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What is your assessment of the current economy?
- Thread starter Tudo
- Start date
What if you ride the bus - have a dibilitating back problem - and have a mixed race family with kids - and come from a working class family - with only the little money they earned week to week?
M
moose eater
From what I've read, there's a greater income disparity now than ever before in our history, with not only the Gov but many/most persons living on credit. not just for luxuries, but for life needs.
CEOs of larger corporations are more and more paid a significant percentage of their income in bonuses, which are taxed at a lower rate, thus avoiding their already-lower tax rates.
Some reports have stated that half of the Country in the US can't come up with $500 cash in an emergency. Hard for me to fathom that, but....
The Gov owes tens of $Trillions, and from what I understand, barely covers interest. Then they run public service ads telling the Commoners to "feed the pig", asking the People to be more responsible than those who assume roles of 'leadership,' despite the average laborers they're instructing toward responsible stewardship having far less financial ability to have anything to save after needs are paid for.
How's that work out in a family system, when parents instruct the children to achieve one set of goals & ideals, and fail to demonstrate anything resembling what they've told their children?
Youngsters making $15/hr, and trying to pay for rent, utilities, food, gas, auto insurance, a phone, maybe a six-pack here or there, maybe a bit weed, etc., are living hand-to-mouth, pay-check to pay-check, like many of their parents.
Tax cuts for the rich, but the Prez tells me he just put LOTS of money in my (and your) pockets with his tax cuts... Well, if $600-$1,200/year (or so) is LOTS of money, then I guess he's being honest.
The economy is more and more based in government contracts, or lower paying service jobs. They've made participation in, and perpetuation of, the Military industrial Complex's obscene wastefulness and destruction a desirable thing, to the extent that communities literally compete for military contracts, posts/bases, etc., literally spending property taxes on PR projects in order to attract the outrageous money that trickles out of such endeavors.
For some, the economy we have fosters black-marketeering of one sort or another just to make ends meet, while others go further into debt. And from the black-marketeers, the prison industrial complex makes money from their flesh and liberty, all the while lobbying for more laws and more severe sentencing.
The American Dream is dead, as far as I can see.
Meanwhile, Wall St. has not been made to be responsible, and from the reports I have read, the next, soon-to-arrive crash, will be worse than the last one, and the one before that. And we'll likely bail the fuckers out of THAT mess too. Meanwhile, the average bank or credit union offers .5% interest, while charging interest rates for credit cards (for many persons) that were literally not legal only a couple or so decades ago.
Some of our quality of life indicators in the US are moving backward.
TED Talk- Nick Hanauer: 'Beware Fellow Plutocrats, the Pitchforks are Coming'
(20 minutes, 26 seconds)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2gO4DKVpa8
CEOs of larger corporations are more and more paid a significant percentage of their income in bonuses, which are taxed at a lower rate, thus avoiding their already-lower tax rates.
Some reports have stated that half of the Country in the US can't come up with $500 cash in an emergency. Hard for me to fathom that, but....
The Gov owes tens of $Trillions, and from what I understand, barely covers interest. Then they run public service ads telling the Commoners to "feed the pig", asking the People to be more responsible than those who assume roles of 'leadership,' despite the average laborers they're instructing toward responsible stewardship having far less financial ability to have anything to save after needs are paid for.
How's that work out in a family system, when parents instruct the children to achieve one set of goals & ideals, and fail to demonstrate anything resembling what they've told their children?
Youngsters making $15/hr, and trying to pay for rent, utilities, food, gas, auto insurance, a phone, maybe a six-pack here or there, maybe a bit weed, etc., are living hand-to-mouth, pay-check to pay-check, like many of their parents.
Tax cuts for the rich, but the Prez tells me he just put LOTS of money in my (and your) pockets with his tax cuts... Well, if $600-$1,200/year (or so) is LOTS of money, then I guess he's being honest.
The economy is more and more based in government contracts, or lower paying service jobs. They've made participation in, and perpetuation of, the Military industrial Complex's obscene wastefulness and destruction a desirable thing, to the extent that communities literally compete for military contracts, posts/bases, etc., literally spending property taxes on PR projects in order to attract the outrageous money that trickles out of such endeavors.
For some, the economy we have fosters black-marketeering of one sort or another just to make ends meet, while others go further into debt. And from the black-marketeers, the prison industrial complex makes money from their flesh and liberty, all the while lobbying for more laws and more severe sentencing.
The American Dream is dead, as far as I can see.
Meanwhile, Wall St. has not been made to be responsible, and from the reports I have read, the next, soon-to-arrive crash, will be worse than the last one, and the one before that. And we'll likely bail the fuckers out of THAT mess too. Meanwhile, the average bank or credit union offers .5% interest, while charging interest rates for credit cards (for many persons) that were literally not legal only a couple or so decades ago.
Some of our quality of life indicators in the US are moving backward.
TED Talk- Nick Hanauer: 'Beware Fellow Plutocrats, the Pitchforks are Coming'
(20 minutes, 26 seconds)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2gO4DKVpa8
TychoMonolyth
Boreal Curing
The government will ride this economic system like it's the last horse in the race. When it hits the ground, they'll produce another system (money printing machine) to replace it. They do it every 50 years or so, and it's due.
I am just retiring from a division sales management position in the Consumer Electronics industry. The lion’s share of our business was disposable income purchases rather than necessities. A $2K speaker purchase for your home or a $6K mastering compressor for your studio is never a necessity . . .
Our business is currently up 15% over last year to date. A year ago it was up 17% in the same time frame. My expectation is that 2020 will not see this growth and we would struggle to remain relatively flat. A US election year is always funky but add in the escalating US/China trade war, Brexit, the EU downturn etc . . . and it all gets really unpredictable – but not good. Hunker down.
Our business is currently up 15% over last year to date. A year ago it was up 17% in the same time frame. My expectation is that 2020 will not see this growth and we would struggle to remain relatively flat. A US election year is always funky but add in the escalating US/China trade war, Brexit, the EU downturn etc . . . and it all gets really unpredictable – but not good. Hunker down.
I was just thinking about this the other day. Walking around Denver suburbs I’m struck by how many big old houses have been chopped up and subdivided into multiple units. We like to tell ourselves that the standard of living is constantly rising, yet most of us are living in far smaller houses than our grandparents enjoyed back in their heyday.
M
moose eater
It's my understanding that in the US, infant mortality is rising, and age of mortality for adults is declining. Some of this is alleged to be related to the opioid 'epidemic,' but I believe these trends were with us before we saw such extreme rises in ODs, too, so I'm skeptical.
Work hard and you’ll be driving that bus.
I'd rather be driven by a bus driver - less hassle - no tickets - no auto insurance - no more servicing/repairs - and no more parking worries -
Neo feudalism
There's no printing press that will get you out of $1 trillion a year deficits. There is no precedent for the current economic situation and I'm glad I don't expect to be around in 20 years.
T
Teddybrae
Feudalism never went away. It's constant presence is masked by (conditional) access for all to the delights of economic rationalism.
I'mback
Comfortably numb!
St. Phatty
Active member
Wonder how much that will be affected by the situation in Sonoma County.
They have a 40 square mile wildfire that's about to be hit by 20/40 mile per hour winds, from the North North East.
I sketched it with an 8 mile long fire line to get a better idea of the fire layout.
In Southern Oregon we tend to get a piece of what is going on in Northern Cal.
Sure enough, it is windy today.
I had a small controlled burn, that only lasted about 5 minutes.
Just a 10 mile an hour wind makes the fire a whole different creature.
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