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Many of us Americans are walking into a big, fat surprise..and not the good kind. No one has a crystal ball, but the signs of trouble are everywhere:
Fuel costs are driving up just about everything,
The easy money stainless and granite dreamers have finally begun awakening to their own self-induced personal finance screw-ups,
The lending game has new rules, and they don't favor the consumer in any way,
Buying groceries for a family of four + is a real adventure people don't like taking,
Investment accounts are dropping like an All-Clad pot. Even broadly diversified accounts are feeling the pain,
Pensions and health care are under increasing scrutiny, and health care costs are running a muck like a squatter being chased by the police from a vacant flipper house,
The prospect of buying heating oil for the upcoming winter puts many Americans into a clinical depression,
The MOD CUT Middle East continues to suck money like a vacuum on steroids, and our service members are coming back to a stretched-to-the-seams VA medical/mental health care system that has thus far resisted attempts at having its funding trimmed back by God and country flag waving politicians who love their second/third houses and all their wonderful perks/freebees/regular COLA increases, and that comprehensive heath care given to (the same) elected officals,
The borders in America are as porous as a 99 cent store seive, and once people sneak over and their babies are born, surprise! They're American citizens,
NAFTA is liked by some, hated by others, the elite class is making lots of money off it, but the working class stiff is increasingly in danger of losing their job, but globalization isn't going away - it's increasing. Learn a second language and increase your job prospects - not.
and..
..as flaky as the future of working class America appears at times, at least we don't live in a refugee camp in Darfur - right? Get used to the "eat your vegetables, people are starving in the world" rationales that your parents used on you when you were a kid because this thinking is the new paradigm in "it could be worse" thinking which is a long way from the good old days in the American bubbles when people lived beyond their means. Got milk? (you got to do a double take now at the price before you plop that gallon of cow in your shopping cart). Good luck with that wishful thinking thing.
Last edited by NewToCA; 06-18-2008 at 05:21 PM..
Reason: language
"We are not in refugee camps" - Have you checked the people living in lowland areas in IOWA recently?
The American economy has always been, with the exception of the Post Depression 40's and 50's, been based on a boom and bust cycle. This cycle started after Reagan deregulated wall Street and the speculators eventually figured out how to involve housing.
I figure housing prices are going to drop until they become in line with actual, not borrowed, income. That is going to be fun to watch.
"We are not in refugee camps" - Have you checked the people living in lowland areas in IOWA recently?
The American economy has always been, with the exception of the Post Depression 40's and 50's, been based on a boom and bust cycle. This cycle started after Reagan deregulated wall Street and the speculators eventually figured out how to involve housing.
I figure housing prices are going to drop until they become in line with actual, not borrowed, income. That is going to be fun to watch.
Where the folks in "lowland Iowa", and New Orleans, and anywhere else in this country have a choice, usually, to move out of their environs, the folks in Darfur do not, at least while they are alive. But that's not my problem, the folks in Darfur. If the dems continue along on their merry way of dumbing down, intimidating and harassing the US populace, I can envision a little of a refugee camp scenario. It is correctable, even preventable, if, and only if the citizens get their heads out of the sand, wake up, open their eyes, and see what could, and can happen if we end up with a dem congress and a dem president. Nationalize refineries? Hah, that's only the beginning. And if the housing market/prices fall to the actual income levels as you want to watch in fun, which I agree is where it should be, well, the WPA will be back in full force.
Considering that neocon fanatics have ruled our country for most of the past forty years how do you expect to get away with blaming the Democrats for our problems? The Republicans have sold us out to the most corrupt bidders since Regan. I, as a Democrat, do not intend to be quiet while BEING BLAMED FOR SOMETHING WE DID NOT DO.
I figure housing prices are going to drop until they become in line with actual, not borrowed, income. That is going to be fun to watch.
That would be nice. Home prices need to correct themselves down to about $100K on average everywhere. It's funny how real wages haven't risen at all since 1990, but you could still easily buy a decent home for $100K then.
Can we ever get past the basic ideological differences (and name calling) between the two major parties and reach common ground on that which really matters in our lives and binds us all as American's? Where's a modern day version of Will Rogers when we really need one.
Can we ever get past the basic ideological differences (and name calling) between the two major parties and reach common ground on that which really matters in our lives and binds us all as American's? Where's a modern day version of Will Rogers when we really need one.
Hey, let Greg blame the floods on the GOP.
Watching a socialist engage in Jeremiads has a certain horrible charm.
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