The Coming Depression has Begun:Tent Cities have gone up in Suburbs

I am in the transportation sector and I see many business that are starting to feel it. Overall business is down throught my central Florida area but we do have two openings at our company that need to be filled now.

Hello all,
Just some more info here from us Europeans. I live in Spain where there has been for the last 8 years a massive property boom. How ever In the space of 9 months the sales market has ground to a solid halt. I just sold my old apartment after 13 grueling months and dropping the price by 30k Euros.

When I put the property on sale after buying my new apartment the average sales time was around 4-6 months, now the estimates are around 2 years!. All the investors who picked up properties for a fast buck during the golden period of the late 90s early 2000 are now unloading (or trying to) millions of houses and apartments on to a dead market with impossibly hiked prices.

First time buyers are faced with paying aprox 430k Euros for apartments of 70 square metres (the average size of a two car garage in the states..) in Barcelona. Banks are now offering mortgages of 40-50 years!.

Add to this the continual upward trend of the Euribor (euro lending interest rates) and many families are struggling to meet mortgage payments.

Frightening times are acoming methinks..

reply to post by _Deliverance_


Western society is certainly linked to the fates of Americans. The economic problems in the US are certainly not exclusive to the US. This is a very serious problem facing western society in varying degrees, and the entire world.

reply to post by PrepareForTheWorst


You are not being very objective at all in your statements. I don't feel very bad for someone who gets a 60-thousand dollar car reposessed when comparing to a family getting their lights turned out, but this is really comparing apples and oranges.

What you really need to look at is the trend. People across the middle-class spectrum are struggling to maintain their lifestyle. Ipods and Acuras are not "high-class." This is how the middle class is used to living. Being able to buy the goods and gadgets that feed our throw-away society, for better or worse, is what being a middle-class American is all about.

When people start using then losing credit cards in the numbers we are seeing today, it is a clear sign that the middle-class has lost its grip on the purchasing power needed to maintain their lifestyle. They turn to the credit cards hoping to ride out the storm so to speak, not realizing that the storm hasn't even hit yet.

Now imagine how much worse things have gotten for the poor and the lower end of the middle class who have already fallen into the abyss. When you start paying the rent or the heating bill with a credit card, you know things are out of your own control. And then where do they turn when the credit cards are maxed out? Crime.



[edit on 1/2/0808 by jackinthebox]

Originally posted by thehumbleone
God how I miss the Clinton days. I seriously hope that the next president is the shizznit so we can have that booming economy again.

I think it's too late. We (US), have lost control of our financial markets. Last year we lost the bees. 2012 is reaching back at us in time.

Here in Oklahoma there are help wanted signs EVERYWHERE. Granted not many of the jobs are high paying jobs but if you want to work you can find work. I have a good paying job here but I'm about to get a second job to completely pay off my bills before someting bad happens to the economy. People have been screaming the sky is falling for so long now that it has motivated me to get out of debt.

My advice to those who live in one of the overpriced coastal areas is to move. When your entire paycheck goes to just paying the mortgage, it's time to move. I left San Diego in 1999. I looked at the housing prices recently and there is no way in hell I would buy a house in that market with those ridiculously bloated prices. I have a 1700 sq ft house that I bought brand new in 2003 for $116,000 USD. Just try to do that in Southern California!

In a way, I am like a pet cat who was fed tuna for the first time. Now that I have experienced the taste of tuna, I will not forget it, and I cry out for tuna every time I come in the kitchen, but now the tuna is no longer affordable. I am like the pet cat who watches the cat next door eat tuna for dinner every night and I know what it's like, I can taste it in my mouth because I had it before, but the tuna is no longer affordable, so I don't get any. But I know what it's like, yep, sure do, wow, it's very nice. So I go and eat my generic dried cat food. The same generic dried cat food week after week after week.

I have accepted a job paying 7 bucks an hour with a very small business that cannot afford to pay me more. This new job should supplement the other job I have which entails sporadic project work. Maybe now I can finally stop using my credit cards for partial rent payment, electric, phone and food. I dare say that it is an honor to work alongside fellow Americans who once new the taste of tuna, or only had visions of tuna, and eat dried cat food, week after week after week, in a land with such vast & abundant "amber waves of grain/tuna".

I am grateful that I have a small apartment. I had a grand house but I lost that.

I am grateful that I am able to obtain some food. I used to be able to do awesome grocery shops every 2 weeks.

I am grateful that I have a beat up car that runs. I used to have a sweet looking SUV but I had to sell it to help pay off a credit card and get a root canal.

I think this is how us Americans are supposed to live. This is it. It's living, but it's just a level, a way, way lower level of living, but only materialistic wise. Maybe I'll get used to it, insofar as it becomes only a slight dull pain in the back of my memory; those faded memories of knowing all about tuna, as I listen to stories around a fire, maybe someday in a tent city, where there is love at least.

reply to post by Key-Minder


So eloquent. Star for you. A true mini-masterpiece, of tuna.

reply to post by Key-Minder


its posts like this that make me wish there was a applouse (sp) smiley sience there isent ill give you what i can a great big your post managed to make me laugh and be sad at the same time. heres hoping you get your tuna.

