A question in every presidential election is “Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?” If you believe the answer is ‘no,’ you’ll probably vote the incumbent party out. But memory is a tricky thing, especially when there’s so much to remember. So, as one administration ends and another is soon to begin, now is a good time to set the current record straight.
These are prices and indices as of November 7, 2024
Local prices of grocery items (Walmart)
1 doz. large eggs $2.97
16 oz. bacon $7.48
1 gal. milk $3.23
1 reg. size box of Cheerios $3.68
Local gas: regular $3.15 per gallon (Circle K)
Social Security: write down your monthly deposit
Medicare: what are you currently paying out-of-pocket?
National indices:
Unemployment rate: 4.1%
Dow Jones: 43,479
Mass shootings per year: 385 as of 4 Sept. 2024
Interest rate: 4.50%
National debt: 34.94 trillion (money borrowed by the US govt.)
National deficit for fiscal year 2024: 1.83 trillion (amount of spending that exceeds revenue)
Women’s maternal health: 22.3 deaths per 100,000 live births (double the rate of other high income countries)
Infant mortality: 5.6 deaths per 1000 live births (higher than any other high income country)
Immigration at the southern border: 11 million encounters between Oct 2019 and June 2024
Median price of a new home nationally $426,000
Annual inflation rate: 2.4%
Ranking of US students on the Program for International Student Assessment (38 countries):
6th in Reading
10th in Science
26th in Math
21% of adult Americans are illiterate
54% of adult Americans read below the 6th grade level
Average cost of state college tuition: $11,000/yr
Average cost of community college: $3,780/yr
These are some of the “are you better off now than you were 4 years ago” measures that concern many Americans. If your concerns are different, make your own list. The point is to have an accurate measure of what’s important to you now. This serves as the baseline for comparison prior to the next presidential election.
Four years is a long time to remember anything. We’ve all played the game of ‘telephone,’ trying to accurately recall a simple sentence which, in spite of our best efforts, becomes distorted in a matter of minutes. Imagine the errors of recall if the time is extended to 4 years and the number of items to a couple dozen. Instead, print a copy of this article (or one with the items you devise) and put it in your sock drawer, your nightstand, the family bible—any place you’re likely to run across it from time to time. Then, leading up to the next presidential election, you can jot down the information as it is then. You’ll be able to compare—free of the distortions of time and bias—and state with certainty, whether you and your family are better off in 2028 than you were on Nov 7, 2024.
Marsha Shearer is a resident of The Villages and the author of “America in Crisis: Essays on the Failed Presidency of Donald J. Trump.”
