Monday, November 22, 2010
Holiday spending could rise, despite economic concerns, poll says
I found this very interesting article saying that eventhough the economy is not its best people will still spend the same amount or even more money than they did last year, in fact 57% say they would. Along with spending money 23% say acknowledge that they feel better about there overall financial situation than last years. Does this mean the economy is where is was before the crash?
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This doesn't mean that the economy is better than it was before the crash, but it is better than it was last year. The stock market has a lot to do with consumer confidence, so if the stock market isn't doing so well and people loose faith in it, then the stock market will suffer as a result. I think that since the economy and stock market has gone back up, people are less likely to think about the bad times that this depression has caused. Also the increase in the stock market itself is a clear sign that there are people who feel more comfortable with the current "stability" of our economic situation despite the millions unemployed. I just hope shopping chains don't hike up prices to take advantage of this.
I agree with Michael. The economy is far from being as great as it was before the crash, but I think the holiday season will definitely help pick up some of the slack. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and all the other holidays only happen once a year, so people must feel that they have the right to splurge their money and enjoy themselves a little, after living off the entire year on a tight budget. Speaking for myself, I'll still be spending money during the holiday season despite the hard economic times. Sure, I'll probably be spending less than I did years past, but I'm spending nonetheless. Hopefully the success of the holiday season will carrying on in the new year.
If only 23% of the surveyed people acknowledge that they feel better about their overall financial situation this year than last year, I'd still say that the economy is still pretty down in the dumps. 23% is only a little under 1/4, and if only this small percentage feels better, I'm sorry to say that America is still recovering from its economic crisis. The economy is definitely not where it was before, but it is improving.
I feel that even though the economy seems to still be bad...at least tons of people are going to go out and spend during the holiday season which will help stimulate some economic rise...or at least attempt to fix the economy a bit...
Isn't that a good thing if people are going to spend more money this holiday season? This is the time of year when consumers by the most, helping our economy improve. Take Black Friday for example. It is the one day where retailers have the best sales and millions upon millions of people shop on that day. Why? Because it gives shoppers the best deals, that one would never find given our state of economy. Not to mention Black Friday has been around for around 40 years now, providing the same help to people in need just like today. People will spend just as much then as they will now, regardless of the economic situation. For these reasons i dont believe our economy now is better than it was before the crash; people are just willing to spend more.
Ah, American holiday spending, the best business stimulus package of all... Then again, should we really be surprised that a rise in holiday spending is predicted. Shopping splurges at this time of year are an American Tradition and even a necessity. We can only stay away from the habit for so long, even when we're economically pressed. After all, we're Americans. We don't have to live within our means, right?
Remember, there is a big difference between "more" and "the same amount." The former means that people actually feel (or think they feel) that they have more money to spend than they did last year, signaling that the economy and people's status has actually improved. The latter means that people aren't any better or worse off than they were last year, indicating stagnation in the economy instead.
At any rate, (if one assumes this study is an accurate barometer of the economy) if we want to evaluate how Obama has done at fixing the economy, it might be better to compare answers from, say, late 2008 to answers now. It would also definitely be a good idea to seperate "the same" from "more."
From this study, then, we can figure out that Obama hasn't made the economy any worse than it was in 2009. I think that's a fair statement. Whether he has actually helped it recover (and the potential repercussions of those methods) is another question entirely. It's a question I'd be interested in discussing, but this desn't seem like the place to do so.
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