Tent cities have sprung up outside Los Angeles

reply to post by reluctantpawn


We are doing fine also on less than your earnings, I might add. Although we do not live in a 350K home ours suits our needs just fine. While we have always lived frugally, I will not impose our life-style choices on others or take them to task for theirs or ever turn callous in the face of suffering and despair. One would expect more understanding and compassion from such an advocate of the church. I’m glad you & yours are doing fine but that is not what this discussion is about unless your 350K home is a really big tent!

You cannot possibly know the story behind each and every one affected by this economic mess. We can’t write these people off. Regardless of who’s to blame these are families in crisis not much different than Katrina and how many of them were ill prepared? This crisis will continue over time on an individual basis x hundreds of thousands nation-wide. How soon before it domino effects into your neighborhood? Just be thankful the lives of your family have not been touched in a negative way yet.

I think many are missing the point and cannot get past the blame game. Regardless of who is at fault the numbers are just too large to ignore or assume this will not affect us all adversely. Unless you are filthy rich, I’m afraid the economic residue flows downhill so watch out I think were in for a ride!

Quit with the bleeding heart BS. The people in the video were trailer-trash types with basic education at best.

I grew up in a trailer court, but worked my ass off - got a degree in Computer Science, have my own business. I'm working like a MoFo everday.

There is no excuse for those that sit around and play games all day, watch TV, drink beer and party. These type of things weed that out and you see it first hand.

I too don't think on the other end of the spectrum, people like Paris Hiltion etc. who are leach sucking parasites, but they too work very little and expect everything handed to them. The only difference is, spoiled Paris expects more!

You have to work hard to get ahead, if you don't have the skills, education or wherewhithall to do so, is unfortunate, but a fact of life. Unless you're born with a Silver Spoon, be ready to work hard to make ends meet, and even hellabad harder to get ahead.

reply to post by jetxnet

Look call me a bleeding heart all you want. I just don't like to see kids living like that. I don't recall anyone in the video drinking beer or playing games. You are still missing the point and as a businessperson you should see the fall out from all this mess will trickle down and it will affect us all in any number of ways.

Most of us work our butts off on a regular basis, but don't think for one minute that guarantees future security. Hardworking people get laid off every day and equally hardworking private businesses owners close their doors and go bankrupt as often.

There is just too much going on in addition to the mortgage crisis and the falling dollar. I think we're all going to take a hit hardworking or not.

"Hardworking people get laid off every day and equally hardworking private businesses owners close their doors and go bankrupt as often."

Some good points, but much of this is due to offshore outsourcing of manufacturing jobs to China and the like. Many private businss owners are drying up, look what happens when a new Super ChinaMart goes up in the neighborhood, the surrounding grocery, hardware and clothing stores close up shop. They just can't compete with the predatory pricing exercised by ChinaMart made possible by cheap or forced Sweat Shop labor.

Many of the people feeling the pinch now are your lower and lower-to-middle class groups who often having service and/or manufacturing jobs.

If you have a job that isn't customer service or manufacturing based, your chances of job retention are much higher right now.

The good news about the US is that is still leading the world in Information Technology via web-applications etc. The IT age is about to erupt where your apps will mostly be on-line (as opposed to your local machine). Your computer will essentially become a dumb terminal for web applications and the Internet. The US is leading with regard to web applications and new web-based operating systems which are starting to come out.

The shift is going from blue-collar lower class jobs to white-collar or upper middle-class to upper class jobs which are much fewer, hence the widening gap between rich and poor.

reply to post by Morningglory


My comments were not intended to encompass all those who are affected by this mess. It was to merely point out that if you are making over 100k a year in "average " america you should be able to prepare for short comings including job loss.
There are many out there that are at or just above poverty level that can do little to counteract these circumstances at this time. However most anyone with drive and perserverence can change their life for the better with hard work and education. While certainly those in power can and do destroy the lives of others, there are a lot of things that people can do to get out of the mess that they got themselves into.
We cannot blame just the rich and powerful for all the nations woes.
Yes I too do not like to see the children suffer. But having grown up in poverty I will say that kind[not permissive] and loving parents more than make up for all the stuff that is out there. Poverty is not the same as neglect or abuse.

respectfully

reluctantpawn

My take on this that most people were lead to believe that owning a home would be the best investment of their lives. If you go back 5 years it sure seemed that way. homes appreciated at incredible rates. Most people probably started to feel like if they didn't buy a home they never would be able to afford one. Some people seem kind of harsh, just don't forget our economy would have not taken off had everyone stayed to what was in there budget. If your 401K went up it was due to housing and 9/11. I don't hear anyone complaining about that. Bottom line is we are all greedy and some made good decisions and some made bad. We all made money in the stock market off peoples greed. Is it really that outlandish that people would think they could get rich like Trump, rich Dad poor dad and 10 thousand other flim flan men telling you you don't have to work hard just buy homes. How many TV shows are there. Flip this home, flip that home, it worth what, blah, blah, blah. If you watch enough of it you believe it. How many times do you have to watch a girl that doesn't even know what a skill saw is make 100K in a month flipping a home before you go out and try yourself.

