Oil independence is a great achievement. We will see if Biden manages to tank the gains made. Gasoline prices are good, but they have been pretty good since 2016 (lowest annual average gasoline price in the past 15 years; $2.14.) 2020 was a good year for gasoline prices too.
The USA stock market has done exceptionally well. The DJIA was at 19,873 on January 3, 2017. It opened at 30,627 on January 4, 2021. That is a gain of 10,754 points. I can’t speak for everyone, but my personal 401K gained 47% in that same period. I am invested in both stock and bond funds.
Unemployment. The draconian government-imposed Covid restrictions have had a disastrous influence on employment since early 2020. Historically, the U.S. unemployment rate was 4.7% at the end of 2016. By the end of 2019, it was 3.5%. The last time it was that low was 1969. In April of 2020, it had soared to 14.8%. At the end of 2020, it stood at 6.7%.
GDP did not make spectacular gains in the past four years, although we hoped that it would. The inflation rate remains about the same as it was in 2016.
From the perspective of the average U.S. citizen, energy costs are a huge part of the monthly budget. When gasoline prices increase, we feel it acutely in our wallets.
Obviously, a low unemployment rate means that more people are working and better able to support their families.
Stock market health is especially important to someone like me who is retired and has a portion of their retirement funds invested in the stock market. It is probably less important to many younger people who are still working.
Stella's Place 
Voters Oppose Biden’s Keystone XL Pipeline Decision, Expect Higher Gas Prices
https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/environment_energy/voters_oppose_biden_s_keystone_xl_pipeline_decision_expect_higher_gas_prices
On his first day in the White House, President Joe Biden signed an executive order blocking further construction on the Keystone XL Pipeline project. Most voters disagree with Biden’s decision.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that only 36% of Likely U.S. Voters think it is a good idea to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline that would transport oil from Canada to the U.S. Fifty-one percent (51%) of voters say canceling the pipeline is a bad idea, and 13% are not sure…
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I am afraid Biden started trying to unravel all that yesterday.
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I’m not sure why they are polling to find out what we want! If our votes didn’t count…🙄
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To laugh at us that we might think they would do it because we want it. 🙄
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Rasmussen isn’t a tool of the left.
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Don’t give up so easily on the younger set just yet.
Wicked Son finally turned against Apple, last week iirc, when Tim Cook opened his big mouth about all the censorship going on and WS’s Apple stocks went down. WS was furious.
We reared them properly, and there are more of us having more kids than they.
“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away.” John 15:2
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Oh yes – WS also told me China was the only country in the world that had an increase in GDP. WS and friends are not happy.
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I wasn’t aware that I had given up on the younger set. What did I say that makes you think that?
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Your very last sentence.
“It is probably less important to many younger people who are still working”
It has been my experience that these younger guys, having lived through Y2K, 911, and the 2008 stock market crash, have learned from their elder’s mistakes and are doing everything they can to build up their retirement funds.
My experience may not be typical, but I sure hope it is.
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I know plenty of young’uns who aren’t terribly concerned about investments and retirement accounts – and I’m counting twenty somethings and thirty somethings in the group. Sure, there are some who are, but they aren’t nearly as interested as those who are already retired! That’s all I meant by that.
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The report, which surveyed 2,000 U.S. adults ages 40-79 with at least $25,000 in investable assets, finds many Americans may have a ways to go, even those approaching their golden years. Nearly two-thirds of 40-somethings have less than $100,000 in retirement savings and 28% of those in their sixties have less than $50,000.
While this report didn’t survey younger Americans, a 2019 TD Ameritrade survey found that 66% of millennials don’t feel on track when it comes to saving for retirement, mostly due to the burden of housing costs.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/23/heres-how-much-americans-have-saved-for-retirement-at-different-ages.html
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Wow, how sad is that? Have to think on that one. Wonder how many they surveyed were in big cities rather than flyover country.
No wonder bitcoin is gaining strength. The gubmint cannot touch bitcoin. Yet.
Some are paying attention, seems most are just being entertained.
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Another big one is home ownership. I didn’t own property for most of my life, and I was astonished at the financial benefits it conveyed once I bought my first home.
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There are times when one finds one’s self set back on one’s heels, realizing once again how very different – privileged? – one and one’s fam is.
We even seem at times to speak a different language that others do not understand.
From time to time.
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Remember We Are the Majority – Here Are Ideas On What We Can Do Moving Forward
By Joe Hoft – Published January 21, 2021 at 8:57am
“After assuring the readers on the platform that we are the majority, the author shares the following:
…That’s an America that’s made up of 2/3 patriots. Imagine the economic destruction we can do to China. Americans are the kingmakers of economic growth for other countries. We are the customers and we make the final buying decision.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/remember-majority-ideas-can-moving-forward/
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