Economy - Recession or Depression? It's 1975 Again.

I've been thinking about the economy lately.

There are few jobs out there, and what there are, pay a lot less than what we used to make. However, prices aren't falling. We still have expensive gas, food and utilities. Housing costs may go down a little bit - but do you really think landlords will lower the rent? Not unless you move to a cheaper, smaller, less desirable place to live, anyway!

So, this is beginning to sound a lot more like a depression than a recession. A recession is when the economy is contracting. Our economy is beyond that. It's trying to rebound, but there are too many downward forces, and that defines a depression. That and high unemployment.

The figures you hear about are skewed - too many folks are out of the job market - no jobs, no benefits, no tracking....

People in the generations after me are likely not prepared for this. Even folks in my generation (boomers) aren't really ready for it! Our parents are children of the Great Depression, so they know how to do things, cut corners, and make a little stretch a ways...

Folks in my kid's generation and younger (just now welcoming twenty-somethings or grandkids), are not prepared for this. Some of them even had everything handed to them, in compensation for what we didn't have as kids....

Let's face it, we do that - we want our kids to never know the privations we endured - whatever they may be. There are generations that were never allowed to fail - all kids had to succeed - even if all they did was show up! Those folks don't know how to handle disappointment, failure, or privations. Those folks are the least capable of surviving what's still to come.

We are all told to prepare for retirement, because government spending is so out of control that social security (which we've paid into our whole lives) is not going to be there for us. Well, I'd like my money back, please.... I never said you could use those earmarked funds for something else, did I?

It's a mess, that's for sure. We will be living with the grand ideas of the 80's, 90's and 00's for a long time. I truly believe we will be going back to the days of the oil embargo - at least financially. I remember that, and the recession that followed it. I was just out of college and couldn't find a job. There weren't any. And that's happening again! So, yeah - it's 1975 again.

You GOT to be kidding!

Come on, stop fighting! Let the Prez do what he needs to do to get this country moving again. AIG is a bunch of losers anyway. The insurance industry is falling apart, has been since Katrina. Out of the multi-billions of dollars they received, that piddly little 165 million is nothing. I'm not happy, either, but it doesn't help to pick on a guy who didn't even know this little juggernaut was out there...

It's like an iceburg and the Titanic. Don't sink the Prez over this!

I'd like to know why they figure some company is "Too Big" to fail, when I'm "Too Little" to fail. If I fail, as the little guy out here under-pinning this entire economy, going about my little life, buying gasoline for the car, groceries and paying rent... If I go under, and a lot of folks like me go under, this entire world will go under. There are just more of us. Sheer numbers and all that...

So, what are you (government) or you (individual) going to do about it?

A Broken Economy or Corporate Greed?

I've been listening to the reports - that this or that industry is "too big" to fail. Well, I think that if 3 companies are the only players in that industry, then there is a wonderful opportunity to tear it apart.

We have "anti-trust" laws in this country. If something is too big to fail, then it needs to be broken down to smaller bits - so that if one part fails it doesn't take the entire industry with it. This means that the auto industries need to be broken down to smaller bits.

Parts, that can be used for autos, planes, trains, and your lawnmower, should all be made by the same companies - maybe 5 or 6 companies. These parts houses will NOT make body parts, design cars or engines or what not.

Body design and styling can be done by a fashion house. The same folks who design our clothing. The colors can be made by the same folks that make our housepaint instead of some specialized company division at the big-three.

Now, the design work. That can be farmed out to the same folks who mess with your e-mail skin. Those over-paid, under-worked programmers that are hired at Microsoft. They have nothing better to do than mess with the e-mail program, so give them a real job in an entirely new industry! I bet those propeller-heads can come up with some really green car engines, that spit out water or oxygen as a by-product instead of CO2.

How's that for a jobs project? Put folks to work in industries that are home-grown. NO export of jobs allowed. If a company employs the bulk of it's people outside the USA, it can't take advantage of our tax breaks, banking laws or own property.

Corporations are much too big in this country. The laws that were designed to protect people are instead protecting the corporation against the people. When corporations were given "individual" status, it broke our country.

Now as for Corporate Greed -
Corporations are constantly trying to get laws passed that favor their industry - whether it is for tax breaks, environmental issues, or protecting it's profits and patents. I have no problem with protecting patents - but unless a "corporation" developed it, the patent belongs to the human being who had the AHA moment. Not a business.

Intellectual property is all well and good, but people are what makes this country, not companies. If there were not people working at those companies, there would be NO companies.

CEOs and other officers should be paid commensurate with their experience and expertise. If the guy can't route the mail in the building, he shouldn't be paid more than the mailroom clerk until he can. Bonuses and stock options?? PuhLeez! NO and NO! A Christmas bonus if there is a profit, and if the profit is 20%, then only 20% of the guy's monthly salary. Hey - that's all they give us, so that's all they get!

This is not tearing down the good guys. This is not re-distributing the wealth from rich to poor. It's making the rich guy carry his weight, not just the checkbook.

World Oil

If anyone wanted to know what would happen when oil got too expensive - take a look at the last few months. The US economy had a meltdown! It couldn't have been better orchestrated on purpose.

Yeah, I know, the housing market is a major component of all this crap - I'm not discounting it in any way, but if oil hadn't got so expensive (Thanks, Mr. Bush!) then the housing market might have been able to correct without pulling everything else with it.

Just my 2¢.

McCain on the Economy

I heard John McCain's plan to get the economy moving again - including job training --

YooHoo! Anybody home???

You need to have an industry to train people INTO - what are we training them for - to muck out the stables????

Why not stimulate entrepreneur activity and reward those who provide jobs, instead?

Investigating Baseball??

Puh-Leaze!!

We have an election, an unpopular war going on, housing and the economy are in shambles, there is no health insurance for millions of people; and congress wants to investigate Clemmons' comments to congress????

Waxman is not the guy I remember from 20 yrs ago, that's for sure!