Is this The Big One? (loans, debt, financial, unemployment)

[TexianPatriot]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

And they do that and all of a sudden certain items will become "tax free" for one reason or another to benefit one group over another and that list will grow and grow.

The rich will always find or buy their way to little to no taxes.

that would happen eventually (much like our special interest dominated current tax code), but at least we'd get some temporary relief from taxes on income. a tax on the fruits of your own labor is serfdom.

[HappyTexan]

The similarities between events that lead up to the Great Depression and what's going on today is eerie. They say history repeats itself.

Crashes: The Florida Real Estate Craze

Florida Real Estate Bubble

Quote from above link:
"Market crashes always occur in the same manner. Regardless of the market, the same simple psychological underpinnings are always at work. People who are caught up in a bubble never look back for historical examples. For this folly, they become paupers.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
"

Shortly after that..the stock market started to bubble and we all know how that ended.

[skytrekker]

Thus far the bears who have been roaming for about 2 years or so have been right- all the 'Perma Bulls', Wall Street economists (most of them) 'Bubblelonians' as well as former Fed Chairman Greenspan and now Chairman Bernanke have all been proven wrong.

They have all been in denial. At this point I am glad I have kept my money in safe havens- and not listened to these shills.

[LittleDolphin]

Guess it's a good thing I listened to my Dad about his experiences in going through the Great Depression. I know "frugal" thanks to him...Thanks, Dad. Sorry you're not around to tell you how smart you were.

[tallrick]

I always agreed that history repeats itself. You cannot ignore the fundamentals, and from the beginnings of the RE bubble, and the war on "terror" I saw a real estate crash, high energy prices, and high inflation. It has been taking a long time to collapse, but when it does happen the results will be devastating. It's only a matter of how long the world is fooled by the US economy. Once the crash takes hold it will not be easily changed. The next depression will make the Great Depression look like a picnic. My parents were children during the 1930's and know all to well about rough times. Today with a larger population and energy issues it will be far worse.

[travelmate38]

Originally Posted by tallrick

I always agreed that history repeats itself. You cannot ignore the fundamentals, and from the beginnings of the RE bubble, and the war on "terror" I saw a real estate crash, high energy prices, and high inflation. It has been taking a long time to collapse, but when it does happen the results will be devastating. It's only a matter of how long the world is fooled by the US economy. Once the crash takes hold it will not be easily changed. The next depression will make the Great Depression look like a picnic. My parents were children during the 1930's and know all to well about rough times. Today with a larger population and energy issues it will be far worse.

I'm not one of these compound David Koresh nuts jobs, but the last sentence in your post is exactly why I've kept my firearms all these years. I sincerely fear a day when knowing how to defend yourself and your family will be essential to survival. I sincerely hope it NEVER comes to this and unlike the nuts living in the mountains, I hope it never does. But I also realize it is possible. If this country goes through another great depression, it will be so ugly most won't be able to comprehend it. Imagine the "gang culture" unleashed, unchecked upon the suburbs and society across this country. We are so spoiled and naive. The Ipod generation will cry and beg for mercy but there will be none. The anti-gun sandal wearing, granola crunching left wing liberal will be devoured without so much as a whimper.

[skytrekker]

Anything that comes close to the great depression, or the recession of the late 70s and early 80s is going to make allot of people in this country not used to this type of economic downturn really hurt- this is true for people 40 and younger.

[tallrick]

Originally Posted by travelmate38

I'm not one of these compound David Koresh nuts jobs, but the last sentence in your post is exactly why I've kept my firearms all these years. I sincerely fear a day when knowing how to defend yourself and your family will be essential to survival. I sincerely hope it NEVER comes to this and unlike the nuts living in the mountains, I hope it never does. But I also realize it is possible. If this country goes through another great depression, it will be so ugly most won't be able to comprehend it. Imagine the "gang culture" unleashed, unchecked upon the suburbs and society across this country. We are so spoiled and naive. The Ipod generation will cry and beg for mercy but there will be none. The anti-gun sandal wearing, granola crunching left wing liberal will be devoured without so much as a whimper.

Knowing how to harness waste as energy, grow food and innovate will be important. Knowing how to deal with people, and having a network of friends is even more important. Being armed and ready to defend yourselves would be critical. The Government has worked so hard to dumb us down, take away our chemicals and disarm that the criminal gangs would have easy pickings if the system breaks down. I remember the looting after hurricane Andrew and the "wild west" days where I was helping a friend repair his home and keep looters at bay. After that storm I realized just how fragile the United States is. As for liberal people I have been amazed how many of them cry to the local government when they do not like something. It is also amazing that a gun brings so much hate from some people. To me it's no different than any tool, made for select purposes. I hope to never use them for anything except target practice, but time will tell. Thankfully I am not spoiled and have been expecting disaster for a long time.

[travelmate38]

Keeping in theme with the original question......After today, I am leaning towards, yes, this is the big one. Things are looking very bad out there. War with Iran, talk of banks failing, talks of Freddy, Fanny failing and so on. My gut tells me things are on the brink of truly hitting the fan.

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by John23

The Chinese are becoming engineers, Brazil is feeding the world commodities....and we sit here and watch stupidity.

The US is the world leader in agricultural efficiency and production. I'm guessing you live in a city, near the coasts and have never really thought about what goes on out in the middle of the country?

One reason the US is so successful is that we have an amazingly small portion of our wages go to food.