Late last month, I spoke with a former student of mine who told me that he was working two jobs in an effort to make ends meet and support his very young family. He temporarily had taken a leave of absence from school in an effort to get his personal affairs in order. He also said that he felt that, despite being fiscally responsible and doing all he could to meet basic living expenses, he saw himself as constantly swimming upstream being thrashed around by undercurrents in the water.
His story is not an aberration. The fact is that the current economy still is having an adverse effect on millions of Americans throughout the nation.
We recognize that the nation’s economic situation, while gradually improving, is far from robust. People in all regions of the nation still are struggling. USA Today finance reporter John Wagoner recently cited a fall 2013 report released by the Federal Reserve Board on August 7 titled Report on The Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households that indicated that a large percentage of American families had economically rebounded from the recession that took place from December 2007 to June 2009. The crisis was the harshest downturn in the economy since the Great Depression.
Some of the findings in the report were:
