AnthoneyCea has live links?!

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has released its findings on American living standards. The report, issued every other year on a decline that started in the late-1970's. The EPI's report also contends that the Americans are working more for less money because of slow growth in wages since 1989. According to the report, wages in the bottom 80% of men have declined since 1989. The report also contends that 20% of women have experienced a decline since the 1980's, a period in which wages fell but family income increased because of longer hours at work.

(Republican Union Busting ruined this country and outsourcing will kill it along with the trade and budget deficits)

Now they want to steal it all in oil and war dollars on top of making slaves out of the majority of Americans.


What the hell you guys think I drink so much for, things have been going downhill in the economy since 2000 and it ain't getting any better.

 

I have. We're almost at the price per gallan that Germany was in the 80's when I was stationed there.

The state of the economy is quite well actually. There are some "doom and gloom" deadbeat types out there that think otherwise, but the economy is doing remarkably well.

http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=bondsNews&storyID=7868333
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050225/D88FIJC00.html

Unemployment is less that when Clinton was in office and Democrats heralded Clinton's numbers as a huge success. Of course, they've redefined acceptable numbers today, but that's not really surprising. You have to try pretty hard these days NOT to get a job.

Are you having trouble getting a job Anthony? I can't imagine why any good employer wouldn't snatch you right up!

 

Manufacturing might is what made America great GTech.

http://vivisimo.com/search?v:sources=Web&query=Manufacturing+job+losses&x=40&y=9

We are losing that, even though General Motors and Ford have high quality they are still losing market share and manufacturing is being destroyed in this nation and along with that goes the economy as each manufacturing job provides 25-30 support jobs along with every manufacturing job that is within a community.

How can you say the economy is doing great when we are suffering record trade deficits, record budget deficits, record consumer debt with China and Japan owning most of the bonds that keep our banking system solvent.

If they pull out of US investments because of the weak dollar the entire banking system will fail as Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan has warned over and over.

 

Competition also made our country great. The economy is doing fine. Unemployment is at record lows, consumer spending is up. Manufacturing jobs does not define the economy as a whole.

The surpluses of the 90s were due to HUGE cuts in our military. Even then, the unemployment rate Clinton achieve has been surpased by Bush. You get out of it what you are willing to commit. I suppose if I were to sit around all day hoping a job would come knocking at my front door, I might be worried. One has to try pretty hard not to get a job these days!

 

These are not jobs, they are slave positions, just ask those who have filed suit against Wal-Mart.

You make enough money to buy gas to get to work, might as well stay home.

Ask independent truck drivers who parked their trucks because they could not turn a profit how good things are.

Jobs today give zero benefits in most cases just a bit of workmans comp and some money at the end of the week if one works for an above board company.

Some do not even pay workmans comp. and pay out in cash, even companies with benefits only want to pay $9.00 an hour to manufacturing employees and that is peanuts.

Ask those in the IT industry in this country where there jobs are now GTech and they will tell you in India.

Programmers and coders that used to make 80 grand a year are now working for half of that and are lucky to find steady work as that work can be outsourced also.

 

I see it differently. We don't live in a socialist society where everyone is issued a side of beef and a four blocks of cheese every month. Not everything will always be perfect with everyone. Truckers have fought high gas prices before and will do so in the future. As long as there is a higher demand for oil than the OPEC cartel is willing to give supply to, there will be higher gas prices. Until we start drilling our own, and even then we have to refine it which is a huge concern.

To suggest jobs today give zero benefits in most cases is not an accurate assessment at all. There are good jobs, there are jobs that are less desirable. There always have been and always will be. One does not apply at Walmart and expect they will buy a nice $200,000 home have have no deductible insurance for their family with thirty days of vacation a year. Reasonable expectations there. We have outsourced some jobs for many years, including during the Clinton Administration. Actually, Clinton knew the benefits of free trade and outsourcing as well.

I know many programmers in the 60-80k range that would differ with you.

It's not all doom and gloom. Perhaps you are attempting to define everyone's situation by your own?

 

Business is changing quickly and the way business is done is changing to online e-commerce, so the folks at Digital Point are in a different class (at least those that are successful and profitable at this point).

I am talking about the average American worker that is the backbone of the economy, when they go down, the businesses that cater to them suffer as well and you know this GTech.

In addition you know that wage cuts exist and are an ongoing pattern and can not keep up with prices and that means folks have to go deeper in debt to survive and we already have RECORD CONSUMER DEBT at this time.

When the real estate bubble bursts again you will look back on this thread and say, wow Anthony was right again.

Look at the NASDAQ, it closed below 2,000 the other day GTech, tell me how good things are, it was at 5,000 in 2000.

 

GTech and Anthony are both right in many ways. It is a very fragile balance right now. Both economy and unemployment are in good standing yet much of the other aspects are making things very dificult.

Here in Southern Oregon, the jobs that people make money at are not really here. It is a poorer community overall. The average household income has been around 30k for years and now house prices have doubled! Good if you own one. But for those trying to buy or rent with the lower incomes are not able to do so.

My house has nearly doubled in the last 2 years, but we also got a great price when we boght it. But if I was looking for a house at the price I paid, it would be a small 3 bedroom house with no lot, and that wouldn't quite work for us and the 6 kids.

Anthony, you need to look for the positive - get involved in the industry that will be profitable due to higher gas prices or create an alternative that can flourish due to the price of gas getting high. When life gives you lemons - make....... well you know I hope.

