Are you better off than you were 4 years ago

There are two very simple questions that need to be asked over the next eighteen months. The first is, Are you better off than you were four years ago?
If the answer is “Yes,” the second question is even more blunt: Really?  How are you managing that?

                                             March ‘07            March ‘11
Unemployment Rate                4.40%                 8.80%
Gas price (per gallon)             $2.56                  $3.60
National Debt                          8.84 trillion          14.27 trillion
Monthly deficit                         95 billion             189 billion
Median House Price*               $262,600            $202,100
S&P 500 Index                         1420.86              1332.31
Employment-Population Ratio    63.3%                58.5%
Consumer Price Index*             205.532              221.309
(Items with an * are using February 2011 data)

…because the rest of the country’s kind of getting hammered, here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)