Nearly everyone I know is broke, this economy sucks!

reply to post by RoScoLaz
Your country has been printing money like toilet paper and soon thats what it will be good for. All the economists know that its a dead end they just wont go on tv and say it because of economic perception. America its over soon END OF LINE.

reply to post by camaro68ss


I was out in Africa last year. Rest assured things are a lot worse there...

That reminds me of the joke about the wife who says to her husband: "we can`t be out of money I still have more checks left"

I bet the guys down at the U.S. mint printing presses are saying: " the country can`t be bankrupt, we still have more paper and ink left"

reply to post by camaro68ss



Well, I am really unsure why the economy sucks. My taxes went up but I haven't really noticed it much other than I cut back maybe one or two outings with my wife in a month. food is meh right now but I typically grow my own food so that helps.

As for jobs being scarce. My sister works for a bank and she quit. She did not collect unemployment and her and her husband just tightened their belt a bit. Her old job called her to return but she refused. She then decided to go back to work because she was getting bored and she missed her shopping. She got a job in less than a week but she declined it due to it being full time she wanted parttime. A few days later she got a job that wanted her full time but were very interested in her working for them that they gave her parttime with option to become full time anytime she wants. Good pay and some partial benefits. She has no college education just HS diploma and work experience.

Two of my friends in the past two years have quit and gotten fired from jobs only to find some just as good or better very quickly. These friends only have associates degrees.

My brother left his fulltime job a year and a half a go to go to school full time to finish it up and he got a partime job at the drop of a dime. Decent pay for parttime. He is wrapping up his last two semesters of school and he already has a job lined up after graduation in his field.

I know no one who is unemployed. Those who have lost or quit their jobs find some quickly. In my company they let go of 30 last year and know at leas 8-9 that picked up jobs rather quickly. Some didn't even hit the unemployment line.

The range of the people in my circle age 25-35.

Recently I have been looking to change gears in my profession to something new. I got back into school parttime and I began to look around to see what kind of jobs there are out there for mynew field. I then updated my resume and put it up for employers to look at and I got a call today to setup and interview with me. I was put under the gun since I wasn't really looking to get a new job yet I am going to go check it out anyways.


This has made me question how bad the economy is. I do see food prices going up and the pump just taking more and more. I do however see jobs out there. Eventually I could see myself not making it if these cost continue to go up as wages stay the same or go down. I sometimes wonder how people who make minimum wage do it. I just can't even fathom it.

I only have one friend who i struggling. He works at NBC in "california. He is usually whining about money but I think it has more to do with his mismanagement of money than anything else.

I think for many that is a problem. People just do not know how to mange money. If I mismanaged my money I think I would be on the boat that the economy sucks. I see the cost of living going up and I make adjustiments in my lifestyle. I do not think many people do that.

I do not think the economy sucks but I do think it is in pretty bad shape.

Hope things work out for you and the people you know.

it's being done on purpose.

inflation, joblessness, lower incomes, is a direct result of progressive democrat policies.

all the while they claim to stand for the middle class, the poor, the working man.
yeah right.

they are constructing a meltdown, so that they may come in and be your savior when the dust settles.

they don't care, they only want ABSOLUTE CONTROL.

and you will give it to them when you are sick, starving, freezing, and without shelter.


but hey keep playing their marxist class warfare games.


what happens when there is nothing left to tax?

reply to post by flexy123

// start
ey, yo, bromo, try looking up the LA riots....sound familiar?? no?? well let's just say a mob of disgruntled people got mad over a beating regarding a mr. rodney king. several hundred people burned down houses, and busineses and 40+ people were killed over this little rulling. if it wasn't for the korean immigrants having "evil/useless" guns there would've been more destruction and death than what happened...

on a lighter note

those of you who have some money saved up invest it in gold/silver or land.

ammo and guns and non-perishable food if you're in the city.

and stop wasting money on fast food or 'entertainments'


that was fun, let's talk again sometime
// end

Just wait until Obama care really kicks in. All of these people who are not expecting these fines to be extracted out of their income tax refunds are going to blow a gasket. Read the H&R block or Turbo Tax facebook pages in the first few weeks of Feb, and people are going ballistic because they want their money NOW. They are complaining that their heat, lights, or what have you is shut off. They all need food, or a car to get to work.

