Americans now see dim future for children

Americans say they have weathered the worst of the longest recession in seven decades, even as they are pessimistic about prospects for their retirement years, according to a Bloomberg National Poll.

Three in five respondents to the October 7-10 poll say their economic condition has improved recently or they are confident it will get better. One in three say things have gotten worse or aren’t likely to improve anytime soon.

“I see some hope, but not a lot,” says poll respondent Brian Ridlon, 34, an out-of-work resident of Green Mountain, Arkansas, who wants to learn how to become a barber. “There are some avenues to improve yourself, but we need more.”

What optimism there is about the immediate future doesn’t carry over to the longer term. Pluralities of those polled say they’re not hopeful they will have enough money in retirement and expect they will have to keep working to make up the difference. More than 50 per cent aren’t confident or are just somewhat confident their children will have better lives than they have.

“I don’t think they’ve got a chance,” says Brian Rich, a 65-year-old retiree with three children in their 20s who lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts. “I’m very angry at what’s going on in this country. Change is being forced upon us.”

A year after the official end of the recession, economic growth has slowed, slipping to a 1.7 per cent annual pace in the second quarter from 3.7 per cent in the first and 5 per cent in the final three months of 2009. Unemployment stood at 9.6 per cent in September, down from a 26-year high of 10.1 per cent in October 2009, while still above the 5 per cent rate that prevailed at the start of the recession almost three years ago.

“The worst is behind us, but the pain will be felt for a long time,” Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said in recorded comments released yesterday at a conference in Israel. “We’re inching forward, we’re not galloping forward.” Americans are responding to the tough times by conserving cash and making do with less over the past couple of years, according to the poll.

Almost half say they’ve started using coupons and changed where they shop for groceries and other household items to save money. Forty-four per cent have cut regular household expenses, such as cable television, telephone or Internet service. Fifty-four per cent have put off a major needed purchase, such as a car, started doing some chores or home repairs on their own, or figured out ways to drive less. In all, 85 per cent say they have taken some step to cut costs.

Wall Street financial firms and the mortgage industry get the most blame for the country’s economic weakness. More than three-quarters of the 1,000 Americans polled say the former has hurt the economy, while more than 80 per cent fault the latter. Former President George W Bush also comes in for criticism, with three times as many people saying he hurt the economy as those who believe he helped it.