QUESTION OF THE WEEK- What are you doing to survive the recession?
Derek Tucker: "Actually working two jobs right now, also doing a little side work just to get by. I got two kids, so I have to do what I gotta do to make ends meet."
Fran Smith: "I'm just being a little bit more cautious about spending money, and do I really need it? Just conserving, recycling a lot, things like that. Being more creative."
Dee Papit: "Not spending money."
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11 comments
This isn't a recession.
It's a full blown DEPRESSION.
And no matter what the financial experts say, it's far from over. The families that have been hit hardest will never recover. Just one example, 25 and 30 year veteran auto workers that have been laid off will never find jobs with the salary and benefits that they have recently lost. And there's thousands of other examples out there nationwide. I've never seen anything like it in my lifetime.
"I've never seen anything like it in my lifetime."
You mean you didn't have an internet to spend all day on last time it happened? What is there to "see" here in C'ville that's so bad? The real financial experts may not always be right, but at least they have some real data to go by. They don't just cruise around in their SUV's imagining they know everything about everything.
You really think the cops you like to blather on about are the only ones who are overpaid, under motivated, and incompetent? Those descriptors certainly don't apply across the board to American workers, but union contracts certainly made it difficult for the auto industry in particular to rid itself of those to whom it does apply. The salaries and benefits you mentioned were ridiculously high compensation for assembly line workers making products that rarely matched the quality of imports.
The union workers were overpaid for forty years.. so if you average it out they owe US money.
You are worth what the next guy will do your job for plus a little extra because they have seen your work. Thsts it.
If all you ever learned how to do was put a door panel on a car and have no other skill you ARE geting paid for your skills.. which is nothimg.
The consumer has cut back, business had cut back , but the biggest union in the world (government workers) are still blowing money likes it 1999.
That is what is prolonging the recession.
Fire them and lower taxes so people can start manufacturing things without the govenment getting 30% upfront plus a percentage of any profits on the back side.
I just started dating richer guys.
capitan o'ndustrie, it's obvious that somewhere along the line you subscribed to the belief that American auto makers make about $70+ an hour. It's the furthest thing from the truth.
You need to watch the HBO special about the GM plant that was recently closed.
Since you bring cops into this thread now, I suppose you also believe that most of them are working at the poverty level? Keep on believing that garbage too. Counting court time and the abundant overtime available to cops in the Charlottesville and Albemarle area, a cop is just plain downright lazy if he/she can't make $75,000 a year. Then add in the numerous benefits they receive on the taxpayer's dime.
And frankly, I do know everything while I ride around in the biggest SUV ever produced in this country. Thank You. :)
Shirley, you go girl!!!
GSOE, it's obvious you're a d*uchebag. How is it in any way "obvious" what I think American auto workers make? What part of "over paid" did you take to mean I think local cops are "working at the poverty level?" Please read (and think to the best of your ability) before you spew.
You lost this debate when you resorted to slimeball namecalling. With such a short fuse and quick temper, you're actually good cop material.
Nice try Gasbag! But I'm sorry, you lost the debate a few steps back when you resorted to the the age old logical fallacy of the straw man argument. You see, rational debate involves responding to points that other people make and constructing a response according to the rational rules of logic. You've failed here on both accounts, which is certainly no surprise, that being SOP for you.
You are welcome to step back if you are able and maybe explain your apparently baseless assertion that we are currently in the midsts of "a full blown DEPRESSION." List a few data points if you'd like and explain how your interpretation of them is superior to those of the economists you dismiss.
Also you've "never seen anything like it in (your) lifetime." Seen what, where? What have you "seen" that is so awful? How does it differ from before? How does what you've "seen" this time around compare to tall those other depressions you've "seen?"
Of course I don't actually expect anything other than your usual blathering, but maybe you have some heretofore hidden capacity for backing up what you rant about?
If you want it in fancy words and color charts......
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/3421
This article may be reproduced with appropriate attribution.
part 1 of 2
* Global stock markets have mounted a sharp recovery since the beginning of the year. Nonetheless, the proportionate decline in stock market wealth remains even greater than at the comparable stage of the Great Depression.
* The downward spiral in global trade volumes has abated, and the most recent month for which we have data (June) shows a modest uptick. Nonetheless, the collapse of global trade, even now, remains dramatic by the standards of the Great Depression.
* World industrial production continues to track closely the 1930s fall, with no clear signs of ‘green shoots’.
* World stock markets have rebounded a bit since March, and world trade has stabilised, but these are still following paths far below the ones they followed in the Great Depression.
* There are new charts for individual nations’ industrial output. The big-4 EU nations divide north-south; today’s German and British industrial output are closely tracking their rate of fall in the 1930s, while Italy and France are doing much worse.
* The North Americans (US & Canada) continue to see their industrial output fall approximately in line with what happened in the 1929 crisis, with no clear signs of a turn around.
* Japan’s industrial output in February was 25 percentage points lower than at the equivalent stage in the Great Depression. There was however a sharp rebound in March.
* The parallels between the Great Depression of the 1930s and our current Great Recession have been widely remarked upon. Paul Krugman has compared the fall in US industrial production from its mid-1929 and late-2007 peaks, showing that it has been milder this time. On this basis he refers to the current situation, with characteristic black humour, as only “half a Great Depression.” The “Four Bad Bears” graph comparing the Dow in 1929-30 and S&P 500 in 2008-9 has similarly had wide circulation (Short 2009). It shows the US stock market since late 2007 falling just about as fast as in 1929-30.
* In fact, when we look globally, as in Figure 1, the decline in industrial production in the last nine months has been at least as severe as in the nine months following the 1929 peak.
* Similarly, while the fall in US stock market has tracked 1929, global stock markets are falling even faster now than in the Great Depression (Figure 2). Again this is contrary to the impression left by those who, basing their comparison on the US market alone, suggest that the current crash is no more serious than that of 1929-30.
part 2 of 2
* Another area where we are “surpassing” our forbearers is in destroying trade. World trade is falling much faster now than in 1929-30 (Figure 3). This is highly alarming given the prominence attached in the historical literature to trade destruction as a factor compounding the Great Depression.
* To sum up, globally we are tracking or doing even worse than the Great Depression, whether the metric is industrial production, exports or equity valuations. Focusing on the US causes one to minimise this alarming fact. The “Great Recession” label may turn out to be too optimistic. This is a Depression-sized event.
* To summarise: the world is currently undergoing an economic shock every bit as big as the Great Depression shock of 1929-30. Looking just at the US leads one to overlook how alarming the current situation is even in comparison with 1929-30. The good news, of course, is that the policy response is very different. The question now is whether that policy response will work.