My boyfriend just got his hours cut. The corp he works for had a big meeting last week and said that for the first time in their history they are cutting out full time. Full time work is gone for good. It will all be part time.

reply to post by bjax9er


In my area, the highest paying job right now (not doctor, atty, etc) is minimum wage. There are no full times jobs available except for two factories which has a huge waiting list of applications. Stores are shuttering their businesses, we have more empty stores downtown than open ones, and any other store cannot stay open late anymore. The walmart here used to be open 24/7. Then they went from 11 to 11. Now they shut down at 9 pm at night. No one has money to shop. The grocery stores here are starting to close at 9 pm, cutting out jobs and money. Gas is going up and people being forced to commute to low paying jobs.

It's bad out there, ye the tv says everything is recovering.

Originally posted by Wildbob77
I don't know where you live, but there are places that are experiencing boom times.

Look at the oil industry in North Dakota

You friends without jobs may have to move but it would beat being taken care of by your parents.

Yes, and many families cannot afford to move there, OR, they can't build houses fast enough to house people. So men are going there and sleeping in their cars in winter, and sending money back home. This is not an easy life. It can be done, but it's not easy peasy either. Some must do what we have to for money.

reply to post by Hopechest

Does somebody really need a new car when they could take the bus?

Public transportation in my area is sparse, extremely slow, and really quite dangerous. I'm glad that you have something viable, but not all of us are that lucky.

can you live without that cellphone,

No. You have to have some kind of phone to function fully in modern society. Even if it's a little cheap pre-paid phone, you do pretty much have to have one. For job interviews, for work, for emergencies.

do you really need credit cards?

I can agree to this statement.

My bottom line is that it's good to plan, good to save, and there are a lot of idiots out there..but we can't just overlook all the people that work hard and save but are still in a bad situation even though they've done a lot of things right. It's unreasonable to overlook everything that people do right and point out a couple of flaws in their thinking and then call them irresponsible or look down on them.

I dont disagree times are tough.. Personally I am doing well financially but I am 18 years into a career in a field that hasn't really been hit that hard working for an organization that is the tops in the world in its field. I learned some hard lessons when i younger and thought spending money on dumb things mattered.. took a lot of years of sacrificing to pay of a huge amount of debt..now that i am a few years past that it was a good lesson learned.

I have a younger sister though that i feel pretty worried for...she finally got a job in her field in the past 6 months after being unemployed for close to 2 years..To her credit she just kept trying ..

anyway, best of luck to the people stuck in the grind.

you want to talk about rough times, my girlfriend has to pay $130,000 in taxes. plus another $53,000 in property taxes.


that doesnt even include taxes for the business.


now she wont even take me to vegas for my birthday, only to california this economy really does suck!

reply to post by camaro68ss


What?!!?!?!?
Didn't you hear the WH and the Tyrant 0bama, we are doing just fine.
Guess you didn't get the memo.

Welcome to the new standard of life and economy.

reply to post by camaro68ss


OP, first, to address your owing money to the IRS for the first time. What that means is that either your income went up, or you changed your allowances. The only "tax increase" you've experienced is the end of the social security contribution break. Income tax rates remain at historic lows. Also, if you owe the IRS, you're doing it right. What that means is that they didn't collect the right amount from you throughout the year. They essentially loaned you money at 0% interest. People who get big refunds are the biggest losers in the tax game. They get a refund because they overpaid big brother throughout the year, and now they're getting THEIR money back which they loaned the gov at 0% interest.

Anyhow, you ask how are things on our homefront...I know a LOT of people - i've always been very social, and have a big family, as well as a big circle of friends. They range from lower middle class, to middle, upper-middle, and outright wealthy (millionaires, not billionaires.) I know one guy, my old boss' counterpart, who has been unemployed for awhile now. Good worker, but a bad interviewer, and a guy without much in the way of connections. Other than that, I would say my circle of say 500 closest friends, family, and associates,is fully employed.

Now, I know that is FAR from ordinary, and unemployment is still high, but I don't buy into the gloom and doom. There really is no good reason for it, despite what people who either don't understand how economies work, or are intentionally misleading others would like for you to believe. Some areas are worse off thsn others, and some demographic groups are taking the brunt of the hit (teenagers, for example, are at historic highs for unemployment.)

Our business is desperately seeking employees right now. An automotive repair business, we currently have 2 full-time master techs, 1 junior tech, a porter, and a service writer. We need 2-3 more techs, another junior tech, a second service writer, and 2 more porters. The problem i'm having is that it is extremely difficult to find high-quality employees in this industry. I'm looking for highly-skilled, highly motivated, smart individuals with strong work ethic. We pay significantly better than anyone in the area, as part of our philosophy, and we still can't find enough of what we're looking for.

