Sobering New Evidence: at Least Half of Americans are Broke

a reply to: AlaskanDad

The TV told me all the manufacturing jobs came back and Americans are richer than ever.

a reply to: FyreByrd

I laughed at your post not because its funny because its so true it hurts.

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
a reply to: DMFL1133

Okay cool, well I incorrectly assumed based on experience with ATS in general. My bad, though I am curious, which pattern were you referring to?

No need to point them out, it's pretty clear both parties are bound by the reality of their objective situation. It's also worth nothing that the 4-8 year swings tend to bring baggage to the next candidate which often is not felt in full until the next cycle.

Our economy is run on energy, physical, and mental. We're doing okay in the energy department, but are no longer the towering dominant force. Not sure why people have to make it a bit more than it really is.

As you said, no need to point it out.

It is both parties contributing to the mess our country are in.

I appreciate you being reasonable.

originally posted by: AlaskanDad
Personal responsibility, my is that just a cute way to say I don't give a crap about anybody else?

Edit: We are being put through one of the worse economy the poor of this country has ever seen and you dare talk about personal responsibilities. If we end corruption in Wall Street and put an end to lobbying we would have solved the problem we are seeing with our economy.

I know what we need to do to them we need to take the people responsible and hold them accountable.

Treason charges and hang them on capitol hill when found guilty and leave them there for future generations.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: DMFL1133

You also need to take into account which party controlled Congress, too. The President can propose a budget, but Congress controls the purse strings.

Exactly.

This is why ODS drives me crazy!

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
a reply to: DMFL1133

There's no pattern. You see debt from world war 2, gains from post-war economy, and slow-down after we stopped being the dominant oil supplier. You also see the result of the housing crisis and global depression.

I know you really wanted to make it seem like republicans were the bad guys here, but it's not shown in that graph. Do I have to point out each discrepancy for such a belief?

Global depression is only an illusion, we could be experiencing global abundance if we decided to work together.

I have a solution for this but it will NEVER NEVER happen. Everyone go to work for free.

a reply to: onequestion

This is like saying, if only a snake wouldn't bite, the mouse would never fear it. The instincts are real, and can't be discounted as an illusion. So too are the instincts within man. How far back do you reckon man has tried to conquer a neighboring tribe, or become the alpha within his own? I'm pretty sure that's existed longer than the concept of money.

a reply to: AlaskanDad

Official poverty measures are based largely on the food costs of the 1950s. But food costs have doubled since 1978, housing has more than tripled, and college tuition is eleven times higher. The cost of raising a child increased by 40 percent between 2000 and 2010. And despite the gains from Obamacare, health care expenses continue to grow. - See more at: thecontributor.com...

a reply to: pl3bscheese

Right but man also wasn't connected through cell phones and the internet with free access to information(most of the world we still have work to do).

Its an achievable goal but first thing first is we need to start accepting that we can all get along and stop seeing it as impossible.

a reply to: onequestion

The terrain has changed, but the instinct remains. Take fighting. Plenty of warriors out there, but it's not acceptable to beat someone down for their possessions in modern society. The modern form would be to earn your monies through becoming a martial arts instructor, or a professional boxer.

Cool, so we need to shape this instinct to outperform and become more dominant within new circumstances, and ever-changing terrain. How could this instinct be best channeled without a concept of money? Some people desire to explore and create, but most are still driven by an instinct to conquer and outdo their peers. How to incentivize this?

Thats what change.gov was about, replace people's dollars with change. It looks like it worked out as planned .

a reply to: pl3bscheese

Well... I dont know. you make a good point though.

Do you have any ideas?

a reply to: onequestion

Guess what I'm getting at is it's not money that is the issue, and it's not a lack of energy from people, either. You get the latter. The issue with the former is the ability to manipulate people's energies and wills from their ignorance of how economic, monetary, and financial systems work.

My focus would be on calling out the corruption within these systems, and implementing policies to level the global playing field a bit. In some ways, intended or not, this is happening, but in the process some are getting incredibly rich. We've seen a lot of countries come on line with a middle class while our middle class had taken a bit of a hit. At the same time there are some obscenely wealthy individuals who have gained through corrupt practices.

