If anyone here thinks things won't be many times worse next year, and the year after, for the foreseeable future, then they simply aren't grounded in reality, or are speaking from an individual standpoint AND personally have much wealth. 1) Jobs 2) Credit 3) Asset values 4) Interest rates Just take these four important metrics, with jobs being the most important, by a wide margin. 1 is bad and getting much worse. 2 is bad and getting much worse. 3 " " " " " ". 4 - What is the government going to do? Lower interest rates? They're already effectively 0. In the meantime, banks have assets they repossessed long ago, but don't want to value now, and don't want to list for sale (because it will add downward price pressure to similar assets), so they just hang on to it. How is that going to resolve anything? Thank Geithner, Bernanke and Paulson for that, because TARP & TALF and all the other bullshit just gave banks that luxury at the expense of the taxpayers and future taxpayers. We are in Kafka-like times.
Maybe this will begin a better trend in familial living style like the Asians have. Instead of spending money in Warehousing parents ( grand parents ) in Stalinist "retirement homes", families will have the retired parents at home. Instead of warehousing children in expensive sub-optimal child care, the parents ( or grand parents ) can baby sit the kids. The biggest cost in this type of family unit is the arbitrary and excessive cost of health care. It's time for drug companies, Hospitals, Insurance Companies and Doctors to take a pay cut. The current form of health care is a corporate con job on the middle class.
Detroit looks alot worse for wear & tear than it did in the 1930s. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aOney2b41d4&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aOney2b41d4&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Detroit is an isolated example. A dying industry and stupid black people who would rather "keep it real" with a corrupt black mayor/council than elect people who could fix the problems.
IEA recently warned that peak oil is a threat to a recovery. We have been working to much with stupid things and wasting resources. Guess we have to focus on those jobs that society needs. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/warning-oil-supplies-are-running-out-fast-1766585.html
I read a few great books recently, one was "The End of Work". It's about the jobless recoveries... the author is no genius really, he talks about the Hydrogen Economy.. that was a pipe dream.. otherwise it's a good read.. another one talked about cultures failing when they became too complex.. our credit crisis bears that out.. maybe we want to go to a lower and more robust state of organization? Currently we eat factory farmed food and distribute it via roads and whatnot... These unemployed and underemployed folk, many of them at least, could be growing massive amounts of food... factory farming is nowhere near as efficient as what can be done by hand on a small plot believe it or not, and on a small plot a person can grow stuff that is massively more nutritious than this fake shit we get in our supermarkets.. I've eaten organic legacy plants, believe me, I could feel the difference right off and I'm not prone to "placebo"... So I can see two avenues of going to a lower state of organization and more robust culture, grow our own food and eat it /distribute it locally and stop borrowing to buy stuff we don't need.. another avenue is home schooling, the education from home schooling or Christian schools is far superior to the "factory farmed" shit we get from the public sector, if people are staying home and growing food maybe a massive exodus from the failed public education system can follow that... kids can get a great education in a couple of hours a day at home and have the rest of the day to get some exercise and have an actual childhood without the factory farmed socialist agenda being rammed into every orifice nearly... we could be better off eventually... I laugh at my wife because she watches Walton's reruns all the time but she might be leading the way really...
our lives will definately change in ways we probably still cant even imagine....and by your example i think in alot of cases for the better. we will have no choice. we were allowed to be unrully children the past couple decades and to some that grew up in it young it became a way of life. it wont be easy but people will adjust. thats not my underlying fear for our immediate future. the lack of a comprehensive roadmap through it and beyond is....
I'm not going to personally insult you, but I will say there are a few people here who seem to be in denial of the problems all around the nation, and that you're one of the few. Check out Palm Beach, the Hamptoms, and even La Jolla (I just checked on La Jolla again, as I've been actively seeking to score a place there for 7 years now - I am patient, and usually ultimately prevail). Things are a hell of a lot worse than your comments consistently imply or expressly state.
What will the new "thing" be after that the system of economic growth ends? Spiritual growth? Free entheogens (Marijuana, cacti etc) for everyone to prevent chaos? http://csp.org/practices/entheogens/docs/narad-entheogenic_yoga.html