My take on that is that there's jobs out there - the question is whether the right employees are available to hire. Our techs make $50-85k a year, and I simply haven't been able to find any more worthy of the job. I will not hire a lower quality employee. I won't hire a lesser guy even for half the money, as my business will suffer far more than the savings.

Originally posted by Taissa
reply to post by bjax9er

 

In my area, the highest paying job right now (not doctor, atty, etc) is minimum wage. There are no full times jobs available except for two factories which has a huge waiting list of applications. Stores are shuttering their businesses, we have more empty stores downtown than open ones, and any other store cannot stay open late anymore. The walmart here used to be open 24/7. Then they went from 11 to 11. Now they shut down at 9 pm at night. No one has money to shop. The grocery stores here are starting to close at 9 pm, cutting out jobs and money. Gas is going up and people being forced to commute to low paying jobs.

It's bad out there, ye the tv says everything is recovering.

I haent heard anyone say that "everything" is recovering, but overall, we are, and have been for sometime. If ynemployment is at 8, 10, or even 20%, that means that % of the least employable,(whether because of location, skills, attitude, etc.), are having hard times, while the rest are doing fine.

Just ,ike the global warming thing. People experience colder than normal temperatures and based on their personal experience

Originally posted by Taissa
reply to post by bjax9er

 

In my area, the highest paying job right now (not doctor, atty, etc) is minimum wage. There are no full times jobs available except for two factories which has a huge waiting list of applications. Stores are shuttering their businesses, we have more empty stores downtown than open ones, and any other store cannot stay open late anymore. The walmart here used to be open 24/7. Then they went from 11 to 11. Now they shut down at 9 pm at night. No one has money to shop. The grocery stores here are starting to close at 9 pm, cutting out jobs and money. Gas is going up and people being forced to commute to low paying jobs.

It's bad out there, ye the tv says everything is recovering.

I haent heard anyone say that "everything" is recovering, but overall, we are, and have been for sometime. If ynemployment is at 8, 10, or even 20%, that means that % of the least employable,(whether because of location, skills, attitude, etc.), are having hard times, while the rest are doing fine.

Just ,ike the global warming thing. People experience colder than normal temperatures and based on their personal experience, assuming global warming must not be happening. If you're in an area where nobody can get jobs or good jobs, you need to take the initiative to chsnge your situation. For most of US history, it was not easy to find or ,keep a good job. I think the 1990's spoiled a lot of people who think it should just come easy now.

I see times are getting tougher in my area. I live in a decidedly middle class neighborhood adjacent to an upper middle class neighborhood. Both neighborhood used to be full of immaculate lawns, houses kept up nicely, two kind of strip mall shopping centers flanking both neighborhoods, one with a long history of being rather fancy and the other typical. Nice place to live just a couple years ago. What I see now are homes in varying degrees of needing repainting from slight fading to outright peeling, lawns going downhill with weeds and whatnot because services have been discontinued. I watch "for sale" signs go up on homes only to be taken down and replaced by "for rent" signs. I hear my neighbors fighting just about every night. It's interesting to drive through and see some houses falling apart while others are getting repaired. I'd say that it was just the middle class neighborhood but I see it in the upper one, too. Same story--slight suburban decay.

At the typical strip mall, just about everyone that goes through line is on food stamps now. Didn't used to be that way. I see a whole lot of people walking home with their groceries, too--not that that's necessarily a bad thing. No food stamps at the nicer little mall but I've watched three stores and restaurants that had been open for decades close their doors in just the last year or so. Even it's not doing well as the once formally white paint is now chipped away and showing rust everywhere. I don't need to ask how others are doing in my area. I just have to drive through my neighborhood to see the tale. Some are still doing okay--a whole lot keep tightening those belts. See it the most at those two little malls.

In the downtown where I live, it's really bad. Last time my fiance went down there, he was horrified by the sheer number of homeless everywhere. He doesn't want me going downtown at all anymore. We have a tent city somewhere outside of the area, too. No idea how large that may have grown or if it's gotten better. I'm guessing that, based on what I'm seeing in my neighborhood, it probably hasn't.

Couldn't find out anything current in my area about our tent city but did find these in the process. Like how it's all small, independent type of newspapers running these stories whereas NPR and other local papers affiliated with larger media owners came up with the Carnival cruise as being their news about a "tent city".

