Financial Shakeup this weekend

[dmano]

Guy's, why is it always us that talks about these things on the forum and no one else? We can't be the only ones that feel this way and think this way.

Lots of looki loos, no chimers but us.

[ccm911]

I think that a lot of folks are really afraid to exercise the hard won freedom of speech that was earned for us by our forefathers.  I mean, we fought World War Two to get rid of tyranny.  And we did it along side our European friends.  But it seems that the Europeans are less hesitant to speak their minds than the Americans.

And maybe the lack of input could be related to the same malaise that has brought us this past eight years of expense and misery? 

A friend of mine is a really big talker.  But he seems afraid to put himself out there on forums such as these.  I think he is afraid to be judged.  It may have something to do with self confidence.  But the only way to build confidence is to get out there and get slapped around a bit.

I guess we all can't be as well adjusted as the folks in this thread are(sarcasm).

[porsh111214]

In Rodney King's words(if I remember it correctly)..why can't we just get along.

[Phokaioglaukos]

Don't hold back so much, guys. Tell us what you really think.

The US economy is 60% consumer spending and the savings rate is a negative number (we're spending our savings--not saving at all!). When The value of most people's principal asset (house) declines for the first time in memory and the cost of borrowing spikes, we're set for a major recession that will readjust the entire economy. It will not be pretty.

How many of you have cut back on non-necessary expenditures? We sure have.

Where is our economy going? You may recall that President Bush got rid of his economic adviser Lawrence B. Lindsey back in 2002 after, among other sins, he claimed that a war in Iraq might cost as much as $200 billion. At the time, White House staffers sneered that Lindsey was being alarmist. Hardly. One commonly cited estimate of Iraq's cost, based on an August 2007 analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, is $1 trillion, and that's probably on the low side.

[ccm911]

Chris is no Dummy.  It is clear that he has done his homework.  From the CNN Site this morning:

In a Washington Post editorial column earlier this month, a pair of leading economists projected that the Iraq war will wind up costing the U.S. government about $3 trillion.

Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and Columbia University professor who chaired President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, and Linda J. Bilmes, a former chief financial officer at the Commerce Department who now teaches at Harvard University, wrote the column.

A White House spokesman said the war had cost the U.S. $406.2 billion through December 2007. The spokesman said the economists "throw everything in the kitchen sink" into the study, including costs like interest on the national debt, and called the projection "exaggerated."

[dmano]

Phokaioglaukos wrote:

Don't hold back so much, guys. Tell us what you really think

THE US GOV SUCKS THEY ALL NEED TO BE FIRED.

THEN OUT-SOURCE ALL THE PROBLEMS TO INDIA.

HERE IS WHERE WE ARE NOW:

1 THE MEXICANS DO THE LAWN WORK

2 THE CHINESE DO THE LAUNDRY AND FINGER NAILS

3 THE ITALIAN'S TAKE CARE OF THE BILL COLLECTING

4 THE MUSLIM'S TAKE CARE OF ALL THE

DEMOLITION/EXCAVATING

5 THE JEWS DO ALL THE BANKING/ACCOUNTING

6 THE INDIAN'S TAKE CARE OF ALL THE CALL CENTERS

7 THE ENGLISH DO ALL THE TALKING

8 THE GERMAN'S RUN THE FACTORIES

9 THE RUSSIAN'S MAKE THE VODKA

10 THE SOUTH AMERICAN'S MAKE THE COFFEE

11 THE IRISH MAKE THE POTATOES

12 THE AMERICAN'S WATCH EVERYONE ELSE MANUFACTURE

AND GO DOWN THE TUBE

[dmano]

I AM GOING TO SELL EVERYTHING,  MOVE TO THE ISLAND'S AND START A DIVE BOAT BUSINESS LIVE ON FISH AND CONSUME BOAT DRINKS TILL I DIE

ANY DIVER'S OUT THERE WANT TO LEAVE THIS MESS AND GO DOWN THE ANCHOR LINE 

[catchacab]

dmano wrote:

Phokaioglaukos wrote:

Don't hold back so much, guys. Tell us what you really think

THE US GOV SUCKS THEY ALL NEED TO BE FIRED.

THEN OUT-SOURCE ALL THE PROBLEMS TO INDIA.

HERE IS WHERE WE ARE NOW:

1 THE MEXICANS DO THE LAWN WORK

2 THE CHINESE DO THE LAUNDRY AND FINGER NAILS

3 THE ITALIAN'S TAKE CARE OF THE BILL COLLECTING

4 THE MUSLIM'S TAKE CARE OF ALL THE

DEMOLITION/EXCAVATING

5 THE JEWS DO ALL THE BANKING/ACCOUNTING

6 THE INDIAN'S TAKE CARE OF ALL THE CALL CENTERS

7 THE ENGLISH DO ALL THE TALKING

8 THE GERMAN'S RUN THE FACTORIES

9 THE RUSSIAN'S MAKE THE VODKA

10 THE SOUTH AMERICAN'S MAKE THE COFFEE

11 THE IRISH MAKE THE POTATOES

12 THE AMERICAN'S WATCH EVERYONE ELSE MANUFACTURE

AND GO DOWN THE TUBE

What do the Poles, Chechs, Swiss, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Filipino, Arab, Persian, South African...etc. do?

[Wally]

catchacab wrote:

What do the Poles, Checks, Swiss, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Filipino, Arab, Persian, South African...etc. do?

This poorly and undereducated Polack picks his nose, scratches his groin, wastes his money buying U.S. made products and finds enjoyment in observing self-righteous elitists strut around like peacocks.
Most of this countrys problems go back to the Johnson administration when well meaning and necessary legislation to make opportunity blind was convoluted to mean lowering the bar to the point that it is now a tripping hazard. Add in the greed and lack of value for what we have, you now have our general problems.
It seems that everyone on this thread agrees on the problems, but how many are willing to take the time to make themselves heard at the local level? Or are we the manifestation of a quote by Voltaire that like the French of his era we complain in the streets during the day and go home with our loaf of bread, bottle of wine and a bit of cheese at night.
Dave that dive boat sounds great, where do you want to settle. Camans, Tahiti or any where its warm, I'm having more trouble getting into my dry suit.

[ccm911]

Well, I guess you just explained why I am so wildly unhappy in Corporate America.  But I have no other choice.  I need to pay my bills.  When the day comes that I can pay my bills doing something I like and ditch this coporate snakepit, I will be out of here faster than a bullet.

This sucks!!!  There has got to be more to life than this.