I live in PA. My rent isn't even going up this year. For my lease renewal, if I sign for 18 months, my rent will stay the same. They're building a lot of new apartment complexes in my area, so that may be why my rent is not going up.
The average American doesn't spend half of his or her money on rent. According to Zillow, it's 30 percent.
http://www.zillow.com/research/q2-20...y-10268/#_edn2
While rent has been steadily increasing, buying a home has become more affordable as a result of the financial crisis in 2008 and low interest rates. Americans who have refinanced are paying less for their mortgage.
Most Americans don't buy health insurance directly, but get it from the government or their employer, so how much they pay out of pocket depends on how generous their employer is. A lot of those Americans who buy health insurance on the exchanges get subsidies.
You live in NYC where there are lots of tolls. There are plenty of places where tolls aren't very common. Unless you have to pay a toll to go to and from work, chances are you're not spending much money on tolls.
As for taxes, in some places state and local taxes have gone up, but close to half of all Americans aren't paying any federal income tax.
For college tuition, a lot of students get financial aid, so even though costs are going up, not everyone is paying the full cost. One of the reasons college tuition is going up so fast is because people are willing to pay it. Some people have the mistaken belief that because a school is more expensive, it's a better school. I even read one article that after one school raised its tuition significantly, they were getting more applications, not less. The truth is, you can often get just as good of an education and just as good of job going to a public university as going to a private university. I went to a public university. I've had co-workers who went to expensive private schools and they had a similar position and pay as me, but they probably paid three times as much in tuition as I did.
What I don't think you understand about this recession is that it was far worse than any other recession since the Great Depression. Far more wealth was lost than in previous recessions. To compare this recession to previous recession is oversimplification. What happened in 2008 and 2009 was closer to the Great Depression than previous recessions, and it took 10 years to fully recover from the Great Depression. It would have taken even longer if it wasn't for World War II. In addition, in the past the work force was expanding much more rapidly than it is now, as a result of demographics. When you have an expanding work force, you're going to see stronger economic growth. I read that the higher the percentage of the population of people are in their 40s, the stronger the economic growth is, because people in that age range that spends the most money. That was the case in the 90s. It's not the case now. We now have many people retiring from the work force. so their spending will most likely go down.
Corporations are sitting on close to $2 trillion in cash. They have plenty of money for increasing investment and pay.
Nobody is arguing the economy is as good as it was in the 90s, but it's not that bad either. It's true that some things are going up in price, but median income has increased about $4,000 over the past two years. Some people may be struggling, but there are plenty of others who aren't.
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