Public's Cry as G-20 Meets: 'We are Struggling'

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

It's no less than a diminution of the American dream.

Sixteen months into the worst recession in at least a generation, six in 10 Americans are under economic stress, a third call it serious stress -- and cutbacks are raging, from restaurant meals to charitable giving, family vacations to spending on the kids.

The impacts are apparent in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll -- in the data, and even more powerfully in the own words of struggling Americans. As G-20 policymakers convene in London, these results show the economy's impact back home, at the kitchen table.

Some of the tales are dire: "We don't buy extras. We stay home. We shop at stores that have the least cost," said a 45-year-old woman in Michigan. "We don't use credit cards. We have cut back on everything we could. We contacted the mortgage company to lower our house payment. If things don't change soon, we are going to lose everything."

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She has plenty of company: Sixty-three percent of Americans say they're cutting back on their overall spending; three in 10, cutting back sharply -- a tremendous retrenchment in consumer behavior. Topping the list of seven specific items tested in this poll are restaurants: Sixty-two percent say they're going to restaurants less often. But there are plenty more cuts: Forty-six percent are giving less to charity. Four in 10 have dropped or postponed a vacation or delayed car-buying plans. A third have put off buying major appliances.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/story?id=7227897&page=1

[xchrom]

1. if americans could learn to show their anger in the streets --

the way they do in the EU -- and vote their best interests at the polls -- SOME of this could be better.

but americans always LOVE the monkey higher up in the branches than they -- more than they love themselvs and their fellow workers.
or so it seems sometimes.

[midnight]

2. I hope that you can view this link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7977870.stm

[Delphinus]

3. People just don't seem to matter any more.

Corporations are the only ones with clout.

Where did we go wrong? {sigh}

[chill_wind]

4. K & R.