A fair economic litmus test question -- Are you better off now than 4 years ago?

Since Ronald Reagan posed the question with devastating effect in his 1980 bid to unseat President Carter, it has become an economic litmus test for incumbent presidents: Are you better off than you were four years ago?

An 8-30-04 article in the L.A. Times reviews how our nation is split on this issue, and has a line I need to add to my repertoire of one-liners:

"Just as all politics is local, perhaps most economics is personal."

The "perhaps" can be dropped.