Can we get the average Americans opinion?

I see some are being honest. Things are still great here. The housing thing only hit a few areas and only people illiterate enough to sign a variable rate mortgage.

The only people making low wages are uneducated. Anyone can get a good education here with government guaranteed loans and grants. They just have to want to. The others make their own beds when they don't study or drop out.

The negative you see is due to the elections coming up. The Party not in power always lies about the economy to get their candidate in. Good old American politics.

There are no camps, there will be no Marshall Law and we will have a new President shortly. The stores are full of shoppers and most of us drive nice cars, except maybe the children and the older losers who still live with Mommy

Come visit us. You will have fun. We are actually quite friendly if you stay out of New York City, Chicago and a couple of others like Miami. The West is really friendly and open. Don't let anyone take you Snipe Hunting though.

Gas here in Orange County, CA. is $4.40 to $4.65, just depends where you are at. Minimum wage here is $8 an hour, but it is still not enough to live here in expensive California.

It is funny one gas station's unleaded 87 octane (krap) is $4.45, and another one right across the street is $4.50, and people go to the more expensive one.

I always have a good chuckle when the price goes down a couple cents, and they say "wow that's cheap", kinda makes me wanna punch them in the ovaries.

i dont care where you come from , when the unemployment rate hit's 6.8% like it is here in california things are bad .
i caught myself saying yesterday saying WOW only $4.35 a gallon and right about then some dude ran up and punched me in the ovaries .
quite often now here in cal now the educated are competing for jobs with the un educated if that tells you anything .
the illegal aliens are completely over running our job markets , roads , hospital emergency rooms etc etc etc while sending the majority of their money back home and weakening our local economy even further .
as long as this keeps up my opinion is that things here are going down hill for our citizens and thats not o.k. and someone needs to be held accountable .

reply to post by Brian
Life in the USA is tough to make it honest, Canada gets all our ad campaigns because of the USA tough spam laws, the Mexicans get the jobs because if they complain the get deported. You can do well here in software, if you are willing to sell out your American brother, to a country with no laws or standard of living. I took business that is what tariffs where designed for. But one thing for sure we as USA people have to do is revolt and do what it takes to compete.

Originally posted by mopusvindictus
ROFL!

How about the guys that started girls gone wild....

Sally Struthers is a giant Fat ass and shes rich off of being paid to stand there and eat oreos next to starving children...

it's all a laugh riot to say money is a problem in this country...


Jack ass? lol push your friend down a hill in a shopping cart ... this makes Millions...

You could work at Mc Donalds and collect comics and if you just take care iof them odds are on you could retire a multi millionare when you sell them....

LOL howmany people in here make up bs stories about thier alien theories based on nothing but specualtion and make a living...how many people who tell bs stories and lies on the net are millionares right now lol... let alone the ones that really work at something...


8.95 a month for hosting 15.00 for a domain name... and a half a brain, and I say half as an over estimate.

HAHA well aren't you just the American entrepreneur. I think you sound like a cocky ass whole, but i agree with you 100%, because im just like you.

Im lazy as living hell. So lazy i didn't bother getting a real job because it takes too much time and the pay crud.

So i started my own business in high school. refined it a bit and i make more an hour doing nothing than i could if i worked a full time job , doing nothing. I sit around watching tv all day, go out have fun. play some golf, go to classes for collage, have girls over for some fun ; ), go out for dinner at a great restaurant with amazing food., work for about 45 minutes while im watching the Texas Rangers baseball game on my giant TV. Its the life. And yes its a respectable job.

i actually got a real job last month expo'ing for a Mexican restaurant, because my father said it would be a good idea to get some employment experience. worked for $6.00 an hour.. It was terrible. It cost me half my wages just driving to work. just makes me thankful that im creative and know how to make my own money.

But then again like i said, being lazy is why im making so much money. i was too lazy to initially get a job. I knew i could make more on my own, too lazy to get up early and spend ll day slaving away. so i used my head and found a easy way to make money. and its amazing. haha

Making money is easy. The internet is a HUGE key. Its makes everyone equal. i didn't learn any lessons from anyone. i tought my self everything i do on my own. No one showed me the ropes which means anyone can do it! Just be creative. be personable and get to know people. Try thins out. Start off small to sample ideas then build from that. Do some research on the internet. if your reading this than im sure you have access so no excuses can be made. any question you have , here is an answer for it online.

Good to hear alot of folks here are still doing fine even though the dollar has lost almost 45% of it value since 2001.

online.barrons.com...


