That will prove to be the ultimate irony as many of these assholes who secretly believe they are entitled to their bubble driven profits from mostly dumb luck will now be trapped in these money pits. As utility costs climb each year, as property taxes increase (even though the property loses value bit by bit) and as they can't earn even 1% in "risk free" treasuries, they will be bled dry by these places.
Sad to say, this may be true of workers in certain fields or over a certain age. The only jobs available for some folks are commission-only sales. Jobs that pay $10/hr is hard to come by in many parts of the country. If you have some risk capital, intelligence with aptitude, and willingness to apply risk management, your odds of making it as a trader may be better than than getting a job that pays a living wage. This is esp true for folks over 50 or 55 with recent gaps in their work history. Jobs are gone, do whatever else you have to do to survive.
I'd say that the housing bubble masked how bad the loss of manufacturing (and service - think call-centers) jobs really was. Then when the tide went down, well...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote from wartrace: 2,000,000 manufacturing jobs gone in the past two years. Over 1/3 of our manufacturing jobs lost in the past ten years. This has little to do with the housing bubble. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I agree. Manufacturing jobs were the 'middle' class workers. They are gone, and will be getting worst, to be lost forever. Perot tried to warn the people but they would not listen. It is basic economics that an equivalent level has to be reached between two countries with open trading policies. The standard of living of the third world countries will increase at the expense of the standard of living of the more advanced countries. We are fast becoming a country with a permanent 25% or more unemployment/underemployment rate with a hamburger flipping job considered the norm. The politicians and globalization has ruined our country.
When old man Walton (Mr. Walmart) died in 1992, that was the start of our jobs going overseas. If you remember when he did commercials, it was "Buy America" and most products in his store were made in good old USA. His demise opened the floodgates to change his policies and quite rapidly, Walmart started buying from foreign countries. I believe Walmart comes is number one Company for posting greatest revenues in the world. When the economy really starts getting worse, the companies that will be good are all those Dollar stores, there is like four of them at intersections. And all that crap is from outside the country except for maybe chips and soft drinks. Stores that sell used clothes and basic foodstuffs, and of course beer. Drown yourself away till next decade. My grandfather's generation produced a healthy amount of offspring, USA kept solidly growing, my father's generation produced an incredible amount of offspring, the babyboomers, we have made more inventions, worked the hardest and longest, bought everything in sight, but had the least amount of kids in three generations cause we want more of everything, no time for kids. Well, now babyboomers who bought everything are getting much older, into taking medicines and going to doctors than buying new toys and housing, and since there are much less kids, and kids not as into work production as we were, certainly can't maintain strong bull market, can't pay enough to maintain social security to pay babyboomers. So housing bubble had little to do with end of real estate, the bubble busted cause my generation has stopped buying houses and all else cause we are in retiring years. As far as how to change all the problems we have, it is actually easier than many think, but USA does not have a President Truman, we have wishy washy presidents who are more concerned about themselves and their party than what is good for the country. Stop all new project spending, reduce current budget 35%, redefine food stamp program-no more processed foods can be bought-people will have to learn how to cook-buying basic staples will hugely cut back amount they spend-so there will be a reduction. Set up government food stores to redeem food stamps. Anyone receiving assistance is going to have to do community service, since federal gov't is going to have to lay people off, these assistance people will have to put in time to work for their assistance-clean streets - snow removal-pick up garbage-kid centers. You watch, people who have to start working extra will get better jobs, go to school and get off the "rolls." Set up mini towns or tents for people who need housing. No company is going to volunteer to build factories any more in USA, and we too afraid to put tariffs on, so at the sales counter, double or triple the price of the foreign made product, this "tax" will start to pay down gov't debt and personal debt, guess what, companies will start to build factories again so they can turn a profit again. If a company uses any kind of foreign workers for service, they will have to triple amount paid or have a min set of say $50 per hour going into a fund for our debt, so much for cheap labor. USA needs to go back to gold standard, if we don't have it, can't spend it, make gov't much smaller. But until we get leaders than have some balls, we will slip into depression. You just can't just print money. After World War I, Germany just printed money thinking it would help solve their problems, at some point, it was cheaper to burn money than to buy coal for heat.
USA cannot go back to gold standard. There is not enough gold in the world to sustain the USA's level of spending. It is not a feasible option. You would have to dismantle at least 7-9 aircraft carrier fleets.
Aha. but who wanted globalization? It was the west that opened up China and Japan in the 18th-19th century for trade by military force.
Business is about profit & loss. Do not expect patriotism. In globalized economy jobs will go where businesses get maximum profit.