New inflation data explain middle-class squeeze

reply to post by SEEWHATUDO



Yes, this kills me---How incredibly stupid the media thinks we are. Put out some fodder for the dumb sheeple so they'll keep spending what they already don't have! Sad thing is, there are STILL people who believe what the mass media spews out, but the numbers are diminishing as reality paints a different picture altogether.

It's incredible the contempt the media holds for the mass populace---Almost as bad as our gov. But then again, they're nothing but a puppet of them, so no suprise I suppose.

McCain tells it like it is (sorta kinda) and sympathizes with the people (notice I didnt say empathizes) in a push to gather votes and pass the bump.
OK, I dont really care what any politician says at this point but did anyone see those S.C unemployment #'s?



McCain: Spending is out of control

FLORENCE, S.C. - John McCain blamed overspending by the federal government in part for the nation's economic troubles as South Carolina voters Friday received the sobering news that the state unemployment rate had hit 6.6 percent, the largest one-month increase in nearly 20 years.
"As a Republican, I stand before you embarrassed. Embarrassed that we let that spending get out of control," the presidential candidate told voters on the eve of the state's GOP primary.
"The economy is not good. The stock market continues down. And the indicators are not good. I'm not too astonished. ... We let spending get totally out of control, and it continues today, and I'm sorry to tell you this," McCain said at a town-hall style meeting at the Carolina Hospital East Campus in Florence.

The Republican presidential candidate has voiced apprehension over proposals for temporary tax cuts and more spending as suggested by many Democrats and Republicans alike, saying they result in additional strains on resources. McCain has proposed cuts in corporate taxes instead from 35 percent to 25 percent, extension of Bush tax cuts, and elimination of the Alternative Minimum Tax.

"People talk about a stimulus package. Fine, if that's what we want to come up with. But stop the spending first," he said.
South Carolina's unemployment rate jumped to 6.6 percent in December, the largest one-month increase since at least 1990, state employment officials said Friday.
The number of people without jobs rose nearly 16,000 to 142,800, the state Employment Security Commission reported. The total number of nonfarm jobs fell by 5,900 in December from the month before.
In a slip, McCain had to backpedal quickly when he was asked about his views on illegal immigration and responded that he had never supported "amnesty" and that "I've never supported Social Security for veterans." As some audience members gasped, McCain said, "Oops." Then, he corrected himself, "For illegal immigrants."

yahoo link

[edit on 18-1-2008 by SEEWHATUDO]

And yet McCain is probably one of the biggest war-mongers outside of Dubya. The guy is literally frothing at the mouth to go to war with Iran. Yeah, he really sympathizes with the average Joe who's being taxed into the abyss to fund these endless, greed-driven fiascos. More deceitful pandering to the sheeples.

Consumers have the power to cripple the NWO movement, they just don't exercise that power. The NWO movement (going back to David Rockefeller and the TriLateral Commission) requires cheap labor and eliminating the threatening Middle Class.

From what I've figured out, the primary principle behind the TriLateral Commission and the NWO movement is essentially the creation of a power structure that keeps the wealth confined to a small percentage of people. Free trade agreements and such allow those power structures to essentially swap money back and forth between themselves without too much dilution to their financial power base (IE not spreading the money across "outsiders") while utilizing cheap labor to increase their profit margins. This power structure model so far has been very successful in putting pressure on the Middle Class as required. The Achilles Heel to this plan is of course the Middle Class itself -IF- the Middle Class were to exercise the control that they do have -- their money!

Every dollar spent should be a decision on who and what you're going to support. Your way of life and standard of living is also a choice of who and what you're going to support. When Middle Class Americans spend a dollar at Wal-Mart for cheaply made foreign imports, they've made a choice to give one more dollar to the very cause that is looking for their elimination. If that dollar were instead to be spent with a Middle Class American business owner, you help to keep the Middle Class power base intact and force into reality the fact that there is one more dollar out there that the NWO still has to try and obtain.

