shape than much of the country most of the time, and people realized that when homes don't sell at all, new home starts are dead, and foreclosures and abandoned property listings dominate the RE pages...well folks have to live somewhere and rental prop takes off. So the developers were and still are having a field day in rental prop development, converting mills, refurbishing neglected apartment buildings etc. And the word got out about our local factory...unheard of that manufacturing would come to Massachusetts as other industries closed. But it not only saved us, we are prospering. And now the log jam is breaking re: private residential remodeling, individuals are starting to spend. The MA RE market currently is heating up, but pricing is level (probably a realistic correction to the previous decade). So either sell now that you can or fix 'er up and live better where you are.

DPNewell and others in related trades...get your arses down to the Housing Authorities and bid those jobs, or become independent contractors for large prop management companies in reasonably populated areas. They are raking it in.

Also, the utilities are pushing free energy audits, then offering 0% interest loans for insulation, weather stripping, windows, roofing etc. When something dies, something else is born.

Frank

Some very cogent & emotionally appealing posts...

Since the era of gruff/bully Johnson, I've done everything from digging ditches (at 14), to working for the Government, scrubbing toilets (preparing apartments), undercover store ******, broker, promotions, insurance adjustor, executive with large staff for firm w/clients internationally, to scrubbing toilets again, and finally becoming an entrepreneur... I've NEVER seen it anywhere this bad not even during clueless Carter.

God bless you if you think things are looking up & good luck if you're a Yak turd polisher so irreplaceable & insulated that you don't think you'll be eventually affected. Congrats, you're probably suffering from mental illness. I envy your obliviousness.
I grieve for this country. 100 Mitt Romneys & Ryans coudn't redirect this Titanic in time from hitting the iceberg.
Just keep working hard and keep your faith that a Higher Being will deliver us. Oh, and storing 3- 6 months worth of water & food wouldn't hurt

Buckle up. Our American Spring approaches. 😁 👍

Financially- Yes.
Physically and Mentally- No.

Don't forget plenty of ammo.

No. I'm not better off than I was 4 years ago.

I'm one of those dumb hard working folks. Some might even call Me a sucker.

I feel more like a suckee.

Bloody, you worry too much, you dont need three months food and water, the worlds gonna end on Oct 21, read it on the same site that Obamas new flag was on. You cant make this stuff any better.

Yes Business has picked up so much we are adding bodies 1 sales 1 admin 2 field personal we survived the lean days and stronger for it while other Electronic Security Companies went belly up or had to sell...