The Economy Part III

[der affe]

Incentives to big business to keep good paying jobs here or bring them back to our country, namely manufacturing

we do need to bring back more "middle class" jobs to america. everything is going to get worse, many who are well educated may no longer have jobs in their fields of education. it would be a start, not the solution. we have whored out our country and are now paying for it and will be for a while.

lower coperate taxes would be a start, but with some heavy strings attached to the ability to have the tax breaks.

[mrsleeve]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^6

Yeah I know pipe dream, but thats really what needs to happen here

we used to be a manufacturing economy but we sold that

then we told our selves we were a service economy, but decide it was better to give that away too

So that left us as the money manipulators and bankers , but we blew that right out of the fucking sky

so now we are fucked and have nothing to recover with unless something changes, and printing more money is not the something !!!!!!!!!!

We need good jobs here plain and simple and a much more watchfull eye on the money manipulators. I know the sub prime thing was clinton as was NAFTA both of which really sold us down the river and the giant flushing sound was jobs an money leaving this country. But the wallstreet bunch really got too gready selling the mortgage securities and thats taking the whole world under


alfe what is a middle class job now????? Was not too long ago 30k got you a decent home, a decent ride, food on the table, clothing on ur back and some decent savings in the bank for a family of 4 with 1 one working. Whats it take now????? 50k 60k I know I make 50 55k a year (this year will be closer to 75-80) and I just feed me an the GF and a couple of pets and we are barley keeping above water and my parents made it on 30-38k and feed an clothed me and my brother we had decent cars, a nice place to live a dog. The cost of living has gone up so much so fast whats a middle c;ass job ????????

[speedhop]

what, like lower corporate taxes?

if wishes were horses...

...beggars would all fly on unicorns.


With our current administration the economy isn't going to go anywhere but down. It's like a leper giving a facial...it doesn't really work.

Between economic advisers who can't do their own taxes and ridiculous stimulus plans that won't go into affect until the end of 2010 (not to mention the hilarity of pulling $850 billion out of whomevers ass), I think you can all grasp that we are in trouble.

Story time...my gf father was the vice-pres of marketing for Hewlett-Packard (some of you may have heard of them). He lost his job when HP restructured under the reign of Carly Fiorina; well in actuality he was given a choice and took the severance package instead of working under the crazy bitch, thinking that it would be easy to find work. Well here we are 6 months later and the man who has over 30 years experience running Hp's sales and marketting is still looking for work. I'd say it's reached bad and is moving toward "fuck me".

[nando]

oh gawd, Fiorina.. she almost destroyed that company. my ex GF's dad worked there during that change over, what a mess.

[mrsleeve]

Speed I completely agree



related story time
the father in law has run fixed ops for dealerships for 32 years hes working but for less than a 1/3 of what he was paid last year which was about 20% low but it was work. He cant get a job to save his life and has some of the best numbers in NW for profit CSI everything always has. Hes over qualified even in the best of times to get a job let alone now.

[VacMan]

Normally I don't participate in these types of threads, especially on R3V where the average age is 18 (mentally or literally.) However, the doom and gloom got my attention.

I just got a new job making 80k as a base with a $400 car allowance, 3 weeks of vacation, an expense account 401k with matching up to 15% annually and full health insurance for my family of 3, soon to be 4. Right now the smart, healthy companies are snatching up the competition's top people with lucrative signing bonuses and attractive family friendly pay plans and work schedules.

I am closing on a new house next Friday and getting the loan through Countrywide was painless and went extremely smoothly. The sales manager there told me right now they are averaging $5b in refis a week at Countrywide alone! My wife's family is in the process of buying their first house ever. One of my employees (at my current job) just qualified for his first house and he's over the moon about the prospect of owning his first home at 25. His payment is going to be less than $200 than he pays now in rent. He works hard and deserves it.

I think the opportunities in these times are what you make for yourself. I live in the Inland Empire, where unemployment, foreclosures and welfare are at an all time high, probably 1.5x what they are in OC/LA/SD counties. I see people all around complaining about how it is, but I see nearly as many people doing something about it. I work with small business owners and many of them have changed how they do business. They may not have the revenues they had before, but in some cases they're actually making more profit now. All because instead of letting the circumstances change them, they're changing for the circumstances.

It's pretty amazing what a resourceful person can do if they stop bitching about things and actually get out and start doing something about it instead of sitting in front of a computer all day long.

Tim

[speedhop]

Normally I don't participate in these types of threads, especially on R3V where the average age is 18 (mentally or literally.) However, the doom and gloom got my attention.

I just got a new job making 80k as a base with a $400 car allowance, 3 weeks of vacation, an expense account 401k with matching up to 15% annually and full health insurance for my family of 3, soon to be 4. Right now the smart, healthy companies are snatching up the competition's top people with lucrative signing bonuses and attractive family friendly pay plans and work schedules.

I am closing on a new house next Friday and getting the loan through Countrywide was painless and went extremely smoothly. The sales manager there told me right now they are averaging $5b in refis a week at Countrywide alone! My wife's family is in the process of buying their first house ever. One of my employees (at my current job) just qualified for his first house and he's over the moon about the prospect of owning his first home at 25. His payment is going to be less than $200 than he pays now in rent. He works hard and deserves it.

