Kosmic,

Just two days ago George said the economy was ok. Its just a trend, he says, and we'll be fine.
I wonder which drug he's doing now?

"tent city" hahaha looked more like a tent parking lot!

america has had its ups & downs and i'm quite sure we will make it through this. call me ultra patriotic optimistic whatever.
that video was just more propaganda for the doom and gloomers.

america will be just fine, something about us americans we have tremendous resolve, and you will see we will be back in all our glory soon enough!

Reminds me of that movie "The Grapes of Wrath." It looks like the economy will be taking a similar dive. From some of the comments in this thread I guess there were a lot of dumb people back in 1929. Serves them right for investing in the stock market. No one forced them to. They should have known better than to think they could get ahead and build some equity for themselves. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Now, back to today. The same thing happens. Dumb people thinking they can build some personal equity by buying a home. They should have known that the ruling elite would have to smack them down. Uppity middle class people, sheesh...

Maybe these people like living in tents. Maybe they're eccentic millionaires who loathe "house dwellers" and toe nail clipping.

Maybe their parents were nomadic tent dwellers foraging and harvesting the nations vast parking lots for ketchup packets and sea gull guano.

Maybe these happy souls have a unique phobia to fixed walls or indoor plumbing.

No, no my friends let us not turn brother against brother over a futile subprime housing debate until we've done due diligence to uncover the true plight of the L.A. tent people.

As it says in the Bible "Don't knock it until you've tried it"

[edit on 15-3-2008 by ColdWater]

Really Chromatico ?

America headed to be a Third World country? BS!!!! Homelessness is rampant in ALL countries.

Do you even hold a passport ?
Have you ever traveled outside the States ?

Here in New Zealand we have no homeless. Our government and municipal authorities all run housing programs for the poor, sick and elderly.

Likewise in NZ everyone is entitled to free health care, including expensive operations. Our medications are subsidised from taxes so that nobody in this country goes without medication.

Those with wages her pay no more than about $35 for prescription medicines and the poor get prescription medication for $3.

It's similar in Australia. If our countries can do this then why can't the (formerly) richest country in the world ?

And yes though there is still poverty in China, that country is overtaking USA in the fast lane. I kid you not.

There is a old thread on ATS about this, when it first broke out.

I believe it was my dear Marg who created the thread. But the outbreak of tent cities is really worrying.

Just watched the video, what was that famous line from FOXNews?

"You'd be forgiven for not thinking this was America..."

[edit on 15-3-2008 by infinite]

I think it is a real shame, I feel bad for those people. I lost everything back in 2001 after the whole IT industry crashed. I haven't really even tried to get back to where I was. It is easier to just live with family and work crappy jobs. When I see something like this it re affirms my lack of effort.

I have a dumb question but what is the difference between poor and middle class? I saw some posts where it is mentioned that poor people lost their homes, how does a poor person acquire a home to begin with? Seems like contradiction.

My honest opinion I have mentioned it in a lot of my other posts, maybe bagging our current economic system is a good thing in the long run. Money is just piece of paper or a number. To make matters even worse its value is based on forecasted number in the stock markets. It is like using faux money. We need is an honest way of exchanging goods and services.

Best Regards,
Trustnobody


[edit on 15-3-2008 by trustnobody]

Its sad to see people in America of all countries living in tents when their government spends billions on space exploration

Its even sadder to see better off people in this thread not giving a #

Originally posted by anxietydisorder
It serves them right.
If you take out a loan you can't possibly repay, or you fail to read the fine print, then you lose your home.

Sure, the financial institutions offered loans in a way that made them look very attractive while markets were rising, but they didn't forge your signature on the papers.

If you can't pay you're out.
Go live in a tent if you're that stupid or rent an apartment, because you deserve it.

You don't know there arriving situation to write such an imaginary classification of there final point to exist. Did you miss the lady saying she worked only 1 day a week. Its not about mortgages, its about jobs that are available and pay enough for a single person, parent, husband and wife to live the life they had before the situation they find themselves in now.

My mortgage is $326.00 a month and because I could not get a job, I almost lost the ranch more than several times in the past couple of years.

Don't kid yourself, don't feel safe with a good income working for some one else. The day will come when you to will get a HR letter that will crumple your world.

A pity that there will be so many empty houses. But don't buy it if you can't afford it, right.

