The end of excess: Is this crisis good for America?

The End of Excess: Is This Crisis Good for America?

Don't pretend we didn't see this coming for a long, long time.

In the early 1980s, around the time Ronald Reagan became President and Wall Street's great modern bull market began, we started gambling (and winning!) and thinking magically. From 1980 to 2007, the median price of a new American home quadrupled. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed from 803 in the summer of 1982 to 14,165 in the fall of 2007. From the beginning of the '80s through 2007, the share of disposable income that each household spent servicing its mortgage and consumer debt increased 35%. Back in 1982, the average household saved 11% of its disposable income. By 2007 that number was less than 1%.

It's as if we decided that Mardi Gras and Christmas are so much fun, we ought to make them a year-round way of life.

www.time.com...
Excellent article!
Whadya think fellow peeps? Is this crisis good for America after all?

I'll hafta read the article tomorrow, but so far, it looks like it's about something that's been on my mind for years.

To answer the question if you were asking it, though: I'd have to say it all depends on who does what in the coming years and weather we can hold it together through the tough times ahead.

I say yes, it is good for America.

Americans aren't a bunch of babies, we've just been raised as such.

When it gets down to the nitty-gritty I think Americans will rise to the challenge, thank god we have something to do now.... or later when it really gets bad. I don't know about you, but I still have food and shelter and entertainment.

I love being "Devil's advocate" when I am drinking.

I think it's good. The idiotic american will finally stop going into debt to buy useless crap like 3 ton SUVs and 4BR homes. I've never bought on credit in my life. Intelligent people don't need status symbols.

Yet another good thread my friend.

Indeed a crisis is often a good thing.

It's a shame that the spiraling nature will cause good men and women to lose their jobs, but for the rank and file consumer- its about time they went cold turkey off materialism.

reply to post by dodadoom


Yes as Americans we have been collectively materialistic. Maybe not everyone, but a large percentage...
So to that end it is good. Wish that we could have corrected with out
the massive Ponzi Scheme perpetrated on us by the Federal Reserve!

Good question, OP, and the answer depends on where you're sitting.

Basically, we've bankrupted ourselves, personally through all the shiny debt-traps that were offered us individually--401ks, pre-approved credit cards, sub-prime mortgages, and on and on. Then on an institutional level, we gambled away other countries' money on stocks, hedge funds, and derivatives and a slew of dubious get-rich-quick ponzi schemes.

What we're seeing right now with the G20 and the NWO is in reality an intervention, like any addict would have, whether for alcohol or any other dependency. We're hooked on debt--other people's money--and the world is intervening to get us to sober up.

So far, we're telling the world, "Spend like us, like drunken sailors, and we'll all get rich again."

Well, in the end it will be good for us to dry out; the question is, when are we going to sober up? This will have an enormous impact on how much we suffer in the meantime.

[edit on 4-4-2009 by gottago]

Originally posted by dodadoom
The End of Excess: Is This Crisis Good for America?

Oh lord.

This worldwide financial 'crisis' was engineered.
It's not some fault of a free market society.
It wasn't created by greedy capitalists.
It's because of the New World Order.
They engineered this to create their One World Currency.
(Obama's buddy Timmy Geithner is calling for it.)
It was engineered to create the New World Order.

Anyone who thinks this crisis is because of 'greedy capitalists' is dead wrong. That's exactly what 'THEY' want you to think. Just as the Nazis wanted everyone to think all the problems in the world were the fault of the Jews ... Capitalists are going to be the scapegoat.

And sadly ya'll are buying it. It's faux-alturism at it's worst.

Killing the free market society and capitalism is NOT good for America.
It's not good for anyone.

Ayn Rand Center Response to Financial Crisis thread

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by dodadoom
The End of Excess: Is This Crisis Good for America?

Oh lord.

This worldwide financial 'crisis' was engineered.
It's not some fault of a free market society.
It wasn't created by greedy capitalists.
It's because of the New World Order.
They engineered this to create their One World Currency.
(Obama's buddy Timmy Geithner is calling for it.)
It was engineered to create the New World Order.

Anyone who thinks this crisis is because of 'greedy capitalists' is dead wrong. That's exactly what 'THEY' want you to think. Just as the Nazis wanted everyone to think all the problems in the world were the fault of the Jews ... Capitalists are going to be the scapegoat.

And sadly ya'll are buying it. It's faux-alturism at it's worst.

Killing the free market society and capitalism is NOT good for America.
It's not good for anyone.

Ayn Rand Center Response to Financial Crisis thread

Flyers does bring up a good point which my housemate and I were discussing yesterday in regard to this idea which is that the concept that to live without want or need is not the same thing as to live in excess and it really depends on what your perception of excess is.

I can't say for sure where my housemate stood on the idea, but his agreement came when I likened it to a society where someone who likes to farm becomes a farmer and feeds their own as well as others...artists are artists, technicians are techs...you follow your dream and in some way it would work out so that you didn't end up having to stray from your natural tendencies in order to meet your daily needs...all would be provided.

The idea that life should be arduous or even remotely difficult is a false idea and is being perpetuated in order to justify theft...from you.

I guess if you are told all your life that suffering is mandatory, you are more likely to accept that notion.

So long as we have people who lie, cheat and steal, though...the farmer can't ever harvest enough and so the artist must farm...

Originally posted by gottago


Basically, we've bankrupted ourselves, personally through all the shiny debt-traps that were offered us individually--401ks, pre-approved credit cards, sub-prime mortgages, and on and on.

How is a 401k a death trap?

i would say its good for the whole western world.
the modern side of the planet is sucking everything dry at an unsitely rate.
this economic downturn is slowing that down to a medium pace. so put your arms around me baby, can't you see i need you so. Hold me close against your skin, i'm about to begin loving you.
spit on your hand and stroke my # at a medium pace.