How Americans see their economic well-being

The straightforward way of assessing the personal economic well-being of the people is to survey them about it directly. This is the approach of Social Weather Stations, a private nonprofit institute (www.sws.org.ph), in asking survey respondents if they presently consider themselves Poor, Borderline or Not Poor, if they went hungry anytime in the past three months due to lack of food, and whether their present quality of life is better than, worse than, or the same as a year ago.

This column makes three points: (1) the generation of statistics about the people’s well-being is a valid pursuit for private entities, not just for the government; (2) economic well-being is measurable in units other than money; and (3) SWS is not alone in taking this approach.

My reference: “Trends in Public Evaluations of Economic Well-Being, 1972-2014,” General Social Survey (GSS) Final Report, National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, April 2015.

NORC is a private nonprofit that does the American GSS, with funding from the National Science Foundation, a US government agency. The GSS was done nationwide 30 times in four decades, with an average sample size of 1,810 adults (2.4 percent error margin).

Economic gainers versus losers. GSS Question: “During the last few years, has your financial situation been getting better, worse, or has it stayed the same?” Average percentages for 1972-2014 are: better, 38.2; worse, 22.4; and the same, 39.1 (missing numbers are Don’t Knows). Thus, Net Gainers averaged +15.8 over four decades.

Actually, the net numbers are all positive except in two years. One of the negative years was 2010, when gainers were 24.9 and losers were 37.3, giving a net of -12.4; the other year was 2012, with gainers 28.1 and losers 30.1, or net of -2.0. The survey of 2014 shows 35.9-percent gainers and 24.2 percent losers, for a decent, though below-average, net +11.7.

Long-run economic progress. For greater inclusivity, the opportunities to benefit should not be monopolized. If gainers and losers stayed the same people over time, then the former would just get farther and farther ahead, and the latter would just fall farther and farther behind.

This can be examined through another GSS Question: “Compared to your parents when they were the age you are now, do you think your own standard of living now is much better, somewhat better, about the same, somewhat worse, or much worse than theirs was?”

The average percentages for the respective six answers to the question are: 33.2, 30.6, 21.1, 10.3, and 3.4. With 63.8 percent answering much/somewhat better, it appears that most Americans have benefited from their country’s economic growth. This is unlike the experience of most Filipinos (see “Inclusive growth has ended,” Opinion, 10/6/18; for other comparisons, see “Realistic economic history,” Opinion, 9/29/18).

Satisfaction with economic status. GSS Question: “So far as you and your family are concerned, would you say that you are pretty well satisfied with your present financial situation, more or less satisfied, or not satisfied at all?” The average satisfaction of 1972-2014 was 29.6 percent “pretty well,” 44.8 percent “more or less,” and 25.5 percent “not at all.”

That’s a margin of +4.1 points of the “pretty well” over the “not at all.” The point-margin was -1.8 among those with less than high school (i.e., the dissatisfied were dominant), +0.3 among those with high school, and a striking +18.0 among college graduates. Schooling matters a lot for economic well-being, in any country.

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