America now officially in recession, how will you change?

[Joe The Homophobe]

stop the talk, it is a done deal

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0731799020080307?sp=true

Will this change your habits in any way? for me it will. I think we should all calculate what we can do to save money for example.

1. I will be making my own lunch to take to work so that will save me around $30+ a week that won't be going towards fast food
2. I will take the bus to and from school when the semester starts as much as I hate public transportation. Should save me around $40+ a week on gas. Will only use the car for work and going out.

just the above combined are a savings of $280 a month

other simple things i've done: decided to opt for a perfect pushup rather than a ymca membership. Should save me like $80 a month
bought almostgolf balls: should save me lots of money that I used to spend at the driving rage. No more $9 for a bucket of balls which is a robber in itself.

Some might say that I should have started fiding ways to save before rather than now, but I admit im in the majority that didn't take action till all this recession talk started. The gas prices and food prices are kicking our butt and I think the only positive thing it might do for us is teach us to be a little more humble and responsible with our money.

 

[BMX]

I've always been more of a saver then a spender. As of lately I've been spending, because I've started cooking. I will definitely stay in school w/this recession and keep on saving. I hear ya on the driving range costs, when I did play I would swing the clubs in my backyard and practice putting indoors.

 

[Nighthawk]

stop the talk, it is a done deal

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0731799020080307?sp=true

Will this change your habits in any way? for me it will. I think we should all calculate what we can do to save money for example.

1. I will be making my own lunch to take to work so that will save me around $30+ a week that won't be going towards fast food
2. I will take the bus to and from school when the semester starts as much as I hate public transportation. Should save me around $40+ a week on gas. Will only use the car for work and going out.

just the above combined are a savings of $280 a month

other simple things i've done: decided to opt for a perfect pushup rather than a ymca membership. Should save me like $80 a month
bought almostgolf balls: should save me lots of money that I used to spend at the driving rage. No more $9 for a bucket of balls which is a robber in itself.

Some might say that I should have started fiding ways to save before rather than now, but I admit im in the majority that didn't take action till all this recession talk started. The gas prices and food prices are kicking our butt and I think the only positive thing it might do for us is teach us to be a little more humble and responsible with our money.

What you are planning (cutting spending) will make the recession worse.

 

[Falcon]

I've been following the Ron Paul campaign, and he's been talking about recession 7 months ago, way before the media started, or any other candidate for the matter. It's kinda ironic, because he was probably being laughed at back then, but now he should have an "I told ya so" press release just for kicks.

I got into gold when it was under 900, but other than that, I haven't changed much.

 

[joekerr31]

i dont think the us economy is in a recession in the conventional sense. its actually been ROBBED and now is suffering as a result.

the US nose dived 12 months ago. the dollar lost 30% of its value. THAT was the disaster. whats happening now is just the aftermath of that.

the falling dollar masks whats really going on. people had a 100k in their bank last year, they still have that 100k - what they don't see though is that the 100 only buys them 70k worth of stuff now. or put differently, your salary stays the same while the cost of living goes up.

the US government is ROYALLY f*cking the american public over so bad its crazy.

if the stock market were to drop 30% people would be rioting in the streets. but devalue the dollar by 30% and people don't even notice.

ITS INSANITY!

on a positive note though, i think the devaluation of the dollar has hit bottom. but americans need to understand what has happened. you are now 15% poorer than you were a year ago and that wealth is NEVER coming back.

your standard of living is now 15% less than it was a year ago (although it will take some time for people to start feeling it), and even when the markets rise again (which they will), your standard of living won't. becuase the dollar won't regain its original value.

in essence, its like the bank came in the night and repossessed your car, but you won't realize it until you wake up in the morning.

its literally a crime what has happened in the US. the government printed money out of thin air, which then made all the other dollars (ie. the ones in your pocket) worth less. they literally STOLE 30% of your money right out from under your nose, but because your bank account still says what it said yesturday you never noticed. becuase instead of stealing your dollars, they are going to make you spend more of them for the same stuff, thats how they steal your wealth and you don't even realize it. and its NOT that things are more expensive (things are CHEAPER), but you are paying more!

the US government ROBBED an entire nation of its wealth. literally stole 30% of your wealth over the past 10+ years, then all in one swoop stuck you with the bill in the form of inflation.

Greenspan pulled off the greatest robbery of all time. he makes jesse james look like a saint.

its absolute insanity and the only one who even talked about it publicly was Ron Paul.

 

[lordson]

i understand inflation, but why do governments do it if its going to stuff the coutnry

whats the benefit for the governement?

you can't solve debt problems by printing more money, your wealth and value will stay the same no matter how much money you're printing

sucks that you guys are in recession

Australia is in a massive economic boom and our interests rates are sky high 8% soon. Nobody can afford a house anymore, but out standard of living is quite good

 

[Aboleo]

It can collapse for all I care. I'm getting tired of all the corporate slavery and the fascist movements taking place within our own government.

