WTF is wrong the US

[SouthPlatteDemon]

The exchange rates matter, but only in terms of the extra interest charged, which pails in comparison to the actual rise of oil. So you pay extra in terms of conversion, but then look at the price of oil. It's rise far exceeds any extra you're paying in currency exchange. That rise in oil has people scurrying to control the very last drop.

I'll admit total ignorance to how all this works. How can we be trillions of dollars in debt but still pay bills?

Anways, I think horns is right. It really comes down to pussy. We really only need to worry about Sweden then cuz they are the only real contenders for our Southern California babes. LOL

[danastas]

I'll admit total ignorance to how all this works. How can we be trillions of dollars in debt but still pay bills?

Anways, I think horns is right. It really comes down to pussy. We really only need to worry about Sweden then cuz they are the only real contenders for our Southern California babes. LOL

By going into more debt.

This is how it works: I give you money from the bank, I get a commission for giving you money. That gives me the financial incentive to give you money, because I make more money when I give you money. So then you tell me you can't pay me. All your friends that I lent money to tell me that they can't pay me. Does that mean I give my commission back? Heck no. That money is mine. So who loses? Well, initially the bank loses, but when banks and mortgage holders have dug a hole so deep that it threatens the national economy, the gov't has to come to the rescue. Unfortunately, our gov't is already at its debt ceiling. It can't funnel cash to the banks. So foreigners (who already own our debt) swoop in and give the banks the money they need to stay afloat. They aren't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They are cutting sweetheart deals with these banks, buying paper at a very low rate. That $500,000 home and the mortgage default means the bank is holding property that it can't afford, and soon ownership is bought by foreigners for pennies on the dollar.

Just last week, the Fed asked congress to raise the debt ceiling because we can't pay our bills, and we need more debt to pay off the debt. Think of it as a credit card. You go to the max on one card. Then you get another card to pay off the first card. Then you get another card to help pay off the second card. Pretty soon you have 10 credit cards, and you're paying the minimum monthly on each. Then interest rates rise. You're fucked because the minimum payment rises, and you don't have the cash. So you either go bankrupt or deal with credit counselor.

[SouthPlatteDemon]

By going into more debt.

This is how it works: I give you money from the bank, I get a commission for giving you money. That gives me the financial incentive to give you money, because I make more money when I give you money. So then you tell me you can't pay me. All your friends that I lent money to tell me that they can't pay me. Does that mean I give my commission back? Heck no. That money is mine. So who loses? Well, initially the bank loses, but when banks and mortgage holders have dug a hole so deep that it threatens the national economy, the gov't has to come to the rescue. Unfortunately, our gov't is already at its debt ceiling. It can't funnel cash to the banks. So foreigners (who already own our debt) swoop in and give the banks the money they need to stay afloat. They aren't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They are cutting sweetheart deals with these banks, buying paper at a very low rate. That $500,000 home and the mortgage default means the bank is holding property that it can't afford, and soon ownership is bought by foreigners for pennies on the dollar.

Just last week, the Fed asked congress to raise the debt ceiling because we can't pay our bills, and we need more debt to pay off the debt. Think of it as a credit card. You go to the max on one card. Then you get another card to pay off the first card. Then you get another card to help pay off the second card. Pretty soon you have 10 credit cards, and you're paying the minimum monthly on each. Then interest rates rise. You're fucked because the minimum payment rises, and you don't have the cash. So you either go bankrupt or deal with credit counselor.

Well that is simple enough, but I think there are some release valves when it comes to nations. I'd hate to see what kind of deals our nations are making with other nations under the table?

We'll probably find out that Russia or India has been selling/giving Iran the nuclear technology they have. In exchange for what is the question.

[danastas]

I face reality every day. I live my life. Life is good and has never been better for me and my family.

What is it then that I am missing?

Well, I thought we were talking about America. Not you personally. Americans are not getting ahead. On a real basis, taking into account inflation and income rise, as well as cost of living, Americans are now much poorer than they used to be a decade ago. The quality of life is going down. Wages are not only stagnant, they are going backward. High paying jobs are being replaced by McJobs.

You're not very different from a lot of Americans that are doing well, but on the whole, your fellow Americans are doing worse. And as long as we squander our opportunities to compete at the highest levels (by educating and training our workers, by investing in renewable energy, by coming to grips with health care and how our gov't is wasting our tax dollars) then there may come a day when we've dug such a big hole for ourselves that we look at countries like Canada and Sweden with envy (if we already aren't there).

[atomic charvel guy]

holy Shit batman. if the Yankees will just win the world series , the whole world will sit correctly on its axis again and things will improve, I promise it. i'm a realist, and there's one thing I look at since 9-11, have we been attacked again on home soil? The answer is no. That's what I'm afraid of more than anything, because that day was a motherfukker and when you get hit on your own soil it's something this country was not ready for, used to, and still maybe not ready for. And Bush at least has that on his record. I'm pro-Republican, sorry. No i'm not. Sorry that is. With the large buffer between the U.S. and the rest of the world, it has really kept us from having memories like people in Europe in and the middle east have had as they have seen tons of action on their soil seemingly for almost all of time. I need a wake up now , I gotta go. i drink gasoline in the morning now, it's pretty cool actually.

[SouthPlatteDemon]

Well, I thought we were talking about America. Not you personally. Americans are not getting ahead. On a real basis, taking into account inflation and income rise, as well as cost of living, Americans are now much poorer than they used to be a decade ago. The quality of life is going down. Wages are not only stagnant, they are going backward. High paying jobs are being replaced by McJobs.

