reply to post by Dulcimer
I am sorry to disagree with you Dulcimer, but not all of our economic problems have to do with people living outside of their means. For the last
20-30 years, America, government and citizens, have been living on debt. The citizens of the US have seen little movement in income to keep up with
the cost of goods, meanwhile the true wealth of our nation has been moved beyond our borders so that the upper echelon can make more profit. This
issue has somewhat to do with consumer spending, but much consumer spending is just basic goods and services, which people can not cover with their
measly, weekly paycheck. I know many people in my area that are in debt and do not spend lavishly on anything, but use debt to make it by.
What this economic crisis really is about is greedy banks, using our government to push credit on the consumer. They have made a great racket of
supplementing the dwindling American income, something that should not have happened in the first place. Since what it really is, in all reality, is
predatory lending and financial usury. So what happens is this lending inflates prices, causing people to have to borrow more money to get by. It's a
bad economic cycle. On top of that, you have financial speculators making everything worse by spreading the debt further into the economy of not just
the US, but across Europe and Asia as well. On top of that, there is the government doing nothing to stop this economic malfeasance. In fact, the
government and the Fed seem to be making the wrong turn every step of the way. Also, there is national debt, which equates to future American goods
and services for the debt holder, uncontrolled government spending and the retirement of the baby boomer generation expecting their Social Security
and medical benefits.
It is what some call a "perfect storm," but blaming the whole situation on the somewhat powerless consumer, is ludicrous. In fact, the housing
bubble is just the tip of economic problems in this country. What you should is blame it on bad economic policy and inflationary economy that make
money cheap and assets overvalued. I don't if there is a conspiracy involved
, but the government and the Fed are doing anything to stop it or
cut it off before it got so bad. I found this out when they started to "Band Aid" the issue with multi-billion dollar money pumps and .25 percent
rate decreases. To think that economists did not know about it before this year is not rational either. I remember reading The Economist in 2002 or so
talking about the fall of the American economy. Of course, the housing bubble was not the biggest issue back then. There is much, much more on this
issue that I am not even going to touch on, but needless to say an American crash is going to have great shockwaves that will effect the majority of
the world.
For what it's worth, if it does get very bad, it will be the end of consumerism, which would probably make you very happy Dulcimer. Hopefully, the
human suffering will not be too great. It is good advice to plant a garden, get some dry goods and get to know your local farmer. It also good advice
to diversify investments and take gains when available and/ needed.
Pray, contemplate, or meditate for a solution and have a good holiday everyone!
