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If you have lost your job, things suck. If you lost your job during the soaring economy of the 90s, things sucked just as bad.
I think you are missing something. Yes it sucks to lose your job regardless, but trying to find a new job in a recession is much different than trying to find a job during a normal economy.
The rest of what you're saying is just odd. Should the media ignore what is going on? Should they not report on the declines in employment etc? They did that for many years....didn't really help or stop anything.
First to comment on Azoria, I am sorry to hear about your 401K. Mine has gone down greatly as well, but I am not near retirement. My purpose was in no way to hoot or holler about my good year, but rather to say things are bad for people at different times. There have been years when personally I have had bad years and the economy was wonderful.
While you may have had a great year, *most* have not. You are only taking yourself into consideration, but what about the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been lost each month for the past 12 months? And it's continuing on a daily basis. The media actually underreports how often layoffs occur. Just today Walgreens announced layoffs.
You are one person, but 693,000 people lost a job in December. It's hard to diminish that number.
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Unless you are self employed, there is no job security at any time.
Self employed people don't have job security either. It fluctuates the amount they earn every month/year.
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It is just a fact of life. But now people as a whole become overly sensitive and don't spend.
Well what are facts are astronomical amounts of jobs are being lost every day. People are facing paycuts. So this means less money for people. I think it's a good thing that people aren't spending and paying down their debts and saving their money. What's wrong with that? They should have cared before that they had a 400K mortgage or 50K in debt, I don't think they are being overly sensitive, they are actually reacting normally.
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Really think about the sound bytes of the last few months:
"The Big 3 could go under, who would want a car with a warranty from them"
"Dont buy gift cards to retailers, they may not honor it"
Many companies have disappeared in 2008. Obvioiusly a gift card will be worthless if they disappear, so why not spend it?
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Then banks could go under, insurance companies. etc. etc. Everyone was freaked out about annuities and will they be honored. Not 1 penny has every been loss by an insurance company because they have reserves set in place, but you never hear of that. So people take their money out, panic. Take them out of the banks, panic.
People have lost money in Indymac, an MMF Fund. History has also shown that people have lost money that was in a bank (and only got back 50% of their money). I don't think there is anything wrong with someone protecting their assets.
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That is what this crisis is really about. We, the people, are the root of the problem. The media just does a great job of putting more logs on the fire.
Even if the media reported nothing and we just saw our money disappearing, our jobs being lost, our colleagues being laid off, neighbors being laid off, paycuts happening, you don't think people would still be concerned?
"So now people watch the news, who everday talk about the Big 3 U.S. automakers and how they could go bellyup, then act shocked when sales figures are low?!?"
The bad sales figures started in early fall, well before the bailout talk. October was down 30% from 2007. Year-over-year sales dropped 41% in November. Financial sector started laying off large numbers in late summer and early fall. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapsed in July. Lehman collapsed in September. Many other large firms either were taken over or started downsizing in October through December. Lenders for autos started requiring much higher credit scores (700 or more) and downpayments.
How do you "spend" when you have no money and can't borrow money to spend? I think some of you need a wake-up call to reality... this was expected and it is going to be severe... there is no doom and gloom prediction when this was all expected to happen and it is going to get worse cause that's the way things are... not cause of media harping about it... the media doesn't control the economy... people do and when they have no money and mounting debts... guess what... it is doom and gloom...
Guess what...it's called being prudent when times are good. It's called not spending yourself silly with borrowed money on things you can't afford. It's called putting aside money for expenses in case of a downturn. Houses don't always appreciate and companies don't do well forever.
The problem today is that younger workers have not been alive or working through a real recession or poor economy. I remember the 1970s and the early 1980s. I have more than a year of expenses in cash in the bank, and no debt besides my mortgage (a 70% LTV 30 year fixed) and our 2 car payments (put down 50% cash on the cars). It's about how you live and how smart you are with what you have before times turn bad.
News to the ignorant....tough times happen. Houses depreciate. Companies layoff workers.
I think alot depends on where you live really. I know where I live;I haven't seen much change so far.The restaurants are filled ;no store closings and they seem as busy as ever. I was a adult in the 70's and 80's recession and this one is nothing like those in this area at least ;so far.I know of no one personally that has lost their job.
Yah, no visible effects around here either. Linens n Things would be about it. Restaurants are jammed nonstop. They're opening new shops and restaurants in the town center area. We did have a layoff event at my company last month, but only about 10% of the layoffs were done in this state. Most of them were in New England and New York. My brother's company is expanding and hiring. I don't personally know anyone who has been layed off who lives in this area.
That's not to say it's not a bad time to lose a job, even here.
I half agree with the rest of your post. But on this particular point only, I disagree. In the 90s, in some industries, signing bonuses were the norm. Losing your job might have meant being out of work for three or four weeks, interviewing at several places, choosing between a few offers, and possibly being hired at a higher salary.
Today, the job losses are so broadly based that you're going to have a tough time getting back into the same industry, and if you do it will probably take you a while and you'll almost certainly be at a lower salary. You might be looking at four to six months of looking for jobs in progressively lower end positions/industries. You're also likely to have lost some funds you might use for supporting yourself during the downtime, and if you own a home you might have trouble with it due to falling value.
So I think there are awful times to lose a job and not so terrible times to lose a job.
I lost my job last November. I found another one relatively quick but I had to take a $15,000/yr pay cut. I established a lifestyle based on the salary I was making at my old job so this isn't the easiest adjustment.
Guess what...it's called being prudent when times are good. It's called not spending yourself silly with borrowed money on things you can't afford. It's called putting aside money for expenses in case of a downturn. Houses don't always appreciate and companies don't do well forever.
The problem today is that younger workers have not been alive or working through a real recession or poor economy. I remember the 1970s and the early 1980s. I have more than a year of expenses in cash in the bank, and no debt besides my mortgage (a 70% LTV 30 year fixed) and our 2 car payments (put down 50% cash on the cars). It's about how you live and how smart you are with what you have before times turn bad.
News to the ignorant....tough times happen. Houses depreciate. Companies layoff workers.
I don't think you are reading my post correctly, I basically agreed with you..
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