When you choose to buy your vegetables at a grocery store, you are choosing to support Corporate farms that have been very efficient in eliminating the privatized farms which at one time were the backbone to this country's food supply chain. If you instead to spend that dollar at a local "farmer's market" or with a farmer in your local rural area, you keep the power base (money) consolidated within the Middle Class.

The very concepts that the NWO is using to destroy Middle Class America CAN be used by the Middle Class to offset the effects of the NWO movement. Middle Class America just chooses not to. The concepts themselves are not difficult ones to apply. It just requires diligence and time to do it.

Grow a garden, even if you only have the space for small container gardening, grab a few family members or friends and go in together on purchases through farmer's markets and visiting a local butcher to buy meat in bulk. Reduce the need to have a lifestyle that is dependant upon credit.

Remember -- every dollar you choose to hand to the corporations, is a dollar that is forever removed from the Middle Class power base and it will be used against the Middle Class. We may no longer have the effectiveness at the voting polls that we should be having, but be assured that the Middle Class does still have power at the economic levels to change the course of this NWO movement. We just have to have the desire and the will power to do so.

And if we do get another 300.00 check, rest assured. My 300.00 will either go straight into a coffee can or it will be spent with local, non-corporate business owners, farmers, or tradesmen. It most certainly will not be handed over to the "elite" that are working to destroy me.

reply to post by Apsaroke

Every dollar spent should be a decision on who and what you're going to support.

It's too late for that. There are no more "local" grocery stores. Most people live in an urban/heavy suburban environment where farm markets are non-existant or token novelites. "Made In USA" products are extinct. You can't have a garden big enough to feed anyone in a studio apartment.

I am not saying you are wrong mind you. Just that the advice needed to be taken seriously 15 years ago, by the entire middle class.

Originally posted by jackinthebox
There are no more "local" grocery stores. Most people live in an urban/heavy suburban environment where farm markets are non-existant or token novelites. "Made In USA" products are extinct. You can't have a garden big enough to feed anyone in a studio apartment.

While this is quite true, I have noticed a resurgence in local farmers' markets in the last couple of years......check around in your area.

Even if you live in a small apartment you can drive to ( make it a group effort and buy in bulk, saving gas and cash) a market where local growers sell their produce.

If your state distributes a 'Market Bulletin' , get one! ( In GA, it's an agricultural dept. publication, and it's free!!) It will list 'pick your own' farms, or other local growers that will sell right out of their gardens.

Originally posted by jackinthebox
reply to post by Apsaroke

 

Every dollar spent should be a decision on who and what you're going to support.

It's too late for that. There are no more "local" grocery stores. Most people live in an urban/heavy suburban environment where farm markets are non-existant or token novelites. "Made In USA" products are extinct. You can't have a garden big enough to feed anyone in a studio apartment.

I am not saying you are wrong mind you. Just that the advice needed to be taken seriously 15 years ago, by the entire middle class.

It took me less than 10 seconds to find this with a google search of: hudson valley new york farmers market

www.mypersonalfarmers.com...

No offense, Jack, but it only requires a bit of diligence and true effort to find these things. There are opportunities to keep the Middle Class intact. Unfortunately, many have subscribed to a "self defeating" mentality that there is no hope. And that is exactly why we will see the Middle Class disappear all by their own inaction.

Originally posted by frayed1

Originally posted by jackinthebox
There are no more "local" grocery stores. Most people live in an urban/heavy suburban environment where farm markets are non-existant or token novelites. "Made In USA" products are extinct. You can't have a garden big enough to feed anyone in a studio apartment.

While this is quite true, I have noticed a resurgence in local farmers' markets in the last couple of years......check around in your area.

Even if you live in a small apartment you can drive to ( make it a group effort and buy in bulk, saving gas and cash) a market where local growers sell their produce.

If your state distributes a 'Market Bulletin' , get one! ( In GA, it's an agricultural dept. publication, and it's free!!) It will list 'pick your own' farms, or other local growers that will sell right out of their gardens.

