Everywhere I look I see progressivly more dire predictions. So what do you monkeys think? Great depression #2, with 25"% unemployment, foodlines? Or Can't happen again /Won't happen again..????
A country's wealth is based on what they produce. We sent most of our factories overseas. Get better? May take a while.
May take a war that's how we got out of the 29 crash (1941 the economy was "declared back on track") I 'm not sure any big world war could be stretched out long enough to rebuild the economy today..
I tend to see a more optimistic outlook. The American people have continually demonstrated an ability to over-come, to conquer and prevail. I can see a demise of the cushy x-box society that we have grown accustomed to in the past decades but I can also predict a hearty response with a healthy cottage industry filling needs that we have come to rely on Monsanto and GM to produce. There is no reason that we have to be trapped by the 9 to 5 make it and use it economy. Consumerism has run its course and most of us got to enjoy it; now its time to get back to business. There will be collateral damage but we'll rebuild and be stronger for it. God has blessed us with the means of solving our problems, those that insist on waiting on someone to do it for them will die by natural selection.
Greater Depression with unemployment exceeding 25%, with rampant hyperinflation of the basics needed to survive.
Thanks Sea just the positive outlook I needed to bolster against the hardcore doomsayers( i'm a light weight minion)... You don't find that optimism online very much anymore (doesn't sell or generate traffic). I'm Starting to think people are spiraling a few absolute worst predictions into full fledged religions.Getting soI can no longer sort wheat from chaff.Think i'll go down to the local tech college and look at getting back into the game...
What we have to watch out for is little things sneaked between the cracks like the rider on the firearms owners protection act that outlawed the import and construction of new machine-guns in 89. Don't think for one minute that they have forgotten about the house-cleaning in 94; these a-holes think they've got a job for life now and they remember their fallen brethren.
Good for you! I tend to look on every thing that happens as an opportunity. The American people have fallen into the trap of believing that opportunity knocks; it doesn't knock but it does exist at every venue. Opportunity flows down every street like a mud-slide and only those that take to time and effort to grab it will prevail. View every event, every occurrence as a learning opportunity. I try to learn from each and every encounter or event. You don't have to hit your thumb with a hammer to know that it hurts like hell, probably figured that out by watching someone else's misfortune. I see this climate as the opportunity to tear down what has been failing for some time and to rebuild something new. It is frightening and intimidating but it is also unavoidable and many of us may not survive it but then again, there are no promises that a crane won't topple from a building and squash you like a bug either.
ILeft a top paying( for here) industrial maintenance job 3 years ago (my choice,) that plant eventually folded.Do some web based stuff on my own(don't make much) and don't think I could; er...rather;I know I don't want to go back to working in industry.and with the economy blowing up I had thought learning something else with the sole reason of "employability" in a company would be kinda pointless... but your more optimistic outlook made me think there may yet be "hope"....and even "change"? For the next 20 years or so... Thanks
I think the American economy is stronger than they think. I agree there will be some tough times, but I don't think it will rise to the level of the great depression.
[FONT=georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif]Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left. ~Hubert Humphrey We are given so many opportunities to find the good in every day, in everyone, and in every instance of change and adversity. I challenge you to use your present situation to take a look inside yourself and see what you can do to make your tomorrow a better one. [/FONT][FONT=georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif]So often time it happens, we all live our life in chains, and we never even know we have the key. -The Eagles, "Already Gone"[/FONT]
I honestly wish I was an optimist... But experience has taught me the better part of valor is to see reality, and then make decisions based solely on fact. I'm a dyed in the wool pessimist/realist* Now, all I need are the facts! All I seem to have to go on right now is pure supposition. My heart wants me to see that the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train... My head tells me to wake up and smell the coffee. No predictions.... My summation: A Depression, as was told to me that I would see in my lifetime, by my grandmother. Unemployment greater than 50-60%. Civil insurrection, starvation, rioting, and things I'll never repeat..... *Optimist= a person that sees their glass as half full... *Pessimist= a person that sees their glass as half empty.... *Realist= the person that is tired of all the playing, and just wants to wash the darned dishes! Bill
Glad you're upbeat, SC. Only problem I see is that if we manage to squeak by and weather this storm we're still subject to the corruption infecting the highest levels of our system. The elite back scratching will just continue ad nauseum. We'll just wind up in the same place a few decades down the line and probably closer to the Dictatorship/fascist state that always comes on the heals of a 'free' state. We'll just be upping the avg from 200 yrs to maybe 205. The overstepping of the governments power will only continue to spiral out of control. Power isn't given...we did not give them any power over us. Power is taken. We specifically gave them the privilege to limited governorship of this nation. Instead they have far overstepped what we contracted with them for. They have given themselves full time positions, at our own expense, to continually legislate our freedoms away. They will not allow us to peacefully stand up and assert to them that we are sovereign. Ever. We may settle for the status quo for another 25+ years...or maybe we won't. What is certain: the people will have to stand up and reassert their power over the gvmnt with force. The only other option is slavery. Continued denial of the facts as brought to us by history? Belief that they're here to help? The same ole two party dog and pony show? Continued militarization of your local police forces? I don't even need to bring up all the tin foil stuff...their own actions spell it out quite plainly enough. OK now I'm all depressed...and a little high on doom! I wonder what's on TV? :knock: :knock: Hey, who are you guys? Oh woah, seriously guys...no need for the tase taser1 taser1 taser1 Arg, don't tase me bro! taser1
Don't take my optimism as being upbeat; I see the problems around us as clearly as the next monkey, its just that I refuse to admit defeat without a fight and the fight begins with a big break-down of the system that has been on the outs for years. It will take a tremendous amount of hardships and sacrifice to build something back that works but it can be done now and it couldn't be done until now.
I guess a comparison could be made, say like upgrading a Model T assembly line to handle 'Vettes. It will take blood, sweat and tears, not to mention capital a batch. Therein lays the rub, there is no credit available to borrow for the new machinery.
Good points both of you. I just hope that people wake up and insure that we take steps to make those changes before the people that have taken it upon themselves to bend the system to their own ends push to the level of full on dictatorship. If we let that happen the only path will then be violent revolution resulting in the loss of many lives and mass destruction of infrastructure. Thus making reestablishment of a comparable lifestyle possible only many years later. We still have time to make the changes necessary but the most important step, to make our government understand that it is we the people that allow them the opportunity to govern, may not be accomplished in that time. If they continue to legislate our liberties away we'll get to a point that in their minds we'll be allowed to do nothing that they don't expressly allow. Exactly the opposite of what the Constitution says. They only continue to reinforce their position and continue to secure even more control over us. Without the authority to do so... So many laws have been passed that are directly in violation of the Constitution and then more are passed in reference to illegal 'laws'. How many passed in the last 100 years are actually constitutional and thus legally binding? The financial shenanigans in the past three months will most likely turn 75%+ of the working poor into honest to god poor. T3 is right...we are serfizens. Soon we might actually be real slaves... When, not if, they stand up at their podiums and suggest ANY loss of sovereignty to the IMF, the WTO or the EU or make suggestions that we make a NAU then we'll know beyond doubt that we are sold out. I could go on and on but I fear that here I am preaching to the choir and my thoughts really aren't reaching anybody that doesn't already feel much as I do. Maybe the gvmnt employee that reviews this hit will read my words and at least understand where they come from and why. I wish I could muster the charisma required to stand up and really make my voice heard. That is my weakness and I hope I can live with it. Byte