Discretionary Income On The Rise, Americans Have Money To Burn

More Americans than ever before have “extra income” money that they don’t have to commit to necessary expenses like housing, health care, food, utilities, etc. And what’s perhaps most stunning is the sheer level in growth of the number of people with this extra income. In a few short years, the number of people with “discretionary income” has grown some 12%.
That’s astonishing.
So why then do so many people have a negative view of this country’s economy on the whole? Two reasons, I think.
First is the media’s tendency (part liberal bias, part “safe plane landings aren’t news” attitudes) to not report good economic news in the same sensational manner as bad economic news.
Second is the need of liberals to cast average Americans as victims. If Americans see themselves as affluent and successful they feel independent. And independent people have little need for government programs and entitlements and thus little need for liberals who raise taxes and expand the size of government to provide those programs and entitlements. Thus, liberals strive to convince us all that we aren’t well off and it’s an easy thing to do. You find some anecdotal evidence (some cliched story about a single mother working two jobs or something) and then use that to make an emotional plea about how terrible our economic situation is while completely ignoring the larger picture.
It’s a pretty successful tact, made more-so by the fact that the media is a) mostly liberal and b) mostly interested in selling bad news instead of good news.