Also nice to hear most of us are still keeping or homes as well. That is except for 448,000 of us 1st quarter and 1.4 million of us last year. Wich is probably only going to get worse and cause more banks to fail.


articles.moneycentral.msn.com...



how long will your job be unaffected by whats coming down? I dont forsee a turnaround in this trend until we force the Federal Reserve out or at least stop them from printing more money out of nothing and diluting our currency even further.

I live about 60 miles from down town Los Angles. I has around $200.00 after housing and utilties each week. So $55.00 to fill my tank, today is theusday and I'm on empty. The movies here are empty. 5 to 10 people in the theaters. The roads are empty, on sunday I go 10 miles on a major expressway and see no, thats no cars. Until I get to town. Before $4.00 gas I couldn't count the cars there were so many. The major housing boom the past 5 year had builders building whole tracts with no buyers. Thats right hundreds of houses brand new and no one lives in them I can think of one apartment complex about 200 apartments, closed over grown with weeds. Gates locked. Every street here has lik 3 or more houses for sale, these are 20 year old houses, would think they would be almost payed for but no the banks own them. Food ha, I get a $25.00 food box from church feed me for about 5 days. The parking lots at the market are no way near full. The stores major markets regularly run out of staples. Work none I ask about 6 people a week for work and its always no. The place I worked for 8 years let me go. His son came home couldn't make it on his own. So I get caned. The police stop people and issue tickets take people to jail for the most minor crimes. One small town proudly issued 1500 tickets in one week for no seat belts. This while there was a major shot out between the sheriff and the local indians at the casino. Gas was never an issue when going somewhere. Fourth of july I couldn't come up with gas for a free concert. The pantery is empty, I was glad a friend gave us chicken pot pies for dinner. Its bad here in southern california. No one sees any relief on the horizon. Eggs are $4.00 for 18. Glad we got 2 dozen from church as thats what we will eat today. My lady friend makes over 21,000 a year plus free medical, food stamps, subsidizede housing on and on. Not much but way better that a 53 year old hard working man. If it hasn't hit you, God bless, but when your buffer savings, food reserve is gone what do you do? Not crying yet there are plenty worse off that me. But for those of you still living a life of roses and rainbows, your in for a shock. Gas highest last month 4.85. Its dropped to the bargin price of 4.49.
bil

To answer the original question, yes, as usual, the media blowing things out of proportion.

We've definitely hit a rough patch, but its not catastrophic as they'd like everyone to believe. Overall, we're not even in a recession, though some localized areas may be. The vast majority of people still have a roof over their heads, food on the table, their cable TV, internet, and the other conveniences of modern life. People are struggling (I can include myself in that group), but it could be an awful lot worse.

That's not to say that it couldn't turn ugly quick. I don't think that the entire world economy can continue to sustain oil at anything close to its current price levels. In fact, I think its going to get worse before it gets better. However, I'm not a doom and gloomer who believes that we're finished. The US, like any developed nation, simply has too much economic infrastructure in place not to recover relatively quickly once oil prices decline following a worldwide recession/depression.

reply to post by airteck


Have you been too slow to notice...A.the Canadian dollar has been kept below the American dollar...even as the dollar has lost the 41% of its value in the last 8 years. I live in Edmonton...and have noticed a lot of "treading water" the real estate market is faltering. Lets face it the Canadian dollar has been taken down in value to preserve America's advantage in doing business...sonner or later..this will become obvious and when the US sneezes Canada catches a cold

reply to post by beforetime


honestly man, if you have to work two jobs to survive, then you are doing something wrong, i wouldn't go blaming anyone but yourself if you are a grown ass man/women only making 6/hour, sounds to me like you need to get off you ass and look a hell of a lot harder. there are jobs ALL OVER that p[ay 9-10/hour and require little to no experience.

that being said, things are getting worse, but nothing that the vast majority of working americans can't handle.

reply to post by beforetime


sounds to me like you are bitter because you never made anything out of yourself.

it's nobodies fault but your own if you are working in a dead end job, under someone who have a decade less experience then you, this is america, things are a little more expensive now, but it's still the land of opportunity, and if you don't like working somewhere you can get up off your ass and look for the job.

i would rather hire someone with college education onh ow to manage a factory, rather than someone whohas 15 years exp. doing grunt work, why? because the person who has been in a dead end job for 15 yeras shows little to no motivation IMO to make things better, they would rather sit there, do their grunt work, and complain day in and day out about how it's someone else's fault that they don't make 20 an hour, or that they can't get a raise, or promotion because they never thought that getting their education.

i don't make a lot of money, i work as a manager for a luxury RV rental business in Austin texas, i make 10 an hour, have a house, a car, pay all my bills, and i still have a little left over every month to play around with/put into savings.

if you are in the position that you drescribe in your posts, i strongly suggest that you man up and take some responsibility for your life, and make things better, don't stand around and expect riches and fame to just drop into your lap, you have to go out there and get it. that is the only way to succeed.

