Poll: Most Americans Worried About Their Standard of Living
EmailThe new ABCNews/Washington Post poll out this morning turns out to be a bleak snapshot of the economy.
The good news: half of Americans say the recovery is beginning. But the vast majority of Americans fear it will be weak … all because of huge job losses fueling deep pessimism. The poll finds 64 percent of Americans are worried about maintaining their standard of living over the long-term.
I spoke this morning on “Good Morning America” with economist Liz Ann Sonders and New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin about how those attitudes could affect economic recovery.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: When he talked to Charlie Gibson, President Obama said the job losses caught him by surprise.
[VIDEO]
PRESIDENT OBAMA: We didn't understand the repeatedty of job losses in those first three months: January, February, March, actually starting in December. You saw 700,000 jobs lost. You saw 650,000 job lost in each of the months//. We knew the job growth was going to be lagging severely and that was going to be one of our greatest challenges.
[END VIDEO]
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Boy, there’s an understatement. And for more on this we're joined now by two economic powerhouses. Liz Ann Sonders. And "New York Times" reporter, and author of "Too Big to Fail," Andrew Ross Sorkin. And there does seem to be from this poll a little more hope. Half the country believes the recovery has begun. But they don't think it will be much of a recovery. And Liz Ann, that means that the country is pretty much in line with what most experts think.
LIZ ANN SONDERS: Look, when you look at the depth of the downturn, and you look at the history of deep recessions, they are usually followed by very quick pops out of the recession. In fact, if you were to look at an average, it would suggest about an eight percent or nine percent GDP in the first or second quarter of this recovery. We obviously didn't get that in the first quarter of recovery. We're unlikely to get it. There's no question that this has been a subdued recovery, in light of just how damaging the recession was. So that's an easy call.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We're not seeing the rubber band effect. And that means unemployment through most of next year. Very high unemployment.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Through most of next year. And part of the problem is, we look at the 10 percent number. And some economists frankly that think it can get worse. But marginally worse.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But Larry Summers told me on Sunday job growth this quarter.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: The hard part is the number that people don't pay attention to. The average hours worked every week, which is only 33. Which is a real low. If you want to be more productive, you're a business, you think you want to go hire more people, you make the person who is working 33 hours work 35. So there's a lot of room between before we get that 10% number.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: A lot of businesses and a lot of state and local institutions cut back. They said take Fridays off. One Friday off a month.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Exactly.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Meanwhile, we saw the federal reserve yesterday come out with a statement saying they expect interest rates to remain low for a pretty long period of time, even though they're starting to pump back their emergency programs. Ben Bernanke yesterday named person of the year by "Time" magazine. But he's running into a bit of a buzz saw confirmation.
LIZ ANN SONDERS: "Time" names a person of the year because of their influence. Not because of praise.
He's been an extraordinarily influential person. I understand the split. Bernanke, there's a lot of armchair quarterbacking of last fall's emergency efforts. I think that piece of his history will go down on the positive side of the ledger. We won't know what ifs. We only know he seems to have prevented the kind of collapse that was a possibility. It's what predated that, I think, that gets the most just criticism.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And now, is he waiting too long to put on the brakes. Some people worry about that. And he says low interest rates for a long period of time.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: I suspect we may not feel it that way. So, there will be low interest rates probably through the rest of this year. However, he has to start taking his foot off the brakes on other programs that pumped a lot of money in the system. And that means higher mortgage rates as we get closer to the summer.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Because the banks have been using that money. Bring us back to the banks. The president started off this week calling in all the bankers to Washington.
A few of them didn't make it. Seemed like a message to the president. How hard do you think they
tried?
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: I think they tried to get down. I think there's a larger issue, which is now that the banks have paid back the TARP money, now that we, the taxpayers are no longer shareholders, we'll see proposals, obviously, and some change. But the real change that I think some people were hoping for, suspected would take place, it will be harder to get there.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me go back to the poll for a second. Two other disturbing numbers in the poll, Liz Ann.60 percent of Americans think the economy is in long-term decline. Excuse me. And 64 percent worried about maintaining their standard of living over the long-term. That seems like the definition of the kind of malaise that Jimmy Carter had to deal with back in the '70s. What's the real economic impact of those kinds of attitudes?
LIZ ANN SONDERS: Well, first of all, I don't think it's all that abnormal when you have the kind of deep recession we have had, accompanied by double-digit unemployment. You go back to 1983, when we had an 11 percent unemployment rate. We were coming out of back-to-back recessions. A lot of similarities to the current environment. You had similar levels of pessimism. What we didn't know at that time was we were about to unleash an 18-year period of unprecedented growth and prosperity. I would love for that to be what we're facing in the next eighteen years. It is certainly not the base case call. But I think we have to remember the pessimism that's bred after such a deep downturn is actually fairly normal because people are in that sort of emotional mode.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But it broke for Ronald Reagan. Will it break for Barack Obama?