Perfectly stated, Frayed.

Yes, it requires effort, folks. But if protecting yourself and your family is not worth the effort, then what is?

well i happen to live in a area with no butcher, a super wallmart, a chain grocery store (that i cant afford to shop at) , a farmer market that only operates the 3 months in the summer and no transportation to anywhere thats able to provide the provisions you speak of. so what am i to do for me and my wife not shop at wallmart and starve? the closest town with a grocery store thats affordable is over 20 miles out of the way so seeing as my form of transport is a pair of hiking boots i dont see any choice for me but the soul stealing nwo puppet.

Originally posted by krill
well i happen to live in a area with no butcher, a super wallmart, a chain grocery store (that i cant afford to shop at) , a farmer market that only operates the 3 months in the summer and no transportation to anywhere thats able to provide the provisions you speak of. so what am i to do for me and my wife not shop at wallmart and starve? the closest town with a grocery store thats affordable is over 20 miles out of the way so seeing as my form of transport is a pair of hiking boots i dont see any choice for me but the soul stealing nwo puppet.

There are certainly times when you have to feed the machine so to speak. I certainly do everytime I need more gasoline for our vehicles, pay my mortgage, pay the electric bill, etc.

The key is in reduction and trying to not dilute the base as much as possible.

Questions for you:
1) Do you live in an apartment or house? If Apartment: Do you have a balcony or patio? If house, what is your lot size?
2) What public transportation options exist in your area? Here in TN, every county has public transportation. While pitiful, it still exists.
3) Do you have any group affiliations? IE church or other social group? I ask this becuase with working with individuals who have disabilities, we have been very successful in identifying tranportation options for those unable to transport themselves. Sometimes, it's simply a matter of connecting those in need to the unidentified available resources. We have found many senior citizens who could use a couple of bucks in gas money that are willing to help provide transportation.
4) You sound very rural in location based on your description of isolationism. How many major property owners exist in yur area? (In excess of 20 acres?) How many of them are raising cattle? We have found that many cattle farmer sin our area are more than willing to sell portions of their beef (IE 1/4 cow) and split it with you. These people typically know where to get their beef butchered at even if it is 100 miles or so away.

This society has done very well in creating a "welfare mind" even in those poeple not on government welfare. Self-sufficiency and resolving one's own issues are no longer values that are taught. Instead, these values have been replaced by convenience and what can I get handed to/answered for me. This has allowed prices to escalate -- people will pay an exorbitant amount for convenience -- and as more people get hooked on convenience, the more prices around convenience will increase.

Somehow, our dwindling Middle Class has fallen under the impression that the standard of living has to be convenient and "gimme me my cake and I'll eat it to" state of being.

With our gardening, if we get a bumper crop of corn, we sell some off to local neighbors for about 50 cents per dozen ears of corn in addition to eating so much corn that you have nightmares of corn. lol If our peas didn't grow well, we go without due to the short crop -or- we'll buy from someone local who fared better with their crop. We buy our eggs from a local farmer who owns chickens and if he doesn't have enough for a couple of weeks, we do without. The problem with the Middle Class and the success in the NWO is that the Middle Class has this odd sense of entitlement that makes them think they don't deserve to go without and therefore they'd rather give their money to those people wanting them destroyed rather than going without something "becuase they don't have to".

It's odd really. The writing is on the wall with what is happening to the Middle Class and the reasons why the Middle Class is being forced out has been visible for decades. Yet, collectively as a group, we do everything to help fulfill this "prophecy" ourselves.

Also -- 3 months a year for a farmers market is plenty of time to buy in bulk in put up the excess. Learn to can and/or freeze and you'll have plenty all year long.

[edit on 18-1-2008 by Apsaroke]

Questions for you:
1) Do you live in an apartment or house? If Apartment: Do you have a balcony or patio? If house, what is your lot size?
i live in a 3rd floor walk up apartment, we have no patio or balcony and obviously no yard.