I don't see people in a uproar when the fed basically says I will do what ever it takes to save the banks that loaned you the money. Why doesn't that piss you off, the rich and I mean the Rockafellar type never lose. I guess I expected the people on here to have done a little more homework and not be so critical to maybe see the big picture but it seems that is not the case. How about the people that never contribute. Are you fine with people living in Section 8 low income housing and never even trying to buy a home? This is all banter that is supposed to keep the news channels busy and keep the sheep occupied.

reply to post by dreamsnatcher


That is the truth. These distractions are the programming taking it's effect. That's why we have all these distractions, with news being a gossip channel. Polls are designed NOT FOR OPINION but to see how their programming is being taken in. This is why you don't really have choices, even though you have many conveniences and distractions.

Artificial reality at it's most basic state...

It's not surprising. There were tent cities (and really still are) on the beach in Venice and skid row is still overcrowded. Living here, it is a known fact that homelessness is a big problem. The tent city in Ontario was suppose to be for the residents there because no other city really does anything about the homeless problem. They will move on and go somewhere else where people didn't really care about them before this came around. It's inevitable that other homeless people would go there to move away from already known and crowded spots. I'm sure there are some that are there that are apart of the foreclosure debacle and the huge budget crisis that we are experiencing here in California but it really isn't very different from what already was here.

These people are all victims of fraud. As are all of us. They were never loaned any money in th first place. fraud vitiates a contract. the applicable case here is Jerome Daly v. First national Bank of Montgomery, Minn. Justice Marvin V. Mahoney, Credit River Township, December7-9. 1968 Ruled that Federal Reserve Notes were Fiat Money and not legal tender. The Federal Reserve is not a branch of the govornment but is a privately owned offshore corporation. Look in the govornment listings section of the phone book and try and find it. You wont. A dollar is defined as a weight of gold or silver much like a gallon of paint or gas. If you were to go into a paint store and try to buy a gallon of paint and the clerk handed you the label off the can you would not conclude the transaction. In the law dictionary, Federal Reserve Notes are described as RESEMBLING nots of credet or certificates of deposit. Can you spell COUNTERFEIT. Loan out worthless paper forclose on valuable property. What a skam. Go to APFN and George Gordons school of common law to learn more. Ron Paul has made the abolishment of the FED central to his campaign. Pass this around the tent camps. In the Jerome Daly case, he researched the fraudulent nature of our so called money decided to not make his payments, when the bank moved to foreclose, He explained the true history of the federal reserve to the jury. The jury ruled against the bank, he kept the home. A class action suit against the various franchises of the fed and the Fed proper would be quite controversial.

reply to post by acegotflows


Ace, nice to see someone else gets it. Someone on here once posted manifesto on how to control the population, that was found in a copy machine from military surplus. I read it and quite frankly it is exactly how we are living. The highlights of it were to lower education to 6th grade level, dumb people are easier to control than smart. Create a society of debtors and tax payers, if your always working you really don't have time to focus on other things. Have lots of distractions as well, this keeps people minds on other things, unimportant things. The republican vs. democrat is great one, people get all wound up and they don't even realize that all the people that are currently running are in the CFR. Republican and democrat they have the same agenda but the sheep pick sides and lash out at the other all the while they carry on with the real plan which we are not privy to. I personally have lost any interest in politics as you may think things will change but the guy you like really does not have that control. Ron Paul is a greet example. I was with two guys this past weekend and I saw a sign for him and I told them that if people really wanted change they should have voted for him. These two guys had never even heard of him. They thought I was joking, then you realize that if the TV shows we watch don't promote that person then forget it. More distractions to heard the sheep. Be sure to spend alot of money on Easter this weekend, thats why Jesus was resurrected so he could shop. My sarcasm is even getting to me.

ah don't worry people......all those fatcats will get theirs.....

"it will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God"

reply to post by 44soulslayer


I hope you never have to experiance that, as it is fairly obvious you have lead a sheltered existance far from true poverty!