LIZ ANN SONDERS: Let's hope.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Liz Ann Sonders, Andrew Ross Sorkin thank you very much.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Thank you for having us.
Obama: 'Now Is the Time For Common Sense Action' 
Romney Takes Aim at Conservatives
Just wait until China depegs. Then our standard of living will truly plummet. Ron Paul the guy that George belittled in an interview on ABC has already explained what is coming back in the presidential debates. Peter Schiff, his economic advisor, predicted all that is happening and what is coming. It is important to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
Posted by: Huh | December 17, 2009, 12:01 pm 12:01 pm
George…If people are really concerned about their declining standard of living, then why do they keep voting in conservatives who are against progressive change? They just keep voting in the Party that keeps siding with the big corporations, the very people who keep putting their bottom lines before anything else. They get richer and everyone else declines. When are people going to figure it out?
Posted by: CND FOX | December 17, 2009, 12:23 pm 12:23 pm
But we were assured by Larry Summers that the recession is over. So it’s all good.
Posted by: Mary | December 17, 2009, 12:23 pm 12:23 pm
@CND FOX: Conservatives will probably figure out that corporations are greedy and power-hungry roughly at the same time liberals figure out that government is greedy and power-hungry.
Posted by: Anon | December 17, 2009, 12:28 pm 12:28 pm
CND FOX-Don’t be fooled, dems are in bed with the corporations too. Both sides of the isle have bought into the idea of corporate fascism rather the free-market capitalism for decades.
Posted by: Huh | December 17, 2009, 12:32 pm 12:32 pm
Oh please this whole damn bill is the sweetheart bailout of the century for the insurance industry… How much money did Obama get from the insurance industry and others. You think he got almost a billion dollars in campaign cash just because corporate buisnesses “liked” him. Don’t be so dense.
They bought him off a LONG time ago, and he is paying back his true constiuency (big government/big corporations/Wall st.) over his supposed one. (the American people)
Posted by: jafo | December 17, 2009, 12:55 pm 12:55 pm
From the sound of these comments, people are still divided on political lines and forgetting about all the individuals who are more worried about feeding and clothing their children than about politicos.
Posted by: workingpoor | December 17, 2009, 1:17 pm 1:17 pm
Both sides of the isle have bought into the idea of corporate fascism rather the free-market capitalism for decades.
Huh | Dec 17, 2009 12:32:14 PM
For decades? How many precisely? I’m just curious how closely it corresponds with the unprecedented explosion of material wealth and prosperity in this country (entirely coincidental I’m sure).
Posted by: jhw539 | December 17, 2009, 1:17 pm 1:17 pm
jhw539-The only reason we have had this explosion in wealth is because we were able to run up deficits without consequence. We are entering a period where we will now longer be able to do so on such a grand scale. Thus the standard of living will plummet. The expansion has occurred primarily over the last three decades after Nixon removed gold’s linkage to the dollar. Every graph has been exponential ever since. We have existed in a massive asset bubble which is now starting to pop. I would have preffered slow steady growth over massive growth and now the bust because the bust is coming when we are massively leveraged, in massive debt, and at the mercy of foreign powers whom we are supposed to despise and fear.
Posted by: Huh | December 17, 2009, 1:28 pm 1:28 pm
Obama said: “We knew the job growth was going to be lagging severely and that was going to be one of our greatest challenges”.
It doesn’t make sense that they knew about job loss in Dec, Jan, Feb and March yet their entire focus has been everywhere else. Obama promised he would NOT sign any bill that had earmarks. What a lie! He signed the porky stimulus bill and now he has signed yet another bill full of 5,000 earmarks! Stop the crazy spending! And stop the lies!
Posted by: grannysunni | December 17, 2009, 1:31 pm 1:31 pm
The only reason we have had this explosion in wealth is because we were able to run up deficits without consequence.
Huh | Dec 17, 2009 1:28:02 PM
If running up the deficit is what it took to create a country where the poor have cell phones, hang out on the internet, computers are a waste disposal issue, and productivity per person is at historic levels, it was a bargain. You can stare as close as you want at the deficit, but the truth is the financing mechanisms it unleashed resulted in the massive advancement of technology and industrial output that put us at comfy level of production we’re at today (and as a side effect, eliminated reproductive population growth in most first world nations as prosperity increased).