lol amber waves of tuna, that craked me up

reply to post by jackinthebox


While the things I mentioned may not really be "high-end" items, people still feel like they NEED them. If I can't afford something I am not going to pull out that credit card to "keep my standard of living". Get a part time job at Wal-Mart or something to buy that fancy new toy that you MUST have, but slowly putting one's self into debt is not a very wise idea. Perhaps more finance classes in school are in order.

reply to post by PrepareForTheWorst


Don't get me wrong, I'm not endorsing frivelous spending. I'm just trying to sort of highlight how people percieve economics. Many people really don't realize that they are actually gambling each time they use their plastic. Just because they have always been able to pay it off before, doesn't mean they always will be able to. I think the people who profess financial discipline are actually at a high risk of commiting this error. "I've always been good with money, so I can put this on the plastic this month" sort of thing. The old frog in the water in the pot on the stove. It's all a matter patient cooking for the puppet masters who run the ecomony.

reply to post by Key-Minder


I miss my tuna too! At least we still have cat chow! And if worst comes to worst, I'll even have to start using that crappy litter that doesn't clumpvery well. And believe you me, I leave really big clumps!


Great metaphor!

Tent cities are nothing new, especially in California. I went to school in Ontario and there were always homeless people seetting up shantys along the tracks. After six months or so of springing up, the cops will usually come along, kick everyone out, then send in Cal-Trans to clean up.

I know it sounds all sad and very grapes of wrath and all, but these are usually not normal families that are hit by hard times. The article even states that none of the "residents" were recent victims of foreclosure.

man is USA becoming poorer and poorer day be day

anyways with children in USA obssessed with sex and hedonism and have no moral values, and having far inferior education to indians, japanese and chinese , it should be expected that will lose their jobs and be reduced to poverty

Originally posted by pjsconcrete
reply to post by Key-Minder

 

I miss my tuna too! At least we still have cat chow! And if worst comes to worst, I'll even have to start using that crappy litter that doesn't clumpvery well. And believe you me, I leave really big clumps!

Great metaphor!

well , better be prepared , because you economy is doomed

reply to post by jackinthebox


How did you defeat the disease? I've been trying Rife treatments and MMS along with various antibiotic regimens. I'm just getting started, but it's been sooo debilitating. Some days it's just impossible to do any real cognitive work. Maybe I can pump gas or something (not that this would pay my bills). So much for my Ph.D and Masters degrees that I invested 10 years of my life and untold amounts of money.

Meanwhile our fearless leaders are dismantling our economy. I'm sure there will be a lot of low paying service jobs in the future. There is always the chain gain once you start stealing to make ends meet.......

Try a different area of California. Coto de casa - Newport Beach -
Laguna Beach. There is no depression down there.
It's heaven on Earth down there. Just watch an episode of
"Real Housewives of Orange County"
Bravo Channel

Originally posted by manson_322
man is USA becoming poorer and poorer day be day

anyways with children in USA obssessed with sex and hedonism and have no moral values, and having far inferior education to indians, japanese and chinese , it should be expected that will lose their jobs and be reduced to poverty

While it is true that declining moral values and a rejection of the basic tenets of Christianity have resulted in various judgments on Western civilization, I do not see much hope for a better world coming from Asian cultures at this time. They are still busy killing christians and jews, though perhaps not as vociferously as the Muslims. Pagan worship or atheism is also fairly widespread. That also results in judgment. Moreover India has an insurmountable problem of overpopulation and rampant poverty.

China is likely to lead the world into the future ..... Armageddon. The Bible prophecies that the "kings of the east" will gather a 200 million army, march to Israel and kill 20% of the worlds population in the process. That probably includes a lot of India and the Arab populations.

reply to post by SevenThunders


I was "lucky" enough to catch it very early, and still advanced to stage 2 within weeks. I was on heavy antibiotics for almost a year. The first two rounds failed, but they then put me on something that was experimental at the time. I was a lab rat basically, since I had no medical. I have never been the same since, but I am funtionally better. Lyme is no joke. You're gonna be down and out for some time. The best part is you might never know you're relapsing years down the road, because the onset of return symptoms are so subtle that at the very least you'll be paranoid for life! And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

You'll get better though. So best of luck.

reply to post by pjsconcrete


Here is the thing. The housing market is so horrible in Florida because the prices Skyrocketed there... of course it's crashing down because it was held aloft with sub prime hot air.

Here in Atlanta, things are fine, because the prices didnt skyrocket. They climbed a little bit, and then fell a little bit. Which was great for me, because I was able to get $60k off a newly built home. People always forget the other side, there are tons of apartment dwellers just ready to pounce on these prices.

The other thing I want to mention is this... what kind of pessimism does it take to live in a tent city surrounded by abject poverty? There's a certain amount of "Want" to be there. I'm not saying these people are not on hard times, I'm just saying they ain't doing anything about it hangin out with others having hard times.

The first thing I did when I found my self unemployed after a divorce several years ago was move into an apartment in the most affluent area of Atlanta. No I couldnt afford it, but I also could not afford to be surrounded by anything else other than people enjoying their luxury cars. Why is that? Because I was going nowhere in the student ghetto I was living in, but the peer pressure of affluence is a highly motivating factor, and it let's you know what is still possible.

So how did this pay off? I eventually started my own business as well. Guess what? Business is up! You just have to know what markets to play in during hard times. Don't ever be fooled into thinking the economic end is near or else you will end up like the rest of the sheep...sheered and if food is low... slaughtered.

[edit on 3-1-2008 by Quazga]