Our standing joke here at the auto shop is we're working harder, but for less money. We have customers from all walks of life, and the general mood is, the recovery isn't that great.
Fewer customers are coming in. The vehicles we repair are now older and have more miles on them.
Personally, I feel left behind by the recovery. I'm thankful to still have a job, but my quality of life has gone down. I'm a 46-year-old single parent. I've seen my pay shrink, but all of my essential bills increase.
I've watched many local businesses fail and still see nothing coming out of Washington to make me think there is anything that resembles a recovery.
I work as a service manager in a small repair shop in Southern Vermont. I've worked in this area for 30 years.
I've lived in the same modest house for 20 years. I will say that I did benefit from the artificially low interest rates and refinanced at 3.75% from a 6% mortgage. But the interest savings I gained have been spent many times over as my heating cost, utilities, insurance, maintenance and repairs have increased.
My spending habits are what I call survivalist middle class. The majority of my income goes to basic human needs.
Politically, I blame the slow recovery on both parties. I don't think they've fixed anything in the economy. If anything, they've just put a Band-Aid on it.
I don't believe the president has that much power to make meaningful change because of gridlock in Washington. His State of the Union seemed reminiscent of many of his other speeches -- upbeat and positive, but I don't hold out lots of hope that it's all going to come to fruition.