Las Cruces, NM: www.lascrucesbulletin.com... plans+approved

Lakewood, NJ: forward.com...

San Jose, CA: www.mercurynews.com...

New Castle, PA: www.mercurynews.com...

Redmond, WA: www.redmond-reporter.com...

Going to chime in here from ND.

The only people not working in ND are the people that do not want to work or do not have transportation. Your not going to see job for less than 12 bucks an hour (most are 18 or more) unless your in a college town on the eastern part of the state.
If you have a marketable skill or if you are not afraid of working hard, there is a job here for you. Anything from fast food to oil field.If you are interested in working, hit up job service of nd, and apply. Get a job lined up. Last week a major hardware chain was moving workers to ND.
If you don't mind driving to work and do not live in an over crowded small town by the oil fields you can make a decent living and afford housing.

I'm one of those in the high cost San Diego zone, but on a low income as a single mom. I have no gun, no man around to protect me, no close connections within a mile, really, so the thought of people gettin' desperate isn't a pretty one. But, I lived like this for so long that when the economy hit bottom, I didn't notice as much as most since I didn't have anything to lose as much as some, especially in southern Cali where you see a lot of the "haves", especially when you have kids who are rubbing shoulders with the kids from those homes who have all the gadgets, toys, and cash to flash. We have no smart phones, laptops, cable channels (other than about 10 basic), stereo systems, texting on our phones, game systems, vacations (not since I was 18 and took my only one - now I'm 45), no amusement parks, no driving anywhere because who can afford it - which really sucks because this area is like an endless wonderland if you can get around, I glue, sew and patch everything we own, all the furniture is falling apart, our desktop computer has been repaired over and over and most of the jacks are stripped on it, the TV's are all old style, as are the phones, I wake up with backaches from my cheap twin bed or dislocated shoulders, my poor car is filthy unless it rains because there is no way to wash it at an apartment and if you try you get in trouble, and if anything comes up, credit is necessary as I am owed $65,000 in back child support which is pretty much uncollectable by any means so far. I could go on and on, but I won't, because none of what I just said, really matters. Why? Because I am SO thankful to have any type of roof over my head, so thankful for all the things I DO have, so grateful to live in a land where things are not as bad as many other places are right now, in spite of things "going downhill", a lot of which is just magnified by the doom loving media, I am here, now alive, while my son's best friend, just a teenager, lies in a morgue, found dead in his bed today from possible pneumonia - never to walk the earth again, I have my sight, still can hear with one of my ears, I can walk, I can think, I can smile, I can hug, I can listen and learn, I can freely worship God, I have a large family and my kids are still alive and well, I can express my opinion, and if I do lose the fortune of a roof over my head, I know I will not be alone in that, too, because I am an American and believe it or not, there are still good people out there, and I also plan on being one of them. So, yes, we are down, but we are not yet out. People need to realize that pulling together instead of the survival of the fittest may end up being a much better choice - no one wants to see riots and people killing for a piece of bread - are we being conditioned for that? Are we trying to counter that?

Oh, and as a side note, I hear keeping a can or two of wasp nest spray by the door is effective if you are worried about intruders with guns, it can at least incapacitate and distract - something to keep in mind for those who cannot or choose not to have guns in their homes. I myself for reasons beyond personal preference would not be able to have guns around, but by no fault of my own, so the wasp spray will have to do. I also have big angels which I believe count for quite a lot right about now.

reply to post by camaro68ss


Relax! Our government was overturned in a coup d'etat when JFK was assassinated in 1963. From then on, we've been ruled by a non-Constitutional "government" controlled by a group of international banking interests, intelligence interests,energy interests, and military-industrial interests, and they have only their own interests(for financial and social power and control) to maintain and protect. The original U.S. Constitution has been systematically neutralized, eliminating almost all original guaranteed freedoms and protections, as this group enslaves us(culturally, technologically and economically) and essentially institutes a "new aristocracy" (illegally) to control us.
Sound paranoid? Yeah, probably. Will arming ourselves to the teeth protect us? No. If you control the armed forces(who are bound to obey any and all orders), you control the population. If you "make a stand" and fight the police/army, you will be killed. Your M-16 won't be enough against "hot" tear gas canisters, tanks crushing your house, and snipers, etc.
So don't waste your energy getting upset and freaked out. Just understand we've been conquered. The option?
Revolution. But how many among us have the heart, dedication, training and WILL to go against those that oppress us? TV's a great drug, drugs, entertainment and alcohol are great for numbing us out. It's an uphill fight.