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The problem comes from the top, and smothers both innovation and competition. Endless lawsuits, ridiculous Government regulations, free flowing funny money to the well-connected but non-productive. These reasons are why we are all losing. Central planning and limited competition assure our descent and failure. It was very easy in 1900 to start and run just about any business. Now licensing and insurance requirements, zoning and overpriced real estate make the costs for real production prohibitively expensive. An inept and often corrupt legal system allows non-productive parasites such as attorneys/lawyers to suck the life out of whatever survives Governments onslaught. To fix the problem we have to remove the growing tumors called Government and the other parasites that have ruined this nation.
So true! Evidently now it is easier to start a business in Communist China, according to Peter Schiff, than it is here --which is part of the reason they are thriving and we aren't.
-I think part of the problem is the cult of homeownership thats sprung up in this country, pushed by realtors, politicans, lenders, etc.
In the past (30-40 years ago), you couldn't screw up homeownership regardless of job the way you can now. You had too many cushions in your favor....payments were lowers as a percent of income, jobs were more stable, more sources of savings (pension, etc), mom stayed at home and could work if times got tough....................
50 years ago people paid CASH for their homes. The problem today is that homes are way too expensive. Incomes didn't increase enough to keep up with rising home prices caused by the real estate bubble which began to become seriously inflated when the Clinton Administration and later the Bush Administration both decided homeownership was a birthright and encouraged the banks to lower the qualification standards.
Add in the greedy and dishonest investment bankers making up phoney investment products out of these mortgage debts which all over the world who were entirely too trusting--- and you have the resulting failure of the banking financial system.
You serious? Dairy has been hammered, you can get a gallon for $2.00 or so. You can get a loaf of bread for $.99 and hot dogs for $1.50. Even good quality hot dogs are only like $2.50 (You can get a 4-pack of Hebrew Nationals at Costco for around $9) If you are paying these prices for food someone is ripping you off.
Some times I wonder what planet some of you guys live on.
The food you are talking about has more chemicals or genetic engineering or Rbgh or nitrates than food -- which I'd personally stay away from.
The SAFE unadulterated (organic) whole food like all food used to be in the good old days costs a lot more than that. This is a SAFE food shopping list you can use to buy from companies that make food products that won't give you Cancer down the road. http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/p...1%20layout.pdf
50 years ago people paid CASH for their homes. The problem today is that homes are way too expensive. Incomes didn't increase enough to keep up with rising home prices caused by the real estate bubble which began to become seriously inflated when the Clinton Administration and later the Bush Administration both decided homeownership was a birthright and encouraged the banks to lower the qualification standards.
Add in the greedy and dishonest investment bankers making up phoney investment products out of these mortgage debts which all over the world who were entirely too trusting--- and you have the resulting failure of the banking financial system.
You could add that back in, say, 1950, a family of 4 or 5 was satisfied to live in a 1,200 square foot home, with one automobile, one telephone, and one television--if they were lucky. That could easily be supported by one full-time wage earner in the family. Today, that family would expect to have a 2,500 square foot home (or bigger), a car for every family member over 16 (or more), other toys (like boats, ATV's, etc.), innumerable electronic gadgets, computers and cell phones for everybody, multi-week vacations to expensive cross-country or even international destinations--PLUS a plethora of publicly-funded services that those 1950 folks would never of dreamed about demanding. Simply put, we have become fat, greedy, self-indulgent sloths who have lived far beyond our financial, environmental, and even emotional means. That behavior can only land us in one place--where we get a massive and painful slapdown back to reality; reality probably being something like that lifestyle of 1950. And that is what we are about to get.
50 years ago people paid CASH for their homes. The problem today is that homes are way too expensive. Incomes didn't increase enough to keep up with rising home prices caused by the real estate bubble which began to become seriously inflated when the Clinton Administration and later the Bush Administration both decided homeownership was a birthright and encouraged the banks to lower the qualification standards.
Add in the greedy and dishonest investment bankers making up phoney investment products out of these mortgage debts which all over the world who were entirely too trusting--- and you have the resulting failure of the banking financial system.
I lived 50 years ago and people din't pay cash for thier hom,es. In fact I remmeber them scrimping and saving in order to buy a home.They also saved before bying on ecar and few families had more than one car.They alos budgeted on food. i can remmeber that a six pack of cokes was a thing only bought on paydays every two weeks. Younger children got handme down clothes fron their older brther/sister/. Peopole saved for their childrens college and kids often had partitme job from junior high thru college.It last untilt eh late 60s. The everyhting changed really.How days kids growup thinking they are specail and different from everyone else and deserve thngs and that the me is what matters. Its been the age of entitlement for decades and i don't see it changing until there not enough people creating things for the number of people.
Even taking my ancedotal look at things, every one of my college friends--Ive stayed in touch with quite a few, and others, have done FAR WORSE then their parents, struggling struggling for a lack of good job.
I remember having teaching degree, and working at Arbys, I would get a professional job, but now the kids today dont. They have all these stupid tremendous student loans and the good jobs unless you have the right connections just are not there.
The manufacturing base of this country hsa been ruined, in fact we have all these over-educated people and no jobs. I believe the system of a job for every person is failing, there are simply TOO many PEOPLE and NOT ENOUGH NEEDED JOBS to go around. No I am not a Communist but this is a reality.
I remember hearing this same talk back in the last 1970s and early 1980s. I graduated high school in 1982 and started college that fall, in the midst of pretty deep recession. The Jimmy Carter presidency had almost ruined this country economically just a couple of years before, and then the recession of the early 80s put the cherry on top. Steel, autos, and all kinds of manufacturing was in deep trouble then. People were leaving the northern "rust belt" and heading south and west in droves. It seemed pretty bleak.
Then the economy picked up and grew fast in the late 1980's with new technology taking hold and growth in areas not even invented 10 years before. We had another recession in 1991-2, and people again asked if things could "ever be the same." Then the economy grew in the 1990s as technology led the way.....although the result was another recession and the "dot com bubble."
My point is things always look worse at the moment. People 25 to 30 years ago pronounced that the US has already peaked. Jimmy Carter gave his famous speech. Things looked bleak. Then came the last 20 years of economic growth.
that was an inspiring speech and pretty apropos for now, with a quote from the speech:
So, the solution of our energy crisis can also help us to conquer the crisis of the spirit in our country. It can rekindle our sense of unity, our confidence in the future, and give our nation and all of us individually a new sense of purpose.
You know we can do it. We have the natural resources. We have more oil in our shale alone than several Saudi Arabias. We have more coal than any nation on Earth. We have the world's highest level of technology. We have the most skilled work force, with innovative genius, and I firmly believe that we have the national will to win this war.
so where did that money actually go? why are we turning away from coal and oil if that was part of the solution then?
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