What does our future hold in America?

[-HAWK-]

Does anyone really know how bad things are now economically? I mean what is everyone doing to prepare for the coming years?

Also what do you think of this prediction?

Kind of a grimm outlook..

(This is not a Poltical post in any way, Just want to get an idea what everyones take is on the future and what they plan to do over the next few years.)

[Grey Wolf]

Bend over and grab your ankles. If you haven't noticed , working people don't have much leverage in times of recession or depression.

[-HAWK-]

Other than recession or depression, what about our country. Do you think the Country will come out of this the same or drastically different.

[simplejoe]

My only plans right now is keeping my store open and running smoothly. My wife and I talked about the future a couple days ago and I said we are going into something big. I don't know about recession only being 28 I'm a little too young for that era. ;D I grew up in the construction field and there's never a shortage of jobs here but lately I see alot of projects stopping and some smaller companies closing their doors. That made me start to do alot thinking about how to keep my doors open.

[simplejoe]

Other than recession or depression, what about our country. Do you think the Country will come out of this the same or drastically different.

Different

I think people are going to use more common sense about buying things they can't afford.  I should listen too my own advice

[Muddy]

I hope this teaches us to keep our eyes open and ears on the tracks. I did a paper last year on the possibility of this happening, pretty much in line on how it happened, I answered a post here and was lambasted as being a Chicken Little, well it happened. This does not make me an expert, like Kent but I was taught to watch for certain things and much to the distress of a lot of folks, it happened in the order we were taught. I like to think of my self as the guide who told Custer not to cut through the mountains rather than a Chicken Little. ;D

  This does not mean it is time to build shelters and get married! It means , that because we are a nation of many, immigration has brought the finest minds in the world to the US. This is why throughout History we have stood up to every challange as we will with this one.

[fathom]

compared to the carter years, this is a walk in the park.

this, too, shall pass.

[Muddy]

The economy is in a far more precarious place if not a more dangerous place than the Carter years!

There are some similarities, a fuel crisis a front at Afghanistan, double digit inflation and the Fed manipulating Inflation. Volker and company managed to get that inflation to subside after costing many their jobs

Today we have 2 fronts, e fuel crisis compounded by investors manipulating that market, a depressed housing industry, an auto industry at the brink of disaster, and the collapse of some of the main players in our economy and the resultant freeze on lending, it has the potential of being much worse.

[fathom]

i'll agree on the potential part.

the scariest equation here being china's future.

[FD.]

Every time this country has faced adversity we have come back better and stronger than we were before.  I am confident this will happen again, soon.

[Muddy]

i'll agree on the potential part.

the scariest equation here being china's future.

Heck I am more afraid of things tanking and LBH moving onto my couch!

[Muddy]

Every time this country has faced adversity we have come back better and stronger than we were before. I am confident this will happen again, soon.

 I am feeling you there, it seems that America faces the next worse situation with the next best idea 8-)

[MitchIsFishin]

That is a great and insightful question. I don't think America will survive, and the reason is it's people and it's government. We, as a nation, no longer have the resolve to solve any problem and our government is not only bought & paid for, but china essentially 'owns' us. We're broke, we make essentially nothing, and as a nation, we're not problem solvers and we are not taking our government to task for all of the wrong things it has done. Truthfully, and just my opinion and that is all it is, we have a bleak future, IF we have a future at all.

[fathom]

i'll agree on the potential part.

the scariest equation here being china's future.

Heck I am more afraid of things tanking and LBH moving onto my couch!

if china tanks, more folks than lbh will be on that couch.    

[bilgerat]

We blew it bigtime when we stopped being innovators, thinkers and manufacturers. Now we've become a nation of consumers. I've said it here before, our founding fathers have probably reached Australia by now from spinning in their graves.

When I was growing up in the sixties and seventies, kids were taught about saving and learning how to deal with money responsibly. Now it seems to be all about spending.

Maybe I'm a complete idiot, but someone explain to me how a nation can survive on consumerism when more and more of the workforce is creeping towards minimum wage.

It won't be long before the workers in the cheap labor countries wise up and start wanting a piece of the pie. What will the companies that abandoned the USA in favor of "cheap labor" do then ? Oh yeah, just go to Washington for a bailout. B*stards. >

Look back at the WWII generation, most of whom grew up in the Great Depression but have more character in their little finger than most of us have overall. There's a reason they are called the greatest generation. Most of them came from nothing and, lemme see here, won a world war and built this country into what it was until recently.

For the sake of this country I hope we can pull it off.

