Mark Perry flags something to be thankful for:
The fact that the average American family can celebrate Thanksgiving with a classic turkey feast for ten people for less than $50 and at a "time cost" of only 2.1 hours of work for one person (and only 1.56 hours for Walmart shoppers) means that we really have a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving: an abundance of cheap, affordable food. Relative to our income, food has been more affordable in recent years than at any time in history.
Even our voracious debt is getting under control:
For the quarter-century leading up to the great recession at the start of 2008, Americans accumulated ever-larger piles of debt, both in absolute terms and relative to the size of the economy. Home mortgages were the largest portion of that, but it also included credit cards, auto loans, and student loan debt.
The good news is that in the past three years, Americans have made remarkable progress cleaning up their balance sheets and paying down those debts. After peaking at nearly 98 percent of economic output at the start of 2009, the household debt was down to 83 percent of GDP in the spring of 2012. That represents debt reduction of $636 billion, or more than $2,000 for every man, woman and child.
The Dish 
