I graduated with a business degree and feel like I have a pretty good understanding of what's going on in today's world: Plain and simple... it doesn't look pretty (we're in a recession, the housing market is in the pits if you're a seller, unemployment rates are high, etc); but money is still flowing.... people are always at the mall, going out to eat, watching movies, spending money on the latest and greatest smartphone, etc.
When I see people spending their money leisurely I forget how bad the economy is; but as I read this article from Business Insider, 50 Economic Numbers For 2011 That Are Almost Too Hard to Believe, I realized just saying we're in a recession, the housing market is in the pits, and unemployment rates are high is a BIG understatement.
Definitely recommend reading the article here.
Here's are ten numbers that stood out to me:
48% of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty. (According to CNN Money, "The government defines the poverty line as income of $22,314/year for a family of four and $11,139 for an individual.")
The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the US in now over 40 weeks.
There are fewer payroll jobs in the US today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.
According to the US Census Bureau, 18% of all homes in the state of Flordia are sitting vacant. That figure is 63% larger than it was just ten years ago.
The US spends about $4 on goods and services from China for every $1 that China spends on g&s from the US.
It is being projected that the US trade deficit for 2011 will be $558.2 billion.
Child poverty is exploding all over America. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% - Atlanta, 52.6% - Cleveland, and 53.6% - Detroit.
Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30%.
For fiscal year 2011, the US federal government had a budget deficit of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars. That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.
If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the US national debt at a rate of $1/ second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.
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