Could Our Economy Be Any Worse Than It Is Now??

I suspect you're too young to remember the Great Depression. So am I. But I've talked with a few old timers that experienced it.

But anyway, I've looked/applied for over 50 jobs in the city I'm in, everyone either ignores me or turns me down...for basic stuff like warehouse or production jobs. Fortunately I'm self employed too and have had limited success with my previous customers.
 
So far, we're fine. Bear in mind, though, they've got a really good thing this time: Global Warming.


Remember DDT? Asbestos? Those were good hit jobs, but they only managed to kill a few million Third Worlders with malaria and make us all pay to have the asbestos removed from some buildings. A drop in a bucket really.


Global Climate Change is a hit job to rule the world. They could tear the whole thing down with that. China is laughing its ass off. Will we really wreck our economy and send our money to foreigners (I mean buy carbon credits)? We will unless lightning strikes both Obama and McCain. Not a brain cell between them.
 
The topic question is silly. I sell boats, meaning I never sell anyone something he needs. Many of them are sailboats, meaning the gas price rise is a good thing. Sometimes to foreigners, meaning the drop in the dollar is a good thing.

Been pretty busy lately, so I'd say our economy could be a whole lot worse. The fact that we're able to stay in business at all means things are actually not too bad.
 
Barack Obama's Plan
Reduce Carbon Emissions 80 Percent by 2050
Cap and Trade: Obama supports implementation of a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Obama's cap-and-trade system will require all pollution credits to be auctioned. A 100 percent auction ensures that all polluters pay for every ton of emissions they release, rather than giving these emission rights away to coal and oil companies. Some of the revenue generated by auctioning allowances will be used to support the development of clean energy, to invest in energy efficiency improvements, and to address transition costs, including helping American workers affected by this economic transition.


This is going to KILL our manufacturing jobs, and raise the price of Gasoline and electricity drastically.

But go to Obamas website and read for your self what he plans to do.
 
I rememer 25 cent gas, 5 cent cokes and we didn't have enough money to buy either. If we could have bought the gas we didn't have a car to put it in.

I also remember no gas at all and 16% home loans. None of this was in the Great Depression. Anyone who says that this is the worst economy every is too young to carry a gun. :rolleyes:

Things aren't rosey but I have seen a lot worse and I am not that old. :D
 
I'm personally more worried/concerned about my OWN economy. I'm about to take a second job to get out from under my own debts (and buy some toys along the way :D). I figure that without the personal debts I will be okay with gas prices doubling what they are now - along with everything else. Pay off my mortgage, auto loan, credit cards, and borrow no more money - ever again. Everything that's mine will really be mine and not some bank's property to come and take when I'm down. That's my survival plan.
 
Things aren't rosey but I have seen a lot worse and I am not that old.
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I'm old but I've never seen it worse, in my opinion we're heading into a perfect storm, years of poor decisions due to greed on the part of our larger corporations and our government continue to go along because of lobbyist. Outsourcing,loss of manufacturing,nation building with over 700 bases scatter around the world, importing poor under educated slave labor in large numbers, huge trade deficits, government spending out of control.

While I believe in "equal trade" there must be limits, basically we are selling this country piece by piece and at some point collection time will come, while the land will remain America will not exist as I have known it unless we become self reliant again producing goods and rebuilding the middle class.

With our current direction and leadership China or other will simply buy us out and not a shot will be fired and yes it can happen all due to greed.
 
Yes, it could be - and has been - much worse.

Great Depression (peak)
Unemployment rate >25%
Inflation 10.27%

Carter
Unemployment rate 5.8% - 7.0%
Inflation 6.5% - 13.5%

Current
Unemployment rate 5.5%
Inflation 4.18%

Do you think the price of gas is high? At least you can get it. There was a time under Carter when people waited in long lines only to discover the station was out. You had to come back and wait again and hope you got some gas for your car that got 15 mpg on the highway.

In 1973, shortages were so common that when Johnny Carson joked about a toilet paper shortage, people flocked to the stores, bought all the toilet paper they could, and a real shortage cropped up. Under Carter, I remember grocery stores running out of bread.

Compared to the Great Depression, which I did not live through, and the Carter years, which I did live through, today's economy is merely inconvenient, not a disaster.
 
