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I agree with part of your thoughts Mike and yes it seems like “gloom and doom”, however it’s important that people know the truth of what is happening in our country in an effort to make corrections in their personal lives. Dishonest information isn’t helping anyone and this nation has had enough of that info over the years.
Part of the problem within the 86% of the workforce, that’s a good percentage of workers but what isn’t “said” is that of this group ~ too many are in huge debt with credit cards. Our nation is in a negative savings and a maximum spending. Too much of the spending is on interest rates that provide no value to our lives. We don’t manufacture products from raw material to produce goods, and we spend too much money on interest rates instead of the actual goods that we do buy. All this from the 86% group of works looks good at first. However the economy was being pumped up with the spending of the other 14% who lost jobs and income. It’s a false economy.
The nation didn’t have an engine that drove the economy other then the building industry and that bubble bust. There are too few products produced with USA on the label, and this means too few Americans working. Buying and selling paper stocks on Wall Street produced nothing but a false economy ~ not unlike Vegas with gambling, some win some lose. However in the nations economy we all lose when this occurred. There were laws and regulations twenty years ago that would have prevented all this from happening, but something occurred in Washington to remove those regulations and laws monitoring so much of the banking industries and the Wall Street brokers. Agencies of the government failed to monitor, and when they did those in charge failed to report the problems that were being seem. Thus no one made corrections to situations that were occurring.
Bad news isn’t always what we want to hear but it lets us know the facts and truths of what is happened and how we should correct our ways. I don’t need or want someone to pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.
There are problems with the 86% feeling like spending freely. A big chunk of those people are maxed from too large a mortgage and a bunch of credit cards. When W said "Go shopping" after 9-11 it was the thing to do. Some real "smart" people figured out how to play the "players".
Another group is like my husband and myself. We have both been working many years. My DH would like for me to not work. I won't be spending as much. I know - fair warning - there goes the economy!!! But the group of people thinking about retiring have to pay close attention because their money is not going to grow much.
The other group of 86% working are very concerned about staying in the working group.
I would really like to see about ten minutes of good news each day (at least). There are really wonderful, joyful things happening everyday all over the world. Fear is not going to help. I would like to hear about people helping some one even if it is just holding a door open or opening a door. Positive news - happy thoughts - that is my simple solution.
In these tough times, when people think that the solution are these very expensive economic stimulus packages - Well, that's like trying to fix a severe cut with a band aid, it's just a temporary fix.
The solutions are too numerous to mention, and what I suggested is a simple one, and it's just a start. I realize that a lot of us may not be able to go on spending sprees, and I'm definitely not asking anybody to pile up more debts on their credit cards. I'm only suggesting to not let what you hear create fear. I know this is a bold statement and I'll probably get some negative feedback for it, but there are many of us who have not been affected too much by this economic crisis and it's up to us to help start a positive economic trend. No, you're not going to see results in a week or so, and if you are, then you might as well put out a fire using gasoline. Our economy right now is in a big mess, but it will eventually recover, and this mess will take time to clean up. It's also very dangerous to try to throw more money at the problem instead of coming up with sensible solutions.
I'm sure most of you remember those words: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems, government IS the problem". - Those were the words of Ronald Wilson Reagan when he was inaugurated for his term in January of 1981. You may or may not agree with what he said, but those words should still take a strong foothold in the minds of many these days as well. Bottom line is, government can, and should only do so much.
Good, bad or indifferent ~ I only want the truth in news reports. I’ll then decide what works best for me and my friends and neighbors will do the same. Seems we’ve been denied this for some time now and people make incorrect decisions on how to live their personal lives.
It was thirty days before the bottom feel out that we were continually being told that the economy is strong and life is good. Who told us this and why? It didn’t happen to fall apart in the last 30 days, it’s been going on for years without being checked or reported. Leaves me feeling as if there are no “experts” in the financial business that knows what was happening, or at least if they did they weren’t saying anything in the news. Guess I was listening to the wrong people for too long.
You’re right Mike,,,,, government can be part of the problem, I don’t know if the trickle down economy helped however, sure was over the past 30 years or so, and that’s about how long it took this nation to fall apart ~ nothing happened overnight.
And the good news is that as hard as it might be ~ there’s no way but up from here. We only need to find a way to drive the economy and create jobs, income and spending for those who are in the need of employment.
Location: Moved to town. Miss 'my' woods and critters.
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Yes, AksarbeN, this economic distress has been in the making for far more years than any of us may want to admit. I am not an economist, even tho' I did study this in night school at a St. Louis University. However, I do have a simplistic solution (of sorts).
All of these 'bail out' funds should go to the many companies that have relocated to sites overseas, China, being one that does come to mind, south of the border, here, Mexico is in my spotlight. Have them reopen in any of the many factory buildings that are ghostly empty. Creating jobs for the almost 3 million currently unemployed in cities all over this land. In other words, bring back the manufacturing businesses that once dominated our society.
What happened to our steel industry? Our camera , television, computer, and other electronic businesses? We have the technology. We have the eager and competent manpower. We are here. How can consumers even begin to spend money on products when they are now suffering during this dreadful unemployment situation? Again, simple perhaps, but in my mind true. Bring back companies, perhaps assist in the first, second and even the third year of operations. Get a head start. Employ, produce, sell.
Comes to mind the 'Build it and They will Come' phrase.
reagan economics --if we just spend like crazy everything will be ok. debt is meaningless.
not so. mr reagan was a good man, a b rate movie actor and a lousy economist.
One thing people have gotten a clue about is debt - I hope!! I understand where you are coming from Mike in regards to spending. It would be a good idea and the majority of the people I know are pretty much not changing their spending. One thing we have talked about is to buy from the source as much as possible. I have always tried to buy handmade but now I try to find locally owned stores to shop. I am paying a few dollars more -maybe - depends but that money will pass into other local businesses before it goes overseas.
A feeling of abundance is an attitude more than a figure.
A feeling of abundance is an attitude more than a figure.
Unfortunately, sometimes it takes doing without before we appreciate what we had. Then, the next time we have a little something, we can finally appreciate the wisdom in your sentence.
It seems to be a lesson each generation has to learn one way or the other.
Something that would help to jump-start the economy would be to announce the change over to a 25-40% national sales tax at the start of the year, with no need to retroactively file taxes for 2009.
I'm sure there are plenty of people and businesses out there who are holding on to all of their extra pennies because they aren't sure how bad things are going to get, but the possibility of saving all that tax money could convince them to buy equipment, cars, furniture, etc.
I heard of an idea someone else talked about on the radio a few days ago. Seemed to make sense to me at the time.
Have the government issue bonds similar to the war bonds that they issued during WWII. People would buy war bonds and the government had money to work with. The people put their money into savings with the government and the hope that a better nation would come out of the war. It worked then. I guess I’d be happier to put money into some type of government issued bond that paid interest and helped put the belief back into the government that we can do and will overcome this problem we face.
Right now my bank rate interest is so bad that I may was well take it out. I’ll have to check,,, the government saving bonds may pay better interest rates then the banks do now.
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New Bonds
