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The Torah says it has something to do with being tortured at the hands of Satan.
Not too different from life in a cubicle, eh?
Exactly!
On a serious note, though, I'm one of these people that doesn't have "a job." I looked for a job for quite a while after relocating about a year and a half ago, but nothing came up. Since I hadn't paid into unemployment insurance, I wasn't eligible for that. Rather than keep looking, I took what resources I had and what contacts I could use, and I created my own business. It's definitely been very rough going, although I'm lucky in that my home office is my only real overhead.
Lots of people are just going to have to create their own jobs!
I know many people who used to work for large investment firms. Now that they lost there jobs they sit at home and trade from the comfort of there home. Many of them are saying wish this would of happened years ago. So there, many will just be self employed. Don't worry folks, it will be ok.
I layed several people off when the work slowed down for my buisness. The lazy ones call me once a week to see when things will be picking up. My two best employees are already working again at another job.
I thnik what is different about this is that business has adjusted much better than expected. I don't see much change otherwise but rememebr that 90% of people are working and that its so different in different sections of the country. This recession is much worse because actually it collpased many industries that were already slowly dying and not likely to ver come back anyhting like they were.After the 1970's recession it took until 2003 for the refining industry to actually start making profits and i the meantime they converted to half the employeees ;changed ownership several times.The oil productio busines in this countery went bankrupt and started moving to overseas as consulting companies to those that controlled the production.
The critical difference this time is that the U.S. will not be the engine for global recovery. Asian and South American countries will pull us out, and our recovery will coat-tail theirs. China, Brazil and India will consume vast amounts of resources, and companies that produce steel, fertilizer and other components will reap the profits. American multinationals will lead the domestic recovery, which will be slower and less robust for American companies that do not operate globally.
The power has shifted. Jobs moved overseas aren't coming back... and more will go. Many domestic jobs were a by-product of inflated demand and are gone forever. FIRE jobs aren't the future. Debt is no longer the ticket to prosperity. Americans have to adjust, and the sooner we realize, accept and begin the shift, the sooner some sort of recovery can take hold. What kind of a recovery it is depends on your definition of "recovery."
Are people thinking when we get out of this depression things will just go back to the way they were or do they think we will have a different way of living?
America as a whole lived beyond it's means,funded by credit and borrowing,do people see us going back to doing that again?
If not how will our society adapt to NOT having easily borrowed money to fund our lives?
Where will the money come from to get the economy back on track considering that 70% of the GDP is consumer spending?
Are people thinking when we get out of this depression things will just go back to the way they were or do they think we will have a different way of living?
America as a whole lived beyond it's means,funded by credit and borrowing,do people see us going back to doing that again?
If not how will our society adapt to NOT having easily borrowed money to fund our lives?
Where will the money come from to get the economy back on track considering that 70% of the GDP is consumer spending?
I don't think the majority of Americans understand that yet. The MSM and government are cheering for a "recovery"; a "V" shape at that even !
I also think we are in a depression. If that were publically and officially declared then I think Americans would wake up.
For now though, most seem to see it as past recessions and are just waiting til it's over so they can go back to doing what they did before.
I find it humorous how the "media" has such/or tries to have such an influence on the "common" American. There have been headlines every week saying that we have "bottomed out" or that the "worst is over" or that "things are looking up." Yet, more and more people are losing jobs every week, and the people who lost jobs the week before are still unemployed. I laugh when I read these headlines, because I know there are some idiots out there (who they seem to be targeting) that will see this and say, "honey, the recession seems to be over, let's go buy that car." I agree, there will be no recovery without jobs. The American population is what buys things, and with the majority of them not working, people are not going to buy. Heck, most people couldn't "buy" these things in the first place, they just financed most of it, which will no longer be the case.
I, for one, run my own company. It is a pain right now, but it is truly rewarding. For the hard times I have had with my own company, it is NOTHING compared to the stress I was feeling when I worked for my last Idiotic boss...having my livelihood depend on some moron who drives a car he can't afford, in a house he can't afford, at a job he "has" to keep at all costs to not lose the "image" of his perfect life in this rat race.
Are people thinking when we get out of this depression things will just go back to the way they were or do they think we will have a different way of living?
America as a whole lived beyond it's means,funded by credit and borrowing,do people see us going back to doing that again?
If not how will our society adapt to NOT having easily borrowed money to fund our lives?
Where will the money come from to get the economy back on track considering that 70% of the GDP is consumer spending?
Well, I think it's clear that the 70% figure is going to have to be adjusted downward quite a bit. We need to simply produce more in this country so that production and consumption are much more aligned. If the Federal Reserve is smart (and I have my doubts), the money supply will be a lot tighter with higher interest rates, which would do a lot to discourage excess debt.
What we don't want is to go back to where we were - we don't want a V-shaped recovery. We don't want the finance and real estate jobs to come back - ever. That was simply a misallocation of resources made possible by easy money. What we want is more domestic production, more savings, and more even trade balances with other countries. Not only do we need less regulation, we also need less government propping up of uncompetitive/inefficient parts of the economy.
I, for one, run my own company. It is a pain right now, but it is truly rewarding. For the hard times I have had with my own company, it is NOTHING compared to the stress I was feeling when I worked for my last Idiotic boss...
Amen. I'm in the exact same position. I've been going alone for the last year and a half, and it's been downright scary at times, but extremely liberating nonetheless. Dealing with idiotic clients is so much better than dealing with idiotic bosses!!
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