There were similar hysterics about Japan one day owning America in the 80′s (even inspires a prescient best seller that involved a 747 being used to kamikaze Congress). How’d that turn out anyhow?
Posted by: jhw539 | December 17, 2009, 1:52 pm 1:52 pm
The American standard of living must sink to a new low, since our government chooses to allow all manufacturing to be outsourced.
This is how we deal with “global corporations”. We say…..”sure, just make it all in China, and let them have all the money and all the jobs”.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | December 17, 2009, 1:58 pm 1:58 pm
jhw539-These are not hysterics, they are reality. There is a massive wealth transfer going on right now leaving our country. I think it is great that we have developed so many cool things while riding up the bubble. I myself have benefited from government money to do R&D. However the decrease in the standard of living is very real and is going to be extremely painful. As far as the Japanese thing went, we were able to obtain foreign credit (dollar was still held in high regard) and used inflation to keep growing our consumer-based economy, plus we made a few things back then. Times have changed. The dollar has lost credibility, and this is the greatest danger to our standard of living. If I were you, I would keep up the positive big-government attitude, but I would prepare for the possible negative outcomes that our government has brought to the table.
Posted by: Huh | December 17, 2009, 2:04 pm 2:04 pm
However the decrease in the standard of living is very real and is going to be extremely painful.
Huh | Dec 17, 2009 2:04:22 PM
I disagree entirely. The decrease in the *rate of improvement* in standard of living may certainly stop (it has to – how much larger can houses get? How much bigger can flat screens go? Can communication access get cheaper?) but I doubt that is going to be painful to anyone but those who feel keeping up with the Jones is the only factor in quality of life.
The US’s standard of living must equalize with the rest of world, and it is – by the rest of the world being raised up to our level. I don’t fear that a whit.
Posted by: jhw539 | December 17, 2009, 2:18 pm 2:18 pm
jhw539-I blame the “keeping up with the Jones” crowd for the situation they find themsleves in to. I of course blame government and the Fed much more for creating Fannie, Freddie, keeping interest rates way too low for too long, etc. They did a bang up job of distorting the market and causing malinvestments.
The US standard of living is going to go down dramatically. It already has begun in earnest. I think you live in some fantasy land to believe that the rest of the world will rise to the level that we are at now. Resources are limited. Your idea is a improberable fallacy.
You are always interesting to spar with, but, to me, your love of government largesse is a bit over the top. Big government can not fix the structural problems underlying our economy. You will find this out within the next ten years, I am sure. Just prepare accordingly.
Posted by: Huh | December 17, 2009, 2:30 pm 2:30 pm
“The US’s standard of living must equalize with the rest of world”
Progressive thought in a nutshell.
Posted by: Mary | December 17, 2009, 2:45 pm 2:45 pm
George Stephanopoulos is acting so concerned about the American people’s standard of living. If Stephanopoulos is really concerned about the American people’s financial and economic security, why did he come out early in the National Health Care Reform debate against the Public Option???
Hey, George Stephanopoulos, the American people in one opinion poll after another have clearly come out IN FAVOR of the Public Option in Health Care Reform! Why are you against it, hmmmm George??
Posted by: Glenn | December 17, 2009, 2:54 pm 2:54 pm
I don’t believe the majority of Americans are in favor of lowering their own standard of living to raise up the rest of the world. Inducing suffering to end suffering doesn’t make any more sense than spending our way out of a recession. J.M. Keynes is, was, and always has been wrong about the American economy. During the “prosperous Clinton years” I was living in a van. During the last year my income has been cut in half, my savings have been drained, and I already have Government Healthcare!
Posted by: NewJerseyVet | December 17, 2009, 4:38 pm 4:38 pm
While you guys are eruditely slugging it out in here about the cause and what to do, I’ll be over across the hall looking for a way to survive.
Posted by: jan | December 17, 2009, 4:50 pm 4:50 pm
George it seems logical to that its to
resume beacon scores and allow the 92% of the that have money to buy houses and cars @ 3-4% rate and use the rule of thumb that if they have the ability and willingness
to pay back the loan they the people s
hould be to able to buy cars and houses
and the should very wiiling and cooperative to Americans money purchase these items. If the banks would just cooperate heck we might even have boom in our economy!That would be right to do.So lets get this show on.Our Country needs it. Thanks.
Posted by: James Chisholm | December 17, 2009, 5:20 pm 5:20 pm
Forgive my point was to do away with Beacon since punish good people who have bad things happen to them.If you going to give banks a fresh start you owe that
people of The United States of America.
We have taken care of everything except
for the buy side of the equation.So let banks start loaning money to the american people so can get buying power back picture and you will have the biggest boom the country has ever seen!
