Let’s be real about state of U.S. economy.

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• published: 06 Nov 2016
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http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/editorials/article/Let-s-be-real-about-state-of-U-S-economy-10594234.php Let’s be real about state of U.S. economy. Express-News Editorial Board Caption Close Let’s make like the characters in “Back to the Future” and fire up the flux capacitor and travel back in time for a moment. It’s October 2010, and the national unemployment rate is 10 percent, a product of the Great Recession that began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. It was a bleak point in our nation’s economy, but it was also a pivotal one. The economy added 257,000 jobs in October 2010, and it’s been adding jobs ever since. That’s a six-year winning streak. Has the recovery been perfect? Hardly. The recovery hasn’t been nearly as fast or as strong as anyone would like. Still, it has been real and meaningful. It’s a good time to be looking for work. The national unemployment rate is 5 percent, half of what it was six years ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. On health care, the rate of uninsured Americans has fallen to 9.1 percent due to the Affordable Care Act, according to a recent U.S. Census report. The ACA must be improved so it’s affordable for users and profitable for health care providers. But more people in America are insured. In 2010, the uninsured rated was 15.5 percent nationally. An aside, Texas’ uninsured rate is a whopping 17.1 percent, the highest in the nation. Wage stagnation continues to be a concern, but in 2015, working Americans had a bit of a breakthrough. For the first time in years, the nation’s median household income increased 5.2 percent over the previous year to $56,500. Likewise, the number of people living in poverty in the U.S. remains too high, 13.5 percent, but it decreased in 2015 by 3.5 million people. Housing values also have improved since the Great Recession. The price of housing is more of a concern now than foreclosure. And the U.S. economy grew by almost 3 percent in the third quarter. These are real gains in real lives that cannot be denied. The economy has been steadily improving from a massive economic collapse, but things could, undeniably, be better. The same census report that heralded the year-over-year increase in household income also noted that household income is still slightly below levels in 1999 and 2007. This is the wage stagnation that so many working Americans feel. While 3.5 million people were elevated out of poverty, more than 43 million people in the U.S. live in poverty, an unacceptable number. The next president — be it Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton — must focus on addressing these important issues. But these issues don’t belie the overall trend since the end of the Great Recession. Unemployment is down. Fewer people lack health insurance. Incomes went up from 2014 to 2015. Stocks are up. Housing prices have largely recovered from the crash. The economy continues to grow. Let’s be real about the economy. It’s been improving for the last six years. That’s no hoax. Visit CHAOS View Archive For More CHAOS NEWS: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUiFq-IUU64l62ygPdbVnIA