2) What public transportation options exist in your area? Here in TN, every county has public transportation. While pitiful, it still exists.
we have only a bus and thats dodgy at best and dosent go to the town with the needed grocery store, sadly i looked in to this option. but when i do go anywhere out of town i take the bus its quite nice realy its air conditioned and heated has a lil tv every few rows so you dont get board and only costs 1.10 to go any where it goes.its even clean and has comfy seats they use charter buses in my area.

3) Do you have any group affiliations? IE church or other social group? I ask this becuase with working with individuals who have disabilities, we have been very successful in identifying tranportation options for those unable to transport themselves. Sometimes, it's simply a matter of connecting those in need to the unidentified available resources. We have found many senior citizens who could use a couple of bucks in gas money that are willing to help provide transportation.
well first things first no im pagen as is my wife so no church help for us hell around here theyd rather stone us than accnowledge we exsist. as for other social groups there realy isent any i live in a very small town, me and my wife are both disabled and we have looked in to the diability transport here but they only transport to dr. and dentist visits. as for helpful neghibors thats kinda out of the question seeing as how as soon as they ask why i cant drive they never talk to me again. hell most wont talk to me anyway cuzz word has allready spread around town of "that psycho" from out of state.

4) You sound very rural in location based on your description of isolationism. How many major property owners exist in yur area? (In excess of 20 acres?) How many of them are raising cattle? We have found that many cattle farmer sin our area are more than willing to sell portions of their beef (IE 1/4 cow) and split it with you. These people typically know where to get their beef butchered at even if it is 100 miles or so away.
ok first off the closest cattle farmer is father then the good grocery store secondly the major property owners here all own small patches of woods and hills. and 100 miles is so far out of my way it might as well not even exist. as for canning or freezing i cant afford a secondary freezer so all my freezing is pretty much taken up by my standerd monthly food stuffs and if i could afford one id have no way to get it to my 3rd floor appt., as far as canning goes in the end thats more expensive then buying the cheap canned veggies. and seeing as me and the misses are both disabled and on a rather small fixed income every penny has to count hell the only thing i splurge on is buying soda instead of drinking water and even then it causes enought of a strain on the old money bag that the wife sometimes has to tell me i cant have any .

thank you for carring enough about a complete stranger to try and better his situation though. you have no idea how much it fills my heart to see some one who still cares about someone other then there own friends and familys .

Originally posted by krill
Questions for you:
1) Do you live in an apartment or house? If Apartment: Do you have a balcony or patio? If house, what is your lot size?
i live in a 3rd floor walk up apartment, we have no patio or balcony and obviously no yard.

2) What public transportation options exist in your area? Here in TN, every county has public transportation. While pitiful, it still exists.
we have only a bus and thats dodgy at best and dosent go to the town with the needed grocery store, sadly i looked in to this option. but when i do go anywhere out of town i take the bus its quite nice realy its air conditioned and heated has a lil tv every few rows so you dont get board and only costs 1.10 to go any where it goes.its even clean and has comfy seats they use charter buses in my area.

3) Do you have any group affiliations? IE church or other social group? I ask this becuase with working with individuals who have disabilities, we have been very successful in identifying tranportation options for those unable to transport themselves. Sometimes, it's simply a matter of connecting those in need to the unidentified available resources. We have found many senior citizens who could use a couple of bucks in gas money that are willing to help provide transportation.
well first things first no im pagen as is my wife so no church help for us hell around here theyd rather stone us than accnowledge we exsist. as for other social groups there realy isent any i live in a very small town, me and my wife are both disabled and we have looked in to the diability transport here but they only transport to dr. and dentist visits. as for helpful neghibors thats kinda out of the question seeing as how as soon as they ask why i cant drive they never talk to me again. hell most wont talk to me anyway cuzz word has allready spread around town of "that psycho" from out of state.