[fathom]

individualism is what made this country what it is and individualism is what it will take to get us kicking again.

government is never the solution to a problem.

hell, government is the problem.

[bilgerat]

I hear you loud and clear Fathom, but individualism is frowned upon anymore. If you don't like the program, you're not a "team player". Man I hate that phrase !!

[Grey Wolf]

Other than recession or depression, what about our country. Do you think the Country will come out of this the same or drastically different.

Every thing changes. Will it be for better or worse ? Some great nations and empires have collapsed from within. Will we be like them ? I hope not.

If you wonder what the future brings , look to the past.

[Muddy]

Computers, third world economic growth and a population shift have created a world market. There is no turning back now. We need a collective thinking , and working leadership now, if we are going to be among the stewards of things to come.

Maybe it's because I grew up in one of America's biggest melting pots SOUTH BROOKLYN, but I see a collection of individuals much strong then one standing alone.

I also have a lot of faith in America, as a man much greater than most once said

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts"

-Abraham Lincoln

[Long Mike]

We are Americans. We always get through the hard times.

It's not this particular recession that bothers me. We will get through it. The banking industry has learned a hard lesson at the expense of the tax payer. I doubt that it will repeat it's mistake. Alan Greenspan now knows that he was woefully wrong in saying that the banking industry would regulate itself. Changes will be made. As a result, that part of our economy will stabilize.

The auto industry desperately needs NO handout from we, the tax payers. It is time for the big three to get their heads out of the sand and learn to look around to see what their foreign competitors are doing. It's time for the unions to release their stranglehold. In short, it's time for a complete and drastic restructuring of the US auto industry. Declaration of bankruptcy will be the only way to get the complete, undivided, attention of both management and labor.

We, as a nation, will get through it, and be the better for it.

By far, my greatest concern is the disintegration of the work ethic in our country. That could very well be our downfall, but I have high hopes that, in one hundred years, our Spanish speaking American nation will be as strong as ever.

[Hookemdown.]

At least we still have the moon. :

I wonder if we could sell it to China to pay back a little of our national debt...

[burleytog]

Hopefully Atlas will shrug.

[Red]

i cant say much about the economy, cuz honestly, i dont pay much attention to it, i just go with the flow.  at my companies x-mas party friday, the owners said that we(my company) isnt in that situation(bad economy).  he said this is the biggest backlog of work in the companies history for 2009.  we have work booked for almost the entire year already.  and the x-mas party gifts and profit sharing was much more generous than last year.  i personally got a $100 cabelas gift card with a set of really nice binoculars, plus a check for almost $500.  not bad i say, for a guy who hasent even been on their payroll for a year yet.  but that is just one small little business.  in case your interested, my company builds stadium seating, bleachers, and press boxes for schools all over the country.  i work in the press box dept.  it is a pretty good job and i plan to stick around for as long as they will keep payin me!

Cliff

[FD.]

individualism is what made this country what it is and individualism is what it will take to get us kicking again.

Exactly!

One thing that I find myself saying more and more is, "I wish is was like when I grew up". Then I realize how dumb that really is. The reason free markets survive is their ability to grow and change. This economy is changing and will be growing again soon. The structure of societies change as the economy changes. The problem is that as humans WE don't like all the changing and growing.

Everyone needs to settle down and get ok with the changes in our society. While it is nice to reminisce about the "good ole days", being stuck in the 60's will not allow you to prosper in the NOW.

Look around your house and identify what you have that was not even available to consumers 30 years ago. Compare your standard of living to your parents when they were your age. I think if you do this honestly you will see the incredible growth that has happened and understand that a correction was long over due.

Things are never as bad as they seem at the time. Have a little patience. See if you can find a little faith. And remember, no matter how bad you think it is, you still would not trade it for anywhere else in the world.

That is the little pep talk I give myself.  I'm not a historian, economist, sociologist or any "ist" for that matter.  I choose to look at things that way based on the way I was raised and my life experiences.

[Muddy]

Isn't it incredible that as our standard of living goes up our quality of life goes down

When I was growing up, we used to bring dishes over to the houses that were struggling every night. We swept our whole block every Saturday and played stick ball until we dropped.We used to sleep on the roofs, pre air conditioning , in the summer. We had unbelievable parents and I lived on a block where most of my Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and both sets of grandparents did and we ate together every Sunday. Now we see each other on Holidays and funerals, don't hardly know the neighbors, so how do we know who is having a hard time. The AC keeps us behind closed doors and kids play against machines You make a good point .