FYI:

this is not meant in ANY way to be deragotory towards anyone in the "working" lower middle class/low class.

it is only to show that not everyone in america is doing badly for themselves, and also that not everyone in america finds someone else to blame when their life goes down the #ter because they don't understand how the work force operates.

reply to post by nixie_nox


i tihnk your husband is just lazy, lol.... a mechanic is a job that is needed no matter how #ty the economy is. my friend is pulling in almost 60 flag hours a week and making pretty big bank, i suggest he finds another shop to work at. cause he is definately in a situation that i have NEVER heard of.

mechanics not having work is about as funny as saying that doctors aren't making any money because medical care is expensive.

Honestly, airteck, yes, things are bad here. The cost of gas, food and clothing has gone up. I was watching the news and they said that everything has pretty much went up 8-9 percent over the last year.

Milk has been going up fairly steadily for the last five or six years, but when you go to the grocery store you might as well be ready to spend 4-5 dollars a gallon depending on what kind of milk you want. For people like me, who drink a lot of milk, it's a real problem.

I am not even going to get started on the cost of meat products suffice to say that it's ridiculous.

I have a degree in media communications and information technology and I am still barely making over $7.50 an hour. We need not even touch upon the difficulty people without an education are having. Hell, here in Waco, you can't even get a job at McDonald's without a High School diploma.

Yeah, things are bad down here in America. If my parents were still here, God bless them, they'd just shake their heads in disgust.

reply to post by SpeakerofTruth


well, i personally think you shouldn't be allowed to do anything but pick trash up off the side of the road or build my house if you odn't have a high school diploma. public schooling is free, and all you need to do is be present and do you work get the diploma, so if you don't have one, there is nobody to blame but you.

and if you only make 7.50 and hour, you need to get out now and go do some construction work and make 10-15 an hour, a lot of time if you are white in that industry you are going to get paid almost twice what the laborers get paid because there is not a communication barrier (at least in every situation i have been in working in the construction field)

i think a lot of you are making this out to seem a lot worse than it really is.

reply to post by SRTkid86


Obviously, you don't have to deal with the day to day struggle just to make ends meet.. Kudos to you... Soon, your dream world will come tumbling around your head as well.. Enjoy everything while you can.

It depends on who you ask and that has NOTHING to do with where they are economically.

I know of a person who is the husband of my wifes co-worker. He has no job lives off his wife and cannot find a job. Still he is SO brainwashed by years of Fox news he thinks the economy is fine. He thinks free trade instead of fair trade is good. Even though just a few years back he could have found a job making decent money working in a factory. Its like talking to some kind of mind controlled freak. Its really weird no matter how bad the fat cats make things, no matter how many jobs get bled overseas he still tows the corporate line.

We are manufacturing less and less every year and it is slowly taking its effect.

Soon we will be like Argentina. They went down the same road and became bankrupt.

We are being screwed and the Christian right has gone nuts and is so brainwashed they don't see it. They were conditioned for this so we could be easily fleeced of our treasure, they make up most of our active voting population. Everyone else is so depressed they don't hardly vote.

Originally posted by hinky
What is an average American, I look around today, and you just can't say.

I believe those in power like to use the term "average american" because it makes the sheople feel like everyones on a level playing field.. or no worse off or better of than others.. even though most know this not to be true... it ties into what I was saying to a friend of mine the other day...

it's widley accepted that we're lied to.. stolen from and have our names dragged through the mud with any number of the past or now president of the US going to "solve problems" in other countries... if so many ppl know and are aware how come no ones doing anything about it? we're "hard working american tax payers" who can do now wrong if ya listen to any presidental speech..

people want to see change.. just not at the expense of change to there daily life.. sad but true! having said that im Canadian lol and yes im aware this is not really on topic but is my opinion... so do with it what you must

reply to post by SpeakerofTruth


hey man, i have worked hard for everything i have, and i honestly don't see all this bad stuff everyone else is seeing. my life doesn't come without struggle. i am just responsible for my own life and well being, and if something isn't working out for me, i try another route. i know it can be intimidating starting over again. but you have to do what you have to do.

so far, of all the posts i have read in this thread, i have seen a few people whining bout situations that they are in because they lack the drive to make their life better. go to a staffing place, tell them you need a job for 10/hour, and they will most likely have you working in less than a week. as long as you do your job to the expectations of the person who has the contract with the staffing company, then you are going to get hired on permanent.

it's not as hard as some make it out to be. just take some accountability for your own life, and do wht you have to do to make it better. nothing in this world comes without a little sacrifice now and then.

