Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
People are still buying the latest iPod, iPhone, etc.
I'm completely solvent and don't feel the need to succumb to consumer junk. All of my electronics are second hand; I own two houses outright; I travel the world and save as much as I can.
Too many people IMHO.
We had record Christmas sales.
Then we had record Christmas returns BEFORE Christmas no less.
Now we just hear about record credit card usage (consumer credit).
Those three together don't point to a healthy recovery.
Too many people IMHO.
We had record Christmas sales.
Then we had record Christmas returns BEFORE Christmas no less.
Now we just hear about record credit card usage (consumer credit).
Those three together don't point to a healthy recovery.
My 12yo's said the first day after Christmas more than half the class showed up with the new kindle fire's ready to read. LOL.
It's not just the citizens either. The school district just approved the purchase of Ipad's for the entire junior high next year. This all the while facing a 5 million dollar budget shortfall and whispers about teachers being laid off. The insanity runs deep.
yes they engineered the whole thing.
carefully cultivated Y generation, people that cant feed, house or cloth themselves, let alone their babies. the fields have gone barren and bare no fruit. ever wonder what happened to the inca's? just a bunch of pyramids taken over by jungle and no people. we will be joining them.
My 12yo's said the first day after Christmas more than half the class showed up with the new kindle fire's ready to read. LOL.
It's not just the citizens either. The school district just approved the purchase of Ipad's for the entire junior high next year. This all the while facing a 5 million dollar budget shortfall and whispers about teachers being laid off. The insanity runs deep.
That same mentality is going on in Texas school districts as well.
Each kid should have a laptop...school expense of course.
I'm constantly amazed by people who complain about being broke or who are living paycheck-to-paycheck who have smartphones with contracts that cost $1000/yr, huge flatscreen TVs, expensive clothes and drive new cars.
Ahem, there's a reason you're living paycheck-to-paycheck. The middle class today seems to feel entitled to certain luxuries like eating out, cable TV and having broadband access on their phones regardless if it takes every dollar they bring in to have those luxuries.
We bought our house in 2007 and only considered homes we could afford on one income, in case me or my wife lost our jobs. My wife has been out of work for over a year and we're still financially stable. I would have never bought a house at that time if we lived somewhere like CA or NV. It was obvious that the market in those areas couldn't sustain annual 10% increases in home values.
Economics and personal finance should be essential curriculum taught in every school. We have a middle class full of people who are financially irresponsible and claim to be the victim when they voluntarily make poor financial decisions. Of course, there are the cases when people are unexpectedly laid off, have an unplanned child or suffer an expensive medical emergency. Those are accidents. Leasing a car with a $450 monthly payment when you're already struggling isn't an accident.
Taxpayer expense in the end. They just built their 1.7 million dollar baseball stadium last year too. Football stadium is about twelve years old. How long till that new one goes up? Probably depends on who owns the land around the high school, who is their buddy on the board and how much they can steal from the taxpayers to buy the land of course. It will come crashing down. The snowball is gaining speed by the day.
yes they engineered the whole thing.
carefully cultivated Y generation, people that cant feed, house or cloth themselves, let alone their babies. the fields have gone barren and bare no fruit. ever wonder what happened to the inca's? just a bunch of pyramids taken over by jungle and no people. we will be joining them.
We're on the same page. It takes time to make changes. Start off in the schools and you have a generation that know no different.
There was an enlightening post yesterday in one of the TSA threads.
9/11 is over a decade old. A 10 year old then is now 20 and an adult.
One poster was of that age and said she only knew airport security for what it is now as this is all she's ever known. So we now have a generation that sees the current airport security measures as the norm.
The great defeat of the formerly prosperous middle class is the way they have let their upper class enemy get them to blame themselves. The middle class did not impoverish itself it is the victim of a very carefully planned assault on their wealth. What do you thing the Housing mortgage boom and bust was all about. Why else approve tax cuts on the wealthiest? A few made billions while the victims went broke. The prosperous middle class did not suicide it was killed.
I respectfully disagree.
I have family and friends in the real estate and mortgage business. I know of NOT ONE SINGLE person that was forced to sign for a mortgage they couldn't afford. Do you? If you do why haven't you gone to the AUTHORESSES AND HAVE THEM arrested for coercion.
We have free will. They CHOSE to sign those papers.
All these so-called "educated" college graduates are not smart enough to read papers BEFORE they sign them?
I agree with the OP. too many parents wanted their kids to go to college and "make something" of themselves. To do better then the parents.
There is nothing wrong with that. In order to "sell" college to their kids the other careers were looked down upon.
What decent parent would want there kids to grow up to be an electrician, a plumber, a carpenter?
When I got out of high school only about 15% went to college.
Today C and D students go to college.
College today is not the college of years back. Too many get degrees in majors that have no value in getting a real job. Too many junk courses and not enough "real" courses.
how many of you that have kids make the "eork" around the house? Make them clean the the bedroom they stay in. Cut the grass, etc.
Too many are spoiled brats who have never worked a day in their lives.
The have no manners, show no respect to anyone and some dumb parents protect them when they do something stupid, like the kid with laser.
I guess you are leaving out the workers that made middle class incomes. Why not? Industrial workers should never have had that much money anyway.
The real enemy of a prosperous middle class has always been the upper classes living off inherited wealth just as the enemy of small business has always been big business trying to eliminate competition.
The biggest and most pernicious lie perpetrated by the very rich and powerful is that the decline of both the working and middle class has been their own fault when it has been the result of enemy action. Shipping jobs offshore and increasing taxes on the middle have not been accidents. Placing the blame on the victims has not been an accident either.
I am sure you can supply the data to back your claim about inherited money vs. earned money.
So it's Eddie Lapmert's fault that folks went out and spent gobs of money they didn't have? Or should Eddie Lampert have just given them all his money to begin with? I don't get your point if you have one.
They thought they had money. I'll agree it is the fault of the middle class for believing the lies that were disproved more than a hundred years ago. However it was considered gospel that housing prices never go down. They thought their home equity was income. To the extent that the financial sector was behind this you can certainly blame them as well.
Now you would think more in the middle class would start burning the midnight oil to find out who said this both in recent history, and in our history. If you want to blame the middle class of anything, blame them for their love a repeating history because they choose to remain ignorant. We just saw Japan do this a generation ago.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
