Now that's a robust economy (isn't it?)

While the media tend to publish the government's own "good news" statistics on the economy without any critical analysis at all, and to reprint verbatim the press releases of the various government officials assigned to the task of keeping Americans' eyes averted from the deteriorating economic structure around them, every once in a while we get a bit of underreported honesty. This is from Investment News:

One in 10 Americans fear losing their job

February 26, 2007
About 10% of Americans responding to a recent public-opinion study feared losing their job in the next year, though most said that they were keeping up financially, according to a report released Friday by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington.
But only about half said they thought they had enough money to live comfortably when they retired, according to the report, which was compiled from a variety of public-opinion polls done over the past year.

Health care is the issue Americans are most anxious about, the report found. The report found that 54% of respondents said they were worried that they wouldn’t be able to pay their medical costs if they had a serious illness.

In addition, 20% of people cited in one of the studies said they’d had problems paying medical bills in the previous 12 months.

Since it seems to be mandatory to try to spin all economic news, let me try this:

If you worry that you wouldn't be able to pay your medical bills if you had a serious illness, Good News! You're now part of a solid American mainstream majority. Here's to your health, you're going to need it.