The largest banking institutions in the United States are going under, and most of the industry has already left here. What remains, like a few raggedy car companies, are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Do you think that life in the United States as we have loved it, will recover and go on like it was 20 years ago? Or even 5 years ago? Do you think we will all still be well off?
Then you're seriously deluded. When this economic crisis is over, the country will be very, very different.
Help me count the ways. Send an email or make a comment.
9 comments:
from Alice:
Well, 1st the neo-cons invaded a foreign country so that their friends like Haliburton(Cheney), Blackwater(Eric Prince) and various other could raid our treasury for their own agridizement. and becoming billionaires. In the processs cutting our population by way over 4,000 and losing how many billion dollars which have never been accounted for in Iraq. Now "they" are in the process of sending the deficit so-o-o high by stealing the rest of the money that's not even there in the treasury. Therefore we probably won't be able to help the middle class that they don't give a damn about anyway. They have stolen our money with lies, mismanagement(on purpose). If I stole 50.00 I'd do time, but these "head honcho republicans" can steal trillions of our tax dollars with no consequences. All I need is $75,000 and I can live very nicely for the rest of my life. That is if they don't privatize social security. But I do have a tent and a little cook stove and a solar blanket. And I know how to dumpster-dive. Might be fun, huh?
from Alice: I think conditions weren't put on the banks because Paulson had promises to keep and dollars to give before he quits. He's the ex-head of Goldman-Sachs with a $63,000,000 umbrella package from them. Instead of the banks being robbed, the bank heads robbed us big time!!!!!!!
from Alice: The talk today is about "millionaire farmers" getting subsidies, like this is a new revelation! First, the millionaires are Hewlett-Packard company and another computer company which went into several western states, bought up land, driving out the ordinary farmers and then collecting huge federal subsidies for not planting and then putting cattle on it. It was a huge source of ire through out the west when I moved out there in 1989 and continued through the present. Robbed again!!!
Why can't I get rid of the nagging thought that the US economy can't completely recover until our $15 per hour manufacturing wages and the Mexican $3.50 per hour wages even out somehow ???
This isn't even considering what the Asian wages are or may be in the future.
If so, that may be quite a ways off yet in this new WORLD ECONOMY which is here to stay.
Scary, eh ??
You are right Dashmann - there is an overabundance of labour in the world, which is going to keep driving wages down in the US until all the big developing economies in Asia catch up. Eventually their domestic demand will catch up to their supply of goods, then where will all the western countries get their consumer goods? They won't be cheap anymore.
It seems to me that a common thread among those who have commented so far is this: The wealth of the world is flowing to a very few hands, and this will cause a lower and lower quality of life for most Americans.
Do you think in the new America that's coming, we're looking at less work, less prosperity, less democracy?
What else?
I think in a few years people will; not be traveling so much. Vacations will be close to home, if any. Transportation is going to be too expensive and this bothers me because I love traveling so much.
from Alice:
I have alot of faith in the American people; and if or when we put the robber barons in their places, this will be a greater country than ever!
We've done it several times before.
Here are some of my predictions, for what they're worth.
1. In ten years, common, non-rich people will not drive cars, at least not very often.
2. In ten years, more of us will be growing more of our own food. This will be a necessity, not a hobby.
3. In ten years, air-travel will be, for most of us, a thing of the past. When we take long trips, which will be rare, it will be on a train or a boat.
4. In ten years, if not sooner, the idea of the stock market as a reliable source of wealth will be thoroughly debunked. The 25 years of hyper-growth we've recently witnessed will come to be seen as an anomaly rather than business-as-usual.
5. In ten years, barter will be a popular way to transact business. Cash, checks, and credit cards will not be as universally honored as they are now.
6. In ten years, with our manufacturing base all but dead and our ability to import hampered, we will enjoy a reuse/repair/recycle economy rather than a consumer economy.
7. In ten years, we will have to come to terms with mortality in the medical system. We won't be able to allocate limited resources to the prolonging of the lives of really sick people.
8. In ten years, the world will be a smaller place, and many of us will come to identify ourselves with our family, local community, or city more than we identify with a broader region or nationality. Sort of a post-modern tribalism.
9. In ten years, small, rural towns located along railroads or rivers will be re-populated. The family farm will experience a rebirth.
10. In ten years, the federal government will have lost control over parts of the country. State governments will be much smaller than they are now. Local governance will become the way we keep order and provide basic services.
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