4) You sound very rural in location based on your description of isolationism. How many major property owners exist in yur area? (In excess of 20 acres?) How many of them are raising cattle? We have found that many cattle farmer sin our area are more than willing to sell portions of their beef (IE 1/4 cow) and split it with you. These people typically know where to get their beef butchered at even if it is 100 miles or so away.
ok first off the closest cattle farmer is father then the good grocery store secondly the major property owners here all own small patches of woods and hills. and 100 miles is so far out of my way it might as well not even exist. as for canning or freezing i cant afford a secondary freezer so all my freezing is pretty much taken up by my standerd monthly food stuffs and if i could afford one id have no way to get it to my 3rd floor appt., as far as canning goes in the end thats more expensive then buying the cheap canned veggies. and seeing as me and the misses are both disabled and on a rather small fixed income every penny has to count hell the only thing i splurge on is buying soda instead of drinking water and even then it causes enought of a strain on the old money bag that the wife sometimes has to tell me i cant have any .

thank you for carring enough about a complete stranger to try and better his situation though. you have no idea how much it fills my heart to see some one who still cares about someone other then there own friends and familys .

Krill --

Please U2U me, I'd love to talk with you further but I don't want to derail this thread more than I have already done. lol

As I said, we've been in the business of helping folks with disabilities and have gotten very proficient with "out of the box" thinking for solutions. If you're really interested in some self-sufficiency type of stuff to help out on the budget front and such, I'd be happy to help brainstorm some stuff with you. Btw.. I understand the pagan comment. We're pagan ourselves living in the Bible belt!

You really can help support the middle class every time you make a purchase, even in small towns, as Apsaroke wrote. Choose to patronize a small and/or family-owned business whenever you can. For example, instead of going out for lunch at some corporate chain restaurant, choose a local family-owned place. There are a lot of small businesses and families in every town that need your financial support. And you'll discover all kinds of new and interesting people and places in your area that you never knew about. Just think if everyone stopped buying Starbucks coffee and chose instead to patronize that little family-owned coffee shop down the street. The possibilities are endless.

reply to post by kattraxx


thanx for the advice, i allready do that i live above a resteraunt that we treat our selves to about once a month or so, and when i can i go across the street to the local diner .the resteraunt below us is convienent in the fact the owner is our land lord and lets us eat there and just add the cost to the rent check thats also where i get the afformentioned soda most the time. luckily the wife is great with money and keeps all our bills up and budgets out our money so i can afford my soda. besides smokes its my big addiction.

reply to post by Apsaroke

No offense, Jack, but it only requires a bit of diligence and true effort to find these things.

Actually, I am offended that you assume I can afford...

Ground Beef Patties - 1lb.($9.50)

...as listed on the site you linked. And this doesn't include the delivery charge. Furthermore, there are millions of people in the city without access to such goods.

I'm living on ramen at this point anyway.

Storing in bulk is not possible in a studio apartment. Even less when you are "between homes."

Please don't misunderstand me. I think that anyone who can, should support their own local economy. Unfortunately, this is no longer a viable option for most of us. This is the result of a deliberate campaign to undermine the middle class. Even those who can afford to take the measures you suggest, simply don't have the time to do things like canning and gardening when they are working 70 hours a week.

Originally posted by jackinthebox
reply to post by Apsaroke

 

No offense, Jack, but it only requires a bit of diligence and true effort to find these things.

Actually, I am offended that you assume I can afford...

Ground Beef Patties - 1lb.($9.50)

...as listed on the site you linked. And this doesn't include the delivery charge. Furthermore, there are millions of people in the city without access to such goods.

I'm living on ramen at this point anyway.

Storing in bulk is not possible in a studio apartment. Even less when you are "between homes."

Please don't misunderstand me. I think that anyone who can, should support their own local economy. Unfortunately, this is no longer a viable option for most of us. This is the result of a deliberate campaign to undermine the middle class. Even those who can afford to take the measures you suggest, simply don't have the time to do things like canning and gardening when they are working 70 hours a week.

