There's an old joke that a recession is when you're brother-in-law loses his job and a depression is when you lose yours.

With that in mind, I found the following two pictures fascinating:



The U.S. is in the middle of both packs. The numbers for optomism on the economy are 46/51, leading to a negative 6% net belief that the economy is doing well. But as for their family, the spread is 58/42 that their outlook is pretty good.

Possible reasons for this:
1. There's a political maxim that Americans want to pretect the assets of the wealthy because they feel that they or their children may become wealthy some day. This represents an unjustified bright look at their own financial prospects, assuming that few of them will ever actually become super-duper rich. As such, their belief that they are doing okay may be tainted by similar blinders. Even if they are suffering, they're sure that everything will turn out okay for them.
2. The media's portrayal of the economy has given people the impression that the nation is suffering economically when, in fact, most people believe they are doing well and that their prospects are good. They believe that others aren't by what they're reading in the paper.
3. Random statistical blip.

Interestingly, Canada's numbers were approximately the same on both graphs -- both considerably more optomistic than America's.

[via OTB]