A few people have commented about the difficulty in defining the "average american." I know many people have a stereotype for what they think americans are based on media and tourists and what our government has done over the years. I don't think the OP means any harm by generalizing; if you are awake enough to be on ATS, you probably realize that we are all people, all different, and all more or less the same at the same time. I DO think it's difficult to define the "economic condition" of the "average american" because different areas of the country are dependant on different aspects of the economy.

I live in CT, among the fat cats of Fairfield County. Prices here are similar to those posted by the person in Vancouver. We have been in a recession here for a couple of years already- at least in terms of people's mentality toward spending money.

The area I live in is quicker to react to the markets because so many people here have money invested and/or work in the financial industry. People have more insight into how huge the hole is that we are in... You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to see what direction this road is heading in if you have any insider info at all. There is plenty of money around here but not as many people spending it. That has actually been going on for a couple of years, like I said, so the wallet-tightening has been gradual but the government's denial of our recession has been puzzling to me as it seems plain as day and impossible to deny.

I am a high-end painting contractor, so my clientele will probably have $ to spend for a while... but they sure aren't burning it anymore. Groceries, fuel, etc. have increased living expenses so my prices are going up, too-- yet since there is not as much work out there, I have to be careful! I can't really make up the difference. Trickle-down economics may not make for great policy, but it is no farce. The result is fewer jobs and less disposable income. People are taking less elaborate vacations, going out to eat less often, shopping less, buying cheaper stuff.

If you are living in another part of the country and you think these bank failures are not affecting you, you might want to introduce the word "YET" into that thought. Fannie and Freddie is only the tip of the iceberg. Once they get bailed out, there's no bailout $ left, but a laundry list of more big banks in queue to collapse. From here there will be a domino effect to other industry as they are all inter-related. The other half of my state relies on the insurance industry, and if/when that goes down, all hell could break loose. There are WAY too many people here with no practical survival skills and self-centered lifestyles.

If you are reading between the lines, you might see economic adversity as a positive thing for humanity. Certainly I see many people enjoying the simpler things in life lately, like the company of family and loved ones. If you are outside the US, and thanking God or whatever for that under your breath right now, laugh it up. Then wake up and remember that we're living in a global economy, and this will affect you, too, and more dramatically than you might imagine.

Originally posted by Blaine91555
I see some are being honest. Things are still great here. The housing thing only hit a few areas and only people illiterate enough to sign a variable rate mortgage.

The only people making low wages are uneducated. Anyone can get a good education here with government guaranteed loans and grants. They just have to want to. The others make their own beds when they don't study or drop out.

The negative you see is due to the elections coming up. The Party not in power always lies about the economy to get their candidate in. Good old American politics.

There are no camps, there will be no Marshall Law and we will have a new President shortly. The stores are full of shoppers and most of us drive nice cars, except maybe the children and the older losers who still live with Mommy

Come visit us. You will have fun. We are actually quite friendly if you stay out of New York City, Chicago and a couple of others like Miami. The West is really friendly and open. Don't let anyone take you Snipe Hunting though.

i agree with this post entirely. if your life is hard right now, and you aren't making enough money to get by, it prolly has a lot to do with the fact that you planned poorly, or made some poor decisions in your past that lead up to this point.

it's not the gov't fault that you don't have an education of a good paying job. they give your every opportunity reasonable to give you those things, if you don't take them. then it is on you, not someone else. you made that choice.

like i have said, it's a little, and i mean LITTLE more expensive (my monthly gas budget might hav e went up by 50/month chicken feed really, in the grand scheme of things) but definately not impossible to handle. if you take responsibility for your own life, and well being. instead of all that energy wasted on pointing the finger, and trying to come up with reasons that they are responsible. you could take that time doing some side work (mowing lawns, detailing cars, painting houses, studying for a GED etc..) to make extra money.