Posted by: James Chisholm | December 17, 2009, 5:30 pm 5:30 pm
Anon and HUH…Either I ahve lived longer than either of you or I pay attention and do my homework better than you, but I am smart enough to know the party that is directly and unequivocably for the rich corporation elite – and it is not the Democrats. Conservatives have “defunded” the government for so many years its effectiveness has been totally compromised. The “disaffected and disenfranchised” in turn thinks it is all the “government”s “fault” because of the propaganda of “backlash conservative propagandists”. So what do they do? They just vote in more of the same who pander to the rich elite who keep them tighter “under their thumb”. What a racket. While the overall strength of our country -the middle class – continues to weaken. That is exactly what is going on with this “health care reform” debacle. We are all being hijacked by a mid-west “backlash” state (Nebraska) fighting a “cultural issue” (abortion) that they never will be able to change. “Free market phioophy”, Huh? I don’t think that is the answer in itself. If it is…what happened to our middle class? And why do we have so many uninsured while the rest of our health care costs rise out of control? I think the both of you better reexamine your beliefs on how things really work in this country.
Posted by: CND FOX | December 17, 2009, 5:40 pm 5:40 pm
CND FOX – Odds are you are older than I, but apparently wisdom is not always directly related to age. The dems promise free welfare to those that are in need at the expense of the poor themselves. Inflation is what gets the poor and middle class. Sure government loans for everybody sounds great, but look what it did to tuitions. Sure houses for all, but look at the mess government regulations on the free market have caused. You and I can agree that republicans are corrupt. I however believe the dems to be just as bad. I am a follower of folks like Ron Paul who I believe will be proven very correct in 5 to 10 years. The free market and sound money are the only things that level the playing field. The corporatism that is going on right now is downright evil. The Goldman execs better arm themselves.
Posted by: Huh | December 17, 2009, 11:47 pm 11:47 pm
Sure we worry about our standard of living.
More big government = lower standard of living.
Obungle’s design is for America to become as bad as mexico.
Posted by: Liberal BS | December 18, 2009, 4:44 am 4:44 am
With a commie like Obungle running the show, being worried is a natural response.
There are many people who wish the party crashers had done the right thing.
Posted by: Liberal BS | December 18, 2009, 4:47 am 4:47 am
Posted by: Liberal BS | Dec 18, 2009 4:44:21 AM, “More big government = lower standard of living.”
I’m curious. What’s your perspective about New Deal era “big government” spending. Let’s take for example, the Tennessee Valley Authority. In your opinion, did that lower our standard of living?
Posted by: CenterOne | December 18, 2009, 1:34 pm 1:34 pm
Isn’t that the objective? Knock everyone down to the same common denominator? And have everyone be members of a caretaker government that dictates according to the will of an elite? A brother that would command us to praise and ‘pay’ homage to him. Orwell’s 1984 isn’t so fictional after all. Love ‘Big Brother’ or be killed. Be careful that we don’t have any thought crimes; like presuming to have individuality and of having the liberty to have a culture inconsistent with what Big Brother wants. Powers in government today and the media are proselyting that ‘Mother Earth’ is to be put upon a pedestal to be worshiped along with a secular monotheism. Don’t get me wrong; we need to protect the earth because we are commanded to till and care for it. God created the earth and us to be more than the dust and ashes that our physical being is. If we truly want to protect the earth we will keep the commandments Moses brought forth from the finger of God and the simple summation of it made by Jesus Christ. For those that understand them know that these are instructions that liberate us from the trappings of dictatorships that diminishes us to be nothing more than ashes and dust. No one has the authority or power to force God’s commandments or any dictation upon the people in this world. Each must comprehend the significance of God’s commandments for themselves to know their value and the immortal significance of who they themselves are individually. Science only serves to document what God has done. Merry Christmas. May an angel in body or spirit be sent as a comfort to your soul and to remove the spiritual blindness from those that persecute the light of Christ that is inside themselves.
Posted by: TX_MBell | December 19, 2009, 1:29 am 1:29 am
GDP grew in the 3rd quarter, jobs are always lagging the numbers recovery in each recession. Those thinking about long-term recovery, know the enviroment will be a big winner in the conversion to biofuels & biopower — saw a cool site; Balkingpoints ; incredible satellite view of earth
Posted by: MikeW67 | December 19, 2009, 3:45 pm 3:45 pm
CenterOne,government policies dragged out the depression. The falloff of the 1921 depression was deeper but recovered in a year due to government letting the free market correct. I predict a currency crisis in a few years maybe 5.
Posted by: Ben | December 19, 2009, 9:41 pm 9:41 pm