I think you misunderstood me. My point was that within 10 seconds I could find a place supporting local farmers. If I were to put more time into looking for something, I'd probably stand a very good chance of finding something that would work for you and that is with hitting just the internet (the most expensive place to look). Just imagine what the possibilities are when you start applying networking between people. I found my egg guy through a friend at work whose mother had been buying eggs from this guy. And so on....

I understand your situation, Jack. I work 40 hours per week. My wife works 60-75 hours per week as a house manager for individuals with disabilities. It's dang hard. I'd love to be able to pop open a box of instant mashed potatoes and a set of pre-breaded chicken cutlets as opposed to peeling potatoes, dicing them, boiling them, mashing them and breading my own chicken cutlets, etc.. It's choices.

When I do cook, I also cook in bulk so that we have lunches already made to go. When I make spaghetti sauce, I make a huge pot of it in advance and freeze it all. We have the freezer above the fridge and we have the smallest chest freezer you can get. Took us 3 years to finally get the chest freezer but we made it a priority. It's choices.

Studio apartments don't provide many options at all. Work with what you have and do what you can. I just have a lot of trouble supporting the "defeated" approach. I'll go down fighting and I hate seeing people who have in essence already given up. There's still a fight to be had even if you can only contribute on a very small scale.

Please don't get the impression that I think this is a ship that can be flipped instantly around. it's taken us 4 years to get marginally self-sufficient and we have a LONG way to go with it. These powers have been working against the Middle Class for decades and the rising costs will continue to put the hurt on us. But you need to start somewhere and somehow. And you'll never find where that beginning is for you if you believe that you've already been beaten.


Krill -- I tried to U2U you back.. but apparantly I haven't been gabby enough to be able to U2U anyone. I promise to gab it up as quickly as I can in order to reply back to you.

reply to post by Apsaroke


Apsaroke~
You should start a thread with all of your ideas and concepts on how to boost the middle class. I have found everything you have said to be of extreme importance. I don't want it to get buried in a thread...
I think everyone should know and discuss this valuable information and it deserves its own thread PLUS you can get those points up so you can send U2U's.

reply to post by Apsaroke

I think you misunderstood me. My point was that within 10 seconds I could find a place supporting local farmers. If I were to put more time into looking for something, I'd probably stand a very good chance of finding something that would work for you and that is with hitting just the internet (the most expensive place to look). Just imagine what the possibilities are when you start applying networking between people. I found my egg guy through a friend at work whose mother had been buying eggs from this guy. And so on....

Supporting local farmers is not an economically viable option for me and many other people that I know. There are a few local farmer's markets open during warm-weather months, but mostly for produce only. I simply cannot afford them though. They are novelty markets for people coming up out of the city mostly. They're not meant to really feed the locals, they're a tourist attraction. "Have some lettuce with your Lexus, beans n' BMW anyone?" Two markets that I can think of sprung up where real farms once operated. One was an apple orchard that had been in my friend's family for five generations. Now its a housing development with a "cute little farm market" off in the corner. To be honest, I resent the farm markets around here.

There is no networking with people at work, because all the real farms are gone now. No one knows anyone who gets eggs anyplace but the supermarket. Trust me, my family settled in the Hudson Valley in the 1600's. All the networks have long since dried up. The last thing to go was the old hardware store on the corner a few years ago. That old-timer who ran it knew everything about every piece of every project you could think of. Now we're stuck with the Home Depot on the other side of town. The harware store was knocked down to make way for an Eckerd that's going to put the last non-corporate pharmacy that I know of in the county out of business.

As far as the expensive internet goes, I use someone else's computer or go to the library.

I'd love to be able to pop open a box of instant mashed potatoes and a set of pre-breaded chicken cutlets as opposed to peeling potatoes, dicing them, boiling them, mashing them and breading my own chicken cutlets, etc.. It's choices.