YES. The times in the mid to late 80`s(I think) when we had gas shortages(:rolleyes:) was IMHO worse then they are now. Many of you will remember. My ex father-in-law lived in Texas at the time. That state was a dissaster with vacant skyscrapers, people picking up and moving leaving house and mortgage behind. He sent me many newspaper clippings to read. Every business suffered greatly. I don`t think we`re there yet but if things don`t start turning, it won`t be long. Congress didn`t help anything with recently shutting the door, for now, to offshore drilling. I don`t think we`ve hit the bottom of the slump our economy is in as we`ve not yet fully experienced the highest prices for neccessities that the fuel costs are generating right now. Example: I talked to neighbor which farms about three hundred acres. His fuel bill since being able to get into the field is about $4000/week. Add $1000/ton fertilizer plus seed. When his product(as well as many other farmers) goes to market come harvest time, who`s going to pay more?
 
Things can definitely get worse but right now we are nowhere close to wage and price controls. Anyone remember when wages were frozen for all workers and supposedly all prices were frozen? I remember home loans at 16% and odd-even days for gas. We may get there but we are not there yet and I don't think we will for quite a while.
 
WhyteP38:

I'm not by any means calling you a liar and I don't have the stats to back up my recollection. But, wasn't unemployment nearing 11% towards the end of the Carter Administration? Maybe that's an exaggerated number that keeps sticking in my head for some reason...

Compared to the Great Depression, which I did not live through, and the Carter years, which I did live through, today's economy is merely inconvenient, not a disaster.
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Same here and couldn't agree more...

The topic question is silly. I sell boats, meaning I never sell anyone something he needs. Many of them are sailboats, meaning the gas price rise is a good thing. Sometimes to foreigners, meaning the drop in the dollar is a good thing.
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Anecdotal evidence....or is it?

The camper dealership down the road from my house is not only busy, they've recently greatly expanded their service bays and increased their overhead/inventory. I at first thought that they're monopolizing the camping business in the area and other dealers are doing well also. Not quite as great as Thompson's, but not losing money either.

Now, tell me this: If the price of gas is soooo bad, why are people buying campers left and right and fill up their SUV's to tow them?
 
I'm not by any means calling you a liar and I don't have the stats to back up my recollection. But, wasn't unemployment nearing 11% towards the end of the Carter Administration? Maybe that's an exaggerated number that keeps sticking in my head for some reason...
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No worries. You're not calling me a liar; you're asking a legit question. The 11% number you're thinking of is probably the inflation rate of 1979 (11.3%). In 1980, the inflation rate under Carter went to 13.5%. Unemployment was 5.8% and 7.0%, respectively.
 
When Obama joins Reid and Pelosi you'll really see the bottom drop out of the economy.
If you think that Hoover and the crash in '29 was bad you'll be even worse after the modern "social engineers" get to their idea of a "great society".
 
Could our economy be any worse?

You need to acquaint yourself with some of the economic conditions of the Great Depression, or the Depression of 1893.

Our economy is in fantastic shape compared to what was happening back then.
 
When Obama joins Reid and Pelosi you'll really see...
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...Republicans who suddenly remember that they oppose expansion of government. Sure, you'll see lots of bad things, but it'll be nice to have an opposition party in Washington again. Just lookin' at the silver lining. ;)
 
Neither party gets stuff done these days...

The failures of Republicans during Bush's term started as a catalyst with the deficit spending and curbing of our rights with absurdities such as the Patriot Act, as well as sticking their nose in our lives with social policies such as gay marriage and the war on drug$, all has been set up so that the Democrats bring in the crushing blow in the next 8 years by interfering with fiscal policy and place high taxes on everything, and wasting our tax dollars on stupid programs. Ultimately though, the government can only affect economic policy so much, it's up to the gas guzzling, plasma TV, oversized house purchasing idiot consumer to really take a hard look that they can't wantonly spend spend spend like the world is ending tomorrow.


Epyon
 
Can the economy get worse? Yes. Wait twenty-five years.


Actually, it depends on what you mean by worse. If you depend on a wage or salary for your income, yes. If you aren't already wealthy and you want upward mobility, yes. If you like a situation in which any kid can get a degree, get a good job, and join the middle class, then yes.


I strongly suspect that globalization in general and the importation of a large percentage of Mexico's population specifically will create a situation in which anybody who works for a wage or salary will be poor, in which going from poor to wealthy in one lifetime will become very rare, and in which getting ahead on just ability and hard work will no longer be feasible for many of the people for whom it is feasible right now.
 
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