“Is the country better off now than four years ago?”

• Henry Miller: Four years ago, we were on a steep downward slope and had not yet hit bottom. Today, we are on a gradual upward slope, but are no where near the top. Which is better? I like looking up much better than looking down, so I say we are better off.
• Lisa Pampuch: Yes! Here’s a partial list of President Obama’s achievements: bin Laden’s dead, we’re out of Iraq, we’ve got an exit plan for Afghanistan. DADT was repealed. Jobs have improved for 30 straight months, we’re no longer on the edge of a depression, stock market is up 4,800 points, auto industry is roaring. All despite unprecedented GOP obstructionism.
• Julian Mancias: Yes. It seems more stable. This nation has gone through a lot the last four years but the American spirit is alive and strong.
• Kathy Sullivan: Yes but it just feels like we have dug ourselves out of a hole and holding on by our fingertips. Economically we are heading in the right direction but politically we are at a standstill and losing footing. The last four years have not been good for children; they have lost medical safety nets and educational funding.
• Dave Appling: On balance, yes. In some areas, much better off. The auto industry is back, the Dow is up, and high-tech is in excellent shape. Foreign relations are improved, and al-Qa’ida, while not destroyed, has been greatly weakened. But the vaunted “job creators” are not creating jobs. Rigid ideology and political warfare have replaced cooperation for the common good. We still have a long way to go.
• Jeff Nunes: Of course not. Our real unemployment rate, if you consider the people who are so discouraged that they have stopped even looking for work, is around 11.4%. We have 47 million people living below the poverty line and our economy has been shrinking since 2010. Our national debt has exploded by $5 trillion in the last 3 years and our national credit rating has been downgraded already once and may happen again soon. So, no, we are not better off by any reasonable measure.
• Bert Berson: Sure. We were about to fall of a cliff. That looks much less likely now. If the “grand old party” had been serious about moving the country along we
would be in much better shape now. The espoused goal of the republic party over the last four years has been getting rid of Obama. The condition of the country didn’t matter. The Republicans did all in their power to retard  progress and now complain about the lack of it.
• David Cohen: Yes. While we still have a long way to go in the comeback of the economy, we are far better off than in 2008 when the financial markets were collapsing.
• Karen Anderson: Yes, clearly. I owned a CD in one of the first banks to fail in 2008, Indymac. There was a lot of fear then.  We were facing a possible Great Depression, not Recession.
• Jeff Smith: No, not even close. This is the question that liberals try to avoid at all costs, because there is only one honest answer: We are worse off, much worse off than four years ago. Unemployment is high; higher in California, even higher among minorities – 23 million people are unemployed or under employed. These are real people who can’t meet their obligations, care for their families, etc. The national debt has gone from $10 to $16 TRILLION, housing market has tanked, and now they’re considering another round of stimulus because the first two did nothing. The president’s answer is to raise taxes and print more money?? Give me a break! This president has failed miserably! We can’t go on with this Obama economy of failure. Anyone who thinks we as a nation are better off is either very dishonest or not very smart.
• Chris Bryant: Yes, However we are far from full recovery and the wrong changes could well make things worse.
• Dennis Kennedy: Yes! Four years ago we were on the verge of the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression. Our recovery has been painfully slow, but we are recovering.