I don't think money is the issue, I think the instinct is real, not going away, and it's the worst of the instinct, which has corrupted various systems, which is the real issue.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Onslaught2996

Yes, whatever happened to it? Our government hasn't practiced it since they abolished the gold standard and real currency. If they can't learn to live within their means ... what hope do we have for anyone else to follow suit?

Richard Nixon's watch....

a reply to: pl3bscheese

Ahhhh you mean our predatory nature?

a reply to: onequestion

Have you thought about being a personal trainer ? ....good money in it and a lot of people need the motivation,try running some ads,use the local park as a venue (weather permitting)

When i was last doing WIng chun i was paying a guy $70 an hour for private lessons,we would meet at a local park and whenever i was there there were at the 4 or 5 personal trainers and always with several clients..

You are clearly from reading your post history a fitness kinda guy so could be perfect....just a thought

Yes, that's the world we live in now, Europe is the same.

But wait, if everyone's broke then how's everyone eating? Oh yeah, welfare entitlements!!! That's how.

Half of America is choosing to be broke, there's jobs if you want to work. Welfare if you don't.

Don't complain about it, we've created a paradise. We now live in a society where everyone eats, has clothes, free education, free healthcare.....what's the problem?

Nothing any different than it ever was, except the American people.

People let themselves be trained to "want jobs" but guess what? when everyone is looking for a job the people supplying them have the power to pay crap and be abusive.

Thing is... there is nothing but "Entrepreneurship" and the reality is we are a lazy consumer society, I take nothing away from any pov of what is wrong from Govt or corporations but they are empowered in these actions by a consumer only society that wants big bucks and benefits for all and to be off by 5:00

There's no real Entrepreneur class and what there is, it's all tech and science and we are coming off 40 years of Tech and science being "geeky" not cool...

Think about it, watch the "Big Bang" Theory... In America being smart is depicted as being an effin queer retard even now in the day and age of Internet... In computers, i've seen stats showing 100 jon openings for available applicant in some areas of computing and then companies go off shore because it isn't "queer" to do Computers and Engineering in India and Japan...

I just...

I wish Americans would realize the truth, it's not all these bs economics or the politicians or the corporations (they sure don't help)

But the real... The boomers don't have the tech skills, they are fixated and humanitarian issues from the 60's none of our leaders in business or politics (well most) aren't tech savy, we have a lot of older workers, the agenda in school isn't focused where it needs to be...

and well...the opportunities are there... Realistically America itself and our large corporations stay afloat taking them... we just have to turn to other nations for the people to do the math, if we didn't have our immigration programs for PHDs we'd be dead already...

I saw recently...

Berkeley... One of our best Universities... 11 Computer Science majors...

And that's our country... 30,000 Kids running around screaming about Gaza and Israel and Pandas and Privilege lol... and 111 learning to use a frackin computer.

I read today China has used more concrete in the last 3 years to develop... than the USA did in the last 100... In my town, they wont allow a 2 story Walmart

The 60's generation killed us, it's all idealism no reality and in charge they are forcing the same on their kids, stupid bs arguments while in Asia they get Math and Music we get argumentation and twerking.

I watch immigrants break the mold every day... they don't go to Walmart fer Jawbs... they grab a lawn mower and empower themselves. It's not everyone else, it's a Jerry Springer and Dr Phil and Oprah obsessed nation full of uneducated opinions that "matter" for no deserved reason.

We are going to suffer before people come to understand a Capitalist society only works on Entrepreneurial ideals.

a reply to: criticalhit

I was chatting with someone from India in ATS chat who was talking about how their rising middle class has too many students in the same high level professions. It's the same everywhere. There's only so much demand and positions for the high paying jobs. I don't think the US has a lack of Engineers, or Scientists. I think we do have too many people with basic degrees who might do best to just skip it altogether. In India, there is a surplus of Engineers, Programmers, and such.

I think what you see is entities that follow a life cycle. Countries are no different.

a reply to: criticalhit

I watch immigrants break the mold every day... they don't go to Walmart fer Jawbs... they grab a lawn mower and empower themselves. It's not everyone else, it's a Jerry Springer and Dr Phil and Oprah obsessed nation full of uneducated opinions that "matter" for no deserved reason.

They do it for pennies and put everyone out of business.