Now I must disagree with you here as well, but I don't think you will take issue with this reply. I can't stand mashed potatoes. When I still had my apartment I did shop at the supermarket, but stuck to the basics. Real potatos always, to make whatever I was in the mood for. Home fries, baked potato, mashed potatos. Spaghetti sauce, hey fugheddaboudit. I'll never eat sauce out of a jar. Always made a batch on my day off. Takes all day. Non-prosessed foods are so much better.

I have to admit, I'd keep a few boxes of things like pizza bites in the freezer to pop in the toaster oven for when I really had no time, but I suppose that's the penalty of living alone. Some nights are just TV dinner nights. Which brings up another point too though.

It's very difficult to get the bulk pricing discounts when you're only shopping for yourself. For example, I buy the family pack of chiken thighs. I'm eating chicken all week until I can't stand it and don't want to eat it for months after. I can't freeze it because I don't have time to thaw it before I cook when I get home from work. I can't take it out before work, because I don't know if I'll end up having time to cook it before my next shift.

With all of this said, I am not yet beaten, and it actually is worse. I no longer have my apartment and am literally living out of a duffle bag. Ramen, and vienna sausages are my lifeblood at the moment.

One thing's for sure though. I get my own place again, the first thing I'm doing is cooking up a feast of tomato-meat sauce with handmade pasta, some nice garlic bread, mmm...

Please forgive my rambling, but I just think it is important for some people to realize that other people are in places where there are precious few choices. The farther you get kicked down, the few options you have, and the greater the forces conspiring against you. You don't know what a catch-22 is unless you've been poor. I'm not referring to you directly, please don't misunderstand, with these last few statements.

Thank you for being a sounding board.








[edit on 1/19/0808 by jackinthebox]

[edit on 1/19/0808 by jackinthebox]

Well the recession is almost over.

A lowere interest rate will re-stimulate the real estate and general economy, and wages will rise as a result of inflation.

Inflation has been stimied by a lack of growth, of which you will see growth being addressed in the last of this month and over the next couple.

By then price indexes will be brought to parity with the value of the dollar, and interest rates will begin to rise to a reasonable level.


Basically what I am trying to suggest, is the economy is bouncing off the bottom as we speak and any incentives brought upon by the pres and/or fed, will help it pick itself up.


Just my thoughts as I am not an economist.

reply to post by smirkley


Wow, well you paint a much prettier picture than the rest of us
For the middle class esp. the lower middle class, it really doesnt matter at this point if the economy bounces back or not. The damage has been done and will continue to unravel over the next year. I guarantee foreclosures will skyrocket this year.
why? because people who purchased their homes in the last 5 years have no equity in their homes and now that their homes have dropped in value (in some case below the actual purchase price) they are now upside down and struggling to pay a mortgage that is worthless.
Great credit, bad credit, doesnt matter when you have to decide between paying the mortgage or taking care of your children, putting gas in your car, etc. most will see the writing on the wall and foreclose.
I have a background in real estate and I am going to go out on a limb and say the mortgage crisis and the real estate markets are not even close to a complete fall out yet, by the end of the year we will get a better picture of the damage that has and will continue to be done.
Unless a miracle occurs, I dont see an upswing in real estate until at the very least 8 months after the new president has been elected and thats only if we are lucky. Once the upswing starts, it will take another year just to get the market back on solid ground, these homes will have to appreciate at a very fast rate and I really dont know how that will occur. Any inflation that happens will stay far away from the real estate market, people who arent willing to mess up their credit with a foreclosure will be sitting on an unsellable house unless they sell it for pennies on the dollar.

As for the cost of living raise you talked of where? will our government demand that every employer must give a cost of living raise? because If the employers havent handed out a cost of living rate in the last 10 years I cant see them doing it well you know, just because. But maybe you are right but I think the 4% yearly raise has become the norm over the last 15 years and it will be few employers that will actually add a cost of living raise into that. (Exceptions are the Federal Government, they handed out 4% raises + 10% cost of living raises in 2007. How do I know this? Most of my family works for a branch of federal government and I am pea green with envy at their benefit packages, sick days, vacation, all the raises they get and the lack of work they actually do)