 

Have you ever heard of the "Great Depression", well that is where this county is headed, mark my words because you will see it in your lifetime

You better learn how to grow a garden and buy some goats Debunked, because you may really need to do this with 6 kids, either that or become best friends with the farmers in your community quick

 

I'm out and about every day. Every day I see new businesses cropping up, I see new Corvettes, Ford F150s, Kias, Toyotas and virtually any car you can think of with the new temp tag on the back. I see real estate booming, new houses being built. People buying these new homes and cars have jobs, or they would not be doing so. These ARE the average American workers. They vary in jobs and income levels and every day, I see they are doing well.

The picture you portray as a reality for the whole is a reality for some. It always has been and always will be, because it cannot be perfect for everyone at all times.

Perhaps there are some cutting wages to stay a float. To compete here, instead of outsourcing where labor and cost of living is cheaper. It's a circular issue.

It was at 5000 in 2000 because of a number of reasons:

(from the cache, so you don't have to subscribe)

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cach...-356C2507CB69%7D&+nasdaq+closed+at+5000&hl=en

So traders decided to move their money elsewhere, which is also known as the dot com bust. There's some more good information there. The 5000 to 2000 didn't just mysteriously happen.

 

So using this sound financial advice from Anthony, we should all invest our money in Trailor Home manufacturers and road side vegetable stands. Oh, the doom and gloom!

 

I have two words for you to make it down the road GTech....

"Cow Shit"

You can use it to grow food to survive

 

There's certainly plenty of it around these parts, that's for sure. Around these parts, we call it "the smell of money."

Looking forward to my fresh garden tomatoes and black berries

 

I wont disclose what he's paying for positive rep.

 

Hell I can't get any at your place, why would you give it here Joey

PS: For anyone that is interested see the article below that explains what I have already explained.

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/sto...m&guid={58628CE1-2DBE-468B-A726-B2BFFD90A401}

Part of the above is quoted below:


Regarding the outsourcing of manufacturing offshore, there is very little more that can be said -- except, perhaps, that this is hardly something new. Our textile industry which for a century was a key component of New England's economy first migrated to the southern American states, then to parts of Latin America, then to China, and now to India. As a result: we can buy sneakers at Wal-Mart for $9.99 instead of $59.99, or cashmere sweaters at Macy's for $99 instead of the $399 we used to pay at Saks.

Our rate of inflation in recent years has been at very low levels, in no small measure due to the low cost of imports. This has allowed interest rates -- especially long term rates, such as those on 30-year mortgages to drop to 40-year lows, allowing the housing sector of our economy to prosper as never before, and adding significantly to economic growth and household wealth. As Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan indicated in his most recent testimony before Congress, globalization has led to a significantly higher standard of living not only in the United States, but around the world.

Not only that, but this process has also not resulted in the mass exportation of jobs, as many would have us believe. Despite the fact that imports are at all-time highs, our unemployment rate is only 5.4 percent. Furthermore, this absence of globalization exerting any major negative effect on employment in the United States is not likely to change in the future. As the Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Roger Ferguson recently pointed out, although there are no conclusive data on the subject, a study produced by the research firm Forrester found that fewer than 300,000 jobs per year would be displaced through outsourcing over the next decade.

So much, then, for that red herring.

Another red herring is the myth that a situation where foreign central banks now hold more than $2 trillion of our national debt -- an amount that is growing by the hundreds of billions of dollars a year -- is not only bad for this country, but in the end will lead to some sort of financial apocalypse. In fact, as Chairman Greenspan has repeatedly pointed out, were it not for these huge capital imports, capital investment in the United States would have to be reduced to much lower levels, with the ultimate consequences of our sinking into a period of extended economic stagnation. Why? Because high levels of capital investment must be fueled by equal amounts of savings. Domestic American savings are woefully insufficient to do so. So we Americans must tap into the savings of the Japanese, the Chinese, the Koreans, the Indians to finance the amounts of domestic investment needed to keep our economy growing at 3.5 percent per annum, at levels high enough to provide jobs for 95 percent of those Americans both willing and able to work. And the central banks of all of these Asian countries are all willing to recycle those hundreds of billions of dollar derived from their trade surpluses back to the United States making up for our lack of savings, and financing both out trade and budgetary deficits.

It all resembles a merry-go-round where we Americans are getting a free ride. And the last thing we should hope for is that the music stops before we manage to get our domestic fiscal affairs in order.

But what if this merry-go-round suddenly stops?

In late February of this year we had a small foretaste of what could happen. The Finance Minister of South Korea, which is the fifth largest holder of U.S. dollars as the major component of its currency reserves, seemed to indicate that his nation was considering diversifying those reserves. The implication was that it would began to build up its holdings of euro and yen, while reducing the percentage of total reserves held in U.S. dollars. Every financial market in New York -- foreign exchange, bonds, stocks -- reacted immediately and negatively as market participants collectively asked -- what if China and India and even Japan followed Korea's example? The dollar would crash, that's what, and probably bring down all the other financial markets with it.

The next day the Koreans back off, and the problem was shoved back into the closet. But the question remains: How real is this risk?

David Levey, former director of Moody's Sovereign Ratings Service and Stuart Brown, Professor of Economics at Syracuse University, sought to answer that question in a recent article in Foreign Affairs under the title "The Overstretch Myth." They begin by recognizing the fact that the United States which, until 1989, was always a creditor to the rest of the world, now has the largest net liabilities in the history of the world, with foreign claims on the United States ($10.5 trillion) exceeding foreign claims of the United States ($7.9 trillion) at the end of 2004, reflecting the fact that the net international investment position (NIIP) is now 24 percent of GDP and rapidly rising as we continue to run huge trade deficits. Warren Buffett concludes that this will eventually turn our country into a nation of sharecroppers dependent on foreign landlords