Are We Screwed and Nobody Will Tell Us We're Screwed??

[DemocracyInaction]

Stock market has been steadily rising. Financial talking heads have been spouting "recovery" since the first of the year..even if it's a slow, plodding recovery.

But locally I've seen more businesses fold up in the last 6 weeks then I ever did during the "bottom" of the so-called "recession". I mean it is breathtaking. I'll bet our downtown has lost one-third of it's businesses in the last 6 weeks! (and this is after we "elected"--only got 38% of the vote--a Tea Party governor who loooooves business!)

Do you think the fat boys at the top (money boys and politicians)are actually thinking that this country will, literally, never recover and are just trying to grab what is left before they head "out of Dodge" and the people go crazy??? It's like being at a family gathering and having that feeling that something is wrong with Susie and John---and then finding out a couple weeks later that they are divorcing. Somethin' ain't right, folks.........

[CrossChris]

1. I think the people at the top are "over" the idea of America

They consider themselves globalists, and are happy to take what they can from America, while helping to speed up the collapse.

[Atman]

2. Money grab, to be sure.

I posted about this many times while W's regime was looting the treasury. The whole point of the massive tax breaks was to 1) starve the beast so the country would go broke and social programs could finally be eliminated, and 2) to make sure they had enough money socked away to wait out a very long downturn -- or a complete societal change. That's why W wouldn't even consider raising taxes even when it was clear to everyone that the tax breaks were hurting the country.

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. Short answer: yes. nt

[CanonRay]

4. I believe we are royally f'd

and it's been in the making for some time. By the time the right wing shitheads wake up and realized they've been had, it'll be far too late.

[Yo_Mama]

5. Yes

That's it.

[OHdem10]

6. For the upper income earners the Recovery is over and they

are moving on. For the Rest of Us, the New Normal
has not been "digested".

No Politician is going to admit this because they
might be compelled to make changes they are not willing
to make at this time. Since Wall Street and Big Business
are really in control and they can crush any individual
politician who disagrees with them, for the time being
there will be no real change. Conservative Economic
Fundamentalism (Free Markets) are so designed that
the Rich get richer and richer, the poor get poorer
and the Middle Class disappears.

[CanonRay]

7. The stock market is only up

because the Fed is throwing in trillions through the big banks...otherwise it would be in the shitter. Home prices are lower than ever, and there are still no jobs. The Baltic Dry index in tanking. This whole recovery thing is a load of crap, IMHO

[DemocracyInaction]

10. CanonRay

I thought it was a little too coincidental that after Wall Street bought the Tea Party seats in Congress that they all started chirping that the recovery is happening and 2011 will be a pretty good year. Of course, before the election they were predicting the end of the world unless we all stampeded to the far right! I think they are trying to "talk" people into opening their pocket books----some might but they are only finding dust mites in there. Maybe the fat cats ought to put jobs out there instead of talk and then people might find a couple pennies in that wallet.

[Poboy]

8. George Carlin tried to tell us

[dkofos]

9. Read Thomm Hartmans "Screwed" He's been telling me for years.

But it just keeps getting worse.

[Ozymanithrax]

11. It is a route to the new normal...

where wages rival those in third world nations, the average annual salary is about what it is in China(3500 a year), and where all vestiges of a safety net have been stripped away.

[kenny blankenship]

12. Pointing out that the roof of the Reagandome is on fire and has collapsed is not optimistic

If some dirty fucking hippy liberal tries to tell you the roof is on fire, just give a little whistle and pay them no mind. If you are struck by flaming debris, whistle harder so others won't notice.

Sunny optimism: it's not just business-friendly, it's the LAW.

[SoCalDem]

13. No one should need to tell us.. It's pretty obvious these days n/t

[grilled onions]

14. In More Ways Then We Can Count

The ones who can help get us out of this mess keep digging us deeper(with a smile on their smug faces and a pitch of "vote for me" convinced their con job is complete.
Every time we demand to keep the jobs here the corporate office rushes even faster overseas.
We got protesters but they are protesting the wrong people about the wrong topics/problems we have. They have not yet figured out the real blood suckers are the ones telling them what to put on stupid signs(which never do have the proper spelling on them).
We don't have protesters of the right kind. We have far too much apathy from the younger generation--the very generation(s) which will get hit down the road longer then us of the "gray haired persuasion--we are getting slammed right now and unfortunately many of us do not have the resources nor the health to do battle alone. Many of us can do little more then be envelope stuffers,emailers, etc. The energy,the new ideas should be coming from the younger citizens, the very ones who will be forced to shuttle from low paying job to low paying job in their lifetime. The very ones who will see their benefits whittled away,security too. They may end up raising families with little chance of proper health coverage,decent public education for their kids and a bleak future as we tap out every natural resource left on the planet.
It is so bad out there on this mountain of doom you don't even know where to start.....yes we are in BIG trouble boys and girls and the Lone Ranger is no where to be seen.

[DemocracyInaction]

17. Amen, Grilled

I'm one of the old timers. We used to riot (and burn cities, etc.) in my era. Now they just endlessly talk to each other about absolutely nothing on their cell phones or Twitter, whatever. If they don't start participating, they will eventually not be able to afford the cell phone or the computer and they will pyschologically freak.........and walk outside and realize their world is GONE!

[WingDinger]

15. There is a great opportunity here, If we use it.

We could half the military budget. Sell off our stuff at foreign bases, and evacuate. Pull back to our new reality. Make all of south, central, north and alaska one continuous trade zone. Use our oil, treat all in south like persons. Raise a middle class to buy our junk.

We are now an island. Shunned by most of the world. We dont make anything. We have scaled back our buying. We had better come up with a better plan, and regional protection, is my idea. Let the EU protect the EU. We certainly will work woth them, but that is their sector.

We could beat our swords into plowshares, and create a more just society. Find all the expansion to keep our capitalism going till we improve it. The only thing that could screw it up, is GCC.

[Mimosa]

16. YES, we are screwed and there is no help for us. Check these stats.

The poor are getting poorer through no fault of their own and the country's wealth has been shifting upwards.


Look at the figures. If you have more accurate figures than the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, please show me. The working class has been on a downward spiral for 30+ years. Don't forget to add in inflation which means the dollars of the working class will not buy as much as they did since the 1960s and 1970s.

There was a time when average working people had wages and some job security commesurate with how hard they worked and their skills. They could afford to put aside a little money for their retirement. They could afford occasional vacations. Such is no longer the case. I know that for a fact.

The proliferation of easy credit in the late 1980s through the 1990s was a ruse to make the working people believe they could still afford the nicer things. Alan Greenspan encouraged people to use the equity of their homes as personal banks. We all have seen how that turned out.


REAL WAGES
1964-2004
Average Weekly Earnings (in 1982 constant dollars)
For all private nonfarm workers

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/peaceandfreedom/the-precarious-genius-of-_b_696988_58605930.html

[polichick]

18. It's a continuation of the money grab that's been going on for some time. nt

[eShirl]

19. the people who have tried to tell us soon find out nobody wants to hear it

[Ryano42]

20. Collapse. I am afraid Michael Ruppert was correct.

It's worldwide and as unstoppable as any force of nature.

It doesn't matter why anymore, it only matters on how you deal with it.

Go local, grow your own food, heat and go back to a simpler time.

Civilization was nice while it lasted...