Let civil uprise begin!:rockon:

 

[Maxtro]

If our "standard of living is now 15% less than it was a year ago" what does that really mean? The only thing that I am aware of is that gas has shot up. Granted I don't live on my own, so there is a lot I am not noticing.

 

[joekerr31]

i understand inflation, but why do governments do it if its going to stuff the coutnry

whats the benefit for the governement?

the benefit is artificial growth. artificially low interest rates that let americans live it high on the hog. military spending that the country can't afford. lobster dinners for politicians. etc. basically all around GLUTTONY.

now, you might say, 'but why do this if you have to pay for it later?"

the answer is unbelievably simple. the people spending all the money aren't the ones who will have to pay it back - its their KIDS who will have to pay it back (either through more taxes, increased cost of living, stock markets losing their value, lower paying salaries, less health care services, etc. - in essence a dramatically lower standard of living).

the baby boomers basically robbed the country blind with their irresponsible spending and now they are leaving it for their kids to pay off.

now, this all happened sooner than they though, so they are caught in the storm also, but they had 20 years of living it up. whereas their kids will never get to live it up - in fact they will be living it down because of the insane spending of the baby boomer generation.

im telling ya, if people truly understood what has happened over the past 30 years, i sh*t you not, people would literally be getting hung in the streets.

 

[joekerr31]

If our "standard of living is now 15% less than it was a year ago" what does that really mean? The only thing that I am aware of is that gas has shot up. Granted I don't live on my own, so there is a lot I am not noticing.

well really the dollar losing 15% of its value means that when america buys goods from the rest of the world it pays 15% more for them, and when it sells goods to the rest of hte world, it sells them for 15% less.

this in turn causes everything in america to cost more.

inflation doesn't hit all at once. prices on everything start to creep up slowly. so bread cost you 1.50 last year, now its a 1.60. university cost 10k, now it costs 12k.

and while all of these prices are going UP, jobs are still paying the same amount. so your 50k salary doesn't buy you as much as it use to.

its going to take a few years for the inflation to permeate all areas of the US market. but make no mistake about it, your standard of living (ie. how well the average person can live off an average salary) is going to drop (and is dropping).

what the US government has done to its people is bested in its criminality only by teh likes of stalin and hitler. while the later killed people, the US government literally STOLE your money (not by physically taking it, but by printing more of it, which then made your money worth less).

i tell ya, in a 100 years from now people will look back on this period in history and won't see it as an era of evolution, but rather an era of gluttony and of one generation (the baby boomers) STEALING the future wealth of their children.

that is exactly what has happened - the baby boomer generation has run up an absurd debt and when they retire / die, they will simply hand it over to their kids - and the processes has already started (this is what's really going, america now has to pay for its years of reckless spending and debt)

if peopel really understood how they were being f*cked over and robbed, they would be burning down the white house.

 

[Maxtro]

Ok, it makes sense that certain imported goods will cost more. But will prices shoot up or will they continue to rise as they always have?

One thing that I have noticed is that it does mean it's harder to find work. I'm currently "unskilled labor" and looking for retail jobs as I go to school. Less people out there buying less stuff, means less people need to sell the stuff and run the registers.

 

[Poonani Maker]

I have a good job, but live in a ramshackled place - the Hood. I fix my own dinner, and drive a beat-down-paid-off truck. I also do all my grocery shopping on bicycle. This was Before the recession, so. I've been living like a pauper by American standards for some time now. Like a king by the world's standards. It's harder to get pu5sy this way (in America) though, unless she's liquored up. I've also been studying Russian, German, French, Spanish, Mandarin, Polish, Arabic, Dutch, Korean, Hindi, Turkish, Italian, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Latin and Welsh, in the event of a nuclear holocaust.

 

[joekerr31]

Ok, it makes sense that certain imported goods will cost more. But will prices shoot up or will they continue to rise as they always have?

One thing that I have noticed is that it does mean it's harder to find work. I'm currently "unskilled labor" and looking for retail jobs as I go to school. Less people out there buying less stuff, means less people need to sell the stuff and run the registers.

yes, prices will continue to rise, but your salary won't. so you'll have a lower standard of living because you won't be able to buy as much.

let me give you another way of looking at this. im canadian. a year ago, if i wanted to buy a house in the US that cost 100k, i'd have to use 115k of my Canadian dollars to do so. now though, i'd only have to use 100k of my canadian dollars to buy the same house. why? because the US dollar and hte Canadian dollar are now worth the same.

americans dont even realize it, but foreign investors are buying up american property and business right out from under them. basically in america right now its a fire sale, and foreign investors (like hte saudi's) are buying things up at a 15% discount.

this is why i say the US isn't really in a recession. a recession to me is more about a decline in production and jobs. thats not the primary thing going on here. whats going on is that the USA is broke and in debt up to its ears, and it can't print any more money out of thin air to pay off its debt.