All aside though, I bet a good percentage of those people could still afford it if fuel and food prices weren't going up.

As for voting, I don't really believe it's going to matter who wins (or rigs) the election this year. If nobody is willing to lower the gas prices or force alternative fuel in a hurry, the economy won't improve. People aren't buying because they can't afford to buy nice toys when they need to spend more money to feed their families and pay for the gas to get to work. Nor are they traveling as much. Bush can take his "the economy will improve" and shove it where the sun won't shine.

LA is incredibly expensive. I think these people probably need some assistance relocating more than anything else.

LA is incredibly expensive. I think these people probably need some assistance relocating more than anything else.

strange eh,you buy all the luxuries,nice house, cars and everything to make your life ideal,then what, lets go away from the rat race for a few weeks,take some rods,an old tent,enjoy nature, camp fires,cook from a tin,enjoy the quiet and freedom,oh isn,t this the life,no work just taking it easy.
the point i am making,is living in a tent,caravan,shed etc,that bad,ok you don,t have all the luxuries,but hey ,you don,t have so many worries.
Would you rather work 16 hours a day 7 days a week to make your payments for your standard of living,sleeping in a bed for 7 hours ,not seeing your family,having breakdowns or totally stressed out. Is it really worth it?
Look for the best in a bad situation,it may not be too bad after all, now where is that camping gear? 8ç).
mike

Mainstream media paints all these people with the same brush-- it's their own fault they lost their homes! Yes, they were living beyond their means or they were stupid not to read and understand the 40 pages of fine print legalese the attorney general probably couldn't decipher. Let's all join in kicking these people when they're down because they were arrogant and/or naive enough to want their part of the promised American dream and standard of living. The nerve of those people to actually believe they could own a home and provide for their families with decent jobs in what they're told since kindergarden is the greatest country on earth.

Mainstream media would have you believe they lost their homes because they bought a 50" television instead of making their mortgage payment. Mainstream media doesn't want you to emphathize with these fellow Americans because if you care, you might actually be compelled to act in some way. When most people bought their homes, it took two jobs to survive. All it took was one of them getting laid off, or sick, or injured to start the downward slide into foreclosure. And many many people have been laid off when their jobs were outsourced overseas, or worse, taken by someone with a foreign degree from a place like India who was brought here on a special visa for the express purpose of taking jobs from educated Americans because they will work cheaper for Microsoft, or whoever. And by the way, they want to double the number of those visas and all three of the leading presidential candidates are all for it.

By and large, these are hardworking Americans losing their homes, people like us, which may be exactly why some of us don't want to see it-- it's too frightening to admit you too may be one paycheck or pink slip or illness away from the same fate. Don't be manipulated by MSM into turning against your fellow Americans-- that's always the plan-- to divide and conquer. God help the elite if 300 million Americans ever come together as one force.

We live in the UK. Both my wife and I are in or mid-50’s. I served in the Army for 22 years until 1994 and have since worked in Architecture. We bought a nice house in our home town around five years ago. The mortgage payments account for around 30% of our net income. With fuel bills, community charges etc we have enough to live on. We have a small towing caravan (trailer) and a car each (paid for), and I occasionally have a glass of wine with dinner.

Though life may appear relatively stable, we are seriously thinking of selling up in a few years and using accrued equity to live on a caravan site (trailer park). We are fully aware that we may be kidding ourselves that life would be better, and thinking the ‘grass is greener.. etc’, but this is the way we see it. By the time we die, we will have bought a house and have all that equity available for the best funeral you could imagine. Okay, we might have a few years grace, when we can sit and dribble into our porridge whilst knowing the house is finally paid for.

The only ones who make anything out of house purchases are the banks, estate agents (realtors?), property investors and the rich. The rest of us just work ourselves into an early grave because we believe it’s the right thing to do. I think that’s all changing.

I remember visiting Nairobi a few years back and seeing the huge cardboard city that surrounded it. I would guess that more native Africans live outside Nairobi than within the city itself.

For whatever the reason, it’s not only happening in LA. Immigrants moving from Eastern Europe to the UK are beginning to camp in the woods around our towns. They are being offered assistance, but they seem to prefer where they are.

Everybody’s circumstances are different. It’s far too easy to point a finger and say it’s their fault. It might be, it may not be. It may simply be their own choice. Perhaps they’ve just had enough of the ‘Rat Race’.