You're not very different from a lot of Americans that are doing well, but on the whole, your fellow Americans are doing worse. And as long as we squander our opportunities to compete at the highest levels (by educating and training our workers, by investing in renewable energy, by coming to grips with health care and how our gov't is wasting our tax dollars) then there may come a day when we've dug such a big hole for ourselves that we look at countries like Canada and Sweden with envy (if we already aren't there).

I think this may be one of those things that you choose the see what you want.

I can only think of one person that is worse off today than they were 5 - 7 years ago. And even that is mostly because of his shitty attitude with co-workers so that doesn't even count.

I think you may be falling trap to the doom and gloom stories in the media which is really all about getting votes for the next election. It's a simple strategy by the party that isn't in administration to pursuade the change. I stopped falling for that crap in the early 90's.

This DOES NOT MEAN that I am ignoring the sub prime loan and slowing housing market issues, but based upon my economics knowledge, we can always expect up and downs.

[monk]

And the bank who lend you the money did not actually have the money in the first place, since they are only required to cover for like 10% of what they lend out (fractional banking). So, if the bank has $100 they can give you $1000 and then charge interest (on the $1000 of course, not the $100). Why? Because the federal reserve backs them up, else the banks would just end up owing each other money. Maybe this has more with domestic banking to do, but the system is just as screwed.

What happens next? The banks lend out more money than they should have, and this causes inflation. The bank then raises the interest, people get screwed and the bank collects their property, houses and other stuff they had to use as security to get the loan in the first place. The bank is then stuck with a lot of things they really don´t need (like houses), so they are forced to sell the crap off. Normally this is bought by the people who managed to survive the inflation or, like above, foreign speculators. The bank get its money back and they can start over again blaming it all on another one of those "mysterious business cycles". And so it continues...
the bankers get richer and the people are screwed over in a cyclic behavior. Of course, this is spiced with my own cynical view, but there is a reason for why Jesus himself decided to kick the bankers out of the temple. They were famous already back then...grrr.

[atomic charvel guy]

i used to kick ass in the $$$ dept., now i learn to live without it, it's been a tough transition. I basically went back to 1986, and I'm njust not in a band. My industry is toast, i should have learned other product lines to sell, but i'll be back one day. I've finally gotten used to being poor, and that wasn't easy, it sucked the big one. The little things make me lose it with utter joy these days. Have to keep it that way.

[danastas]

I think this may be one of those things that you choose the see what you want.

I can only think of one person that is worse off today than they were 5 - 7 years ago. And even that is mostly because of his shitty attitude with co-workers so that doesn't even count.

I think you may be falling trap to the doom and gloom stories in the media which is really all about getting votes for the next election. It's a simple strategy by the party that isn't in administration to pursuade the change. I stopped falling for that crap in the early 90's.

This DOES NOT MEAN that I am ignoring the sub prime loan and slowing housing market issues, but based upon my economics knowledge, we can always expect up and downs.

I'm not going by people I personally know. That would be way too small for any real stats or evidence. I'm going by the national numbers that economists use. Rise in median income as measured against rise in inflation and rise in cost of living. These are simply facts.

[442w30]

I am probably the only one here, possibly because I did not know anyone directly affected by 9-11, but I didn't think 9-11 was a big deal.

This isn't to belittle its significance, or magnitude of the tragedy, but who doesn't know that a crazy person can wreak havoc on a group of defenseless people.

I amazed that anyone did not think this was a possibility until it happened- yes even in America.

The ridiculous histeria over OMFG 9-11 is crazy to me.

There are a million ways that someone with nothing to lose could bring thousands of people down. And that's just a few uneducated jerks. Not even a biochemist or C130 pilot.

I don't need to give examples, but 9-11 is a dictators dream. People immediately see the benefit of giving all individual rights away, go ridiculously into debt to wage war to save just one life on American soil and here we are. and bring us all together in the name of those folks on 9-11.

This came just in time after the .com crash, telecom crash, before we realized the real estate boom. Coincidence....probably.

Interesting to me, the impact to me from 9-11 is the knee jerk loss of freedom we gave ourselves and the sending of troops overseas, not any fear of Islamic terrorists on American soil.

[atomic charvel guy]

A dictators dream, maybe, but for families and friends nothing but anger, despair, and tears. I can guarantee it, and to me, that was not imaginable to me that we wou;ld take it in the ass on our own homeland , just my point of view, as you stated in the beginning of your post, i'm happy that you did not lose anyone that day, you're fortunate.

[horns666]

I like Sweden..alot of my favorite bands come from there.

I only have two "gripes" ..healthcare and the price of gas is pathetic.

I don't like government with a special interest agendas. I loathe the idea of MY money paying for ingrateful deadbeats who can't pay their bills. I never even got a thank you card when I did..so fuggums.

It's all about me..

If everyone had that self-preseving mindset, there would be mess less a burden on those that do.

[SouthPlatteDemon]

I'm not going by people I personally know. That would be way too small for any real stats or evidence. I'm going by the national numbers that economists use. Rise in median income as measured against rise in inflation and rise in cost of living. These are simply facts.

I undestand your point, but when I can't trust the information, especially stats, then I go by what I see around me. To me that is the reality I can trust.

I'm just very weary of doom and gloom type news this close to an election.

[atomic charvel guy]

i drink gas in the morning bill, it's cheaper than starbucks-lol

[Shawn Lutz]

I make no distinction between political parties. They are equally fucked up, pick a lesser of two evils at the time. We'll have a democrat president after the next election and we'll be hearing the same things -- only it will be Republicans whining like school girls...today its the Democrats whining like school girls. Its a never ending cycle and I can't understand the firm affiliation with either party myself