I think the opportunities in these times are what you make for yourself. I live in the Inland Empire, where unemployment, foreclosures and welfare are at an all time high, probably 1.5x what they are in OC/LA/SD counties. I see people all around complaining about how it is, but I see nearly as many people doing something about it. I work with small business owners and many of them have changed how they do business. They may not have the revenues they had before, but in some cases they're actually making more profit now. All because instead of letting the circumstances change them, they're changing for the circumstances.

It's pretty amazing what a resourceful person can do if they stop bitching about things and actually get out and start doing something about it instead of sitting in front of a computer all day long.

Tim

Absolute best post in our current year.

We can sit here all day and moan about our situation or we can become something more. This is the time of opportunity; those who want to succeed will. Time to stop the blaming and finger pointing.

[joshh]

Sorry to hear about your freinds situation.


"Do something about it" ......
That's easy for some to say than others.
While many markets are doing very well others are doing poorly. "Do something about it" doesn't give a guy that has a business in the failing side of the market any hope. His market dropped right out from under him.
The banks are a huge problem here. They were loaning money they didn't even have and people were taking loans they couldn't pay for. Both creating huge problems for the rest of us. It was a false market.
IMO the real state market is about greed. The banks run off of greed. House prices were inflated artificially. And the banks were the biggest contributor to this. Now it's biting them in the ass. I say fuck em. Let the ones that can't make it go out of business.
Personally, I'd like to see more Americans take the power away from the banks by using the money they have and rarely taking out loans. It would help stabilize our economy.

What to do to fix it...
First, get rid of the Union. The union is the biggest reason US auto makers are failing...well a very big part of it. Quality has gone up in American cars. Although they still arn't making cars we really want. Which is the other part of the problem.
The Union is a parasite. It doesn't mean we lose all those jobs. Their just filled by people willing to work for a good wage...unlike the Union workers who are over paid. The UAW...what a fucking joke.

Our Government needs to be checked on what they spend our money on. I mean everywhere. No more vacations on us, no more huge parties on us, no more personal buying on us. Government employees want their family to go with them on a work assignment...great YOU pay for the tickets.
No more Lobbyists. It's straight out corruption. It's bribery. This would include not allowing any candidates to use private money for their campaigns. This is a bit off track.

Corporations that bring jobs into America get huge tax breaks.
If you buy an American car you get a tax break. Or a kicker. Or even the Government pays for half the car. We just gave them 11 billion dollars.
There are many ways to fix the economy but because the very people that can make these changes are the same people that would have to cut back their spending and actually do something about it, they wont. We've now set this country up for a loss.
It's not about the people anymore.

Flame on!

[nando]

I somewhat agree with your ideas, but credit isn't neccesarily a bad thing - as long as the loans are solid and there's something to back them up, they contribute to a whole lot of growth. Which is probably why the economy was so on fire for the last few years, we had the "real" growth and then we had all the greedy BS piled on top of it. But without (good) credit our economy would be much, much smaller.

And if you want to point to the banks and say they were greedy for handing out loans like candy, at least realize the goverment encouraged them to. You could pretty much get a loan if you had a last name and a pulse, and it was all backed by uncle sam (freddy mac/fannie mae).

[Need4Speed]

I'm doing "fair" under the economic circumstances because I have always "traveled light" and have no debt and to be honest, nothing to loose. I feel for the "working class" people who have families to provide for, they are the ones getting raped by what has been happening and will continue to get slammed by our new administration.

What has happened is that all the hard currency has moved up, that is to say the filthy rich have become filthier and richer. I am not liberal by any means but the solution is to place some restrictions on the giant multi-national conglomerates.

BUY USA MADE PRODUCTS FROM USA BASED COMPANIES

[DCColegrove]

So it seems most of us are thinking tough times are still to come... However, we'll pull out of it.

Me... I don't know... Something strikes me as a bit more sinister about it all...

But then... I'm a certified paranoid.

[decay]

well, i'm getting paid decently and am in very little danger of getting downsized. the whole other-side-of-the-planet thing sucks, but i'd rather be doing this than job-hunting after a layoff right now.

after i'm done here, i have a 2-year-long school for a new MOS lined up. hopefully by the time that's over, we'll have all this behind us.

i don't know what it takes to fix this, i just know how i'm gonna ride it out.

[nando]

that's just it, there is no "fix" other than wait it out. And of course reform of laws that got us into this mess.

[joshh]

I somewhat agree with your ideas, but credit isn't neccesarily a bad thing - as long as the loans are solid and there's something to back them up, they contribute to a whole lot of growth. Which is probably why the economy was so on fire for the last few years, we had the "real" growth and then we had all the greedy BS piled on top of it. But without (good) credit our economy would be much, much smaller.

And if you want to point to the banks and say they were greedy for handing out loans like candy, at least realize the goverment encouraged them to. You could pretty much get a loan if you had a last name and a pulse, and it was all backed by uncle sam (freddy mac/fannie mae).

Agreed. I was just throwing out what first came to my mind. The problems are far deeper than what I said and I feel they are mostly unrepairable with the criminals we have in Governemnet.

[mrsleeve]

Well I think in couple of weeks I am going to buy 10-12 1 kilo bars of silver and some smaller 10oz ingots just in case ever thing goes to shit and the Dollar goes insolvent or we hit a state of hyper inflation.