think of the hollywood movie star who buys a mansion he can't afford. but he can make the mortagage payments as long as he keeps having hit movies. then suddenly he's no longer popular, his income dries up, and he can't pay the mortage. he has to sell the house for less than its worth, he has to scale down his standard of living, etc.

that is exactly what the USA is going through. except the USA can't sell the house to itself, so it has to sell it to foreigners AND lower its standard of living.

this is not a recession, this is a total disaster. the wealth of the country has been robbed by previous generations debt and printing money out of thin air. and now they are going to hand off a poorer nation to their children.

trust me, the baby boomer generation is going to go down as the biggest group of selfish f*cks to ever walk the face of this planet.

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

The dollar dropped 72 points against the Euro in the last 7 years - the Euro started at 82 cents to the dollar when introduced 7 years ago and it is now !.54 to the dollar. It is dead in the water as planned. Greenspan told the leaders of the world to sell and get rid of their dollars if they are to stave off inflation in their country.

The American real income has dropped 27 percent since the 1970's!! America has been in a recession for many years -- a military / retail economy - the retail business will die soon and so will America.

This is a designed collapse of the dollar to bring in the new currency and the new North American Union - wiith canada and mexico. The world is heading for a depression - stagflation - where people lose their jobs and prices still rise....already discussed at length in this thread.. "The inevitable economic collapse"..

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=123768&page=10&highlight=economic

 

[SmoothTalker]

Joeker, chill out a bit man. First of all, while a drop in the value of the dollar makes imports more expensive, it actually makes your exports that much cheaper to other countries. Isn't that what America needs, more people buying your exports to boost industry and reduce the trade deficit? Low currency isn't always a good thing, many countries intentionally keep theirs low to stimulate exports.

And you're making it sound like no other government has ever done this. ALL governments do this. If you want to talk about Hitler, look up the inflation rates in Germany between WW1 and WW2. People would burn carts of money because that burnes longer than the wood it would buy, and paid for meals at restaurants before eating since the meal woud cost more by the end. 15% drop is nothing, countries have experienced, (and survived) 4000% a month or more inflation. Comparatively the Canadian dollar has almost doubled in the last 2 years - our standard of living sure as hell hasn't come close to doubling, in fact it's barely changed at all. There's a lot more to the economy, standard of living, and quality of life than a strong dollar.

Relax, the sky isn't falling. Yes the economy's hit a few bursting bubbles and debt is a problem, but economies have been in MUCH MUCH worse shape before and recovered just fine. Hell, if it comes down to it, America can default on it's debt.

Finally, what makes you so sure wages won't change at all? Any economy I can think of adjusts to inflation. British pounds are worth roughly twice as much, does that mean Britons are twice as rich? Nope, they just get paid half as many pounds. In Russia rubles are fairly low valued, but people make up for it by making thousands of rubles a week. In the 90's, many Russians had incomes in the millions, because of inflation.

You better believe if there's 100 percent inflation next year, incomes in terms of dollars will double, or close to it.

 

[SmoothTalker]

All you people that constantly bring up the planned demise of the dollar to replace it with a regional currency conspiracy theory.

I don't think that's what's happening at all, but if it is, why the hell are you all so scared of it? The Euro's worked out quite well for Europe. The Canadian dollar is worth pretty much exactly the same anyway. What would be so heaven forbid terrible about it?

 

[Aboleo]

I don't think that's what's happening at all, but if it is, why the hell are you all so scared of it? The Euro's worked out quite well for Europe. The Canadian dollar is worth pretty much exactly the same anyway. What would be so heaven forbid terrible about it?

Sure, maybe we could just take down our flagg and start flying yours instead while we're at it, too!

 

[SmoothTalker]

Lol what the hell does the currency have to do with flying someone elses flag? Even if we switched to a combined currency, you can bet you would still DOMINATE it. It'd be the American (and other's) dollar. Half the world uses American money anyway, and yet shockingly they're somehow their own nations.

You guys are so insanely paranoid it's mindboggling.

 

[Joe The Homophobe]

this is not a recession, this is a total disaster. the wealth of the country has been robbed by previous generations debt and printing money out of thin air. and now they are going to hand off a poorer nation to their children.

I thought it was robbed by the iraq war??

 

[Maxtro]

All you people that constantly bring up the planned demise of the dollar to replace it with a regional currency conspiracy theory.

I don't think that's what's happening at all, but if it is, why the hell are you all so scared of it? The Euro's worked out quite well for Europe. The Canadian dollar is worth pretty much exactly the same anyway. What would be so heaven forbid terrible about it?

I don't like the idea of a North American currency. Maybe just USA and Canada. I don't think it would be a good idea to link our currency to Mexico's. According to Google, One U.S. dollar = 10.8358798 Mexican pesos.