Posted on 06/28/2013 7:26:10 PM PDT by Kartographer
Look around and you can’t miss it.
The world is on the brink… politically, economically, financially, monetarily, and militarily.
Events are accelerating. Over the last decade trend forecaster Gerald Celente has been blaring the alarms.
If you’ve been paying attention, then you’ve heard them. You know we’re going under.
And this time they’re not going to be able to stop it.
(Excerpt) Read more at shtfplan.com ...
“How do wages for women and minorities compare today to 1957?”
You yourself said that the ‘two earner household is an anomaly.’
Priced out through the economy as a whole and averaging out, the single-earner household earns less today than they have since the 40s. Taking in all the women and men breadwinners (95 percent of all two-income households have men as breadwinners).
We’re 5 years into a depression.
What is happening is that there are simply fewer families. Fewer men and women getting married. Far more unmarried men without work, and far more single mothers working.
Your scenario isn’t been seen at all, where mother works and father stays at home. Only about 5 percent of all married-two income families even have the wife making more, and even fewer of these have the arrangement you’ve cited, about 2 percent of the total married families.
It’s just not happening, and there are good reasons for this. We’re not going to see a return to the 50s because the marriage rate is about half the rate now. We’ll see a growth in single mothers, until most families are a mother with out a father raising the child alone and working.
Why are we seeing this? Because of the way government works. Government has made benefits for the single mom with a child total the equivalent of a single minimum wage full time worker.
The single mother doesn’t need a husband or a job. In fact, if the boyfriend lives with her, they will have 20k a year (more than many single men work), whereas if they were married, this would fall to 14k.
This is, of course, the arrangement that is growing faster than any other -where NO ONE works, you have boyfriend and the girl, and they live off government benefits.
Now you're getting somewhere. Turn this around upon your own mistaken assumptions and see where you've gone wrong. On what planet does oil field fracking have the first thing to do with Fed money?
Don't get me wrong, cheap and plentiful fuel is and will be a godsend. It puts a floor under any downfall, for the people. It'll be bought and sold and exported. Might not ultimately be priced in US dollars, but it's there and has value. It gives advantage to domestic manufacturing, so there's a beginning or rather starting anew possible there, too. Already is in right to work states.
But it doesn't have a thing to do with government profligacy, the ballooning entitlement class, Fed excesses with the currency ... other than tax reciepts, which won't be nearly enough.
There is a core economy forming that creates a basis for rebuilding. That's a very good thing. That's the benefit of what you describe, as it will survive the looming paper and electronic catastrophe, that can only be delayed at this point. We reached the point of no return with the second QE, imho. It can be dragged out for a very long time, though. It'll be more visible looking back. The present will seem close to normal for most, as normal slowly declines.
Those five things can be wrapped up in one word - - "culturally".
Congratulations, liberals... socialists... communists... Democrats.
The problem is you can’t make a prediction based on facts, or fundamentals. There is a psychological element which can make the same base fundamentals play out very differently. Right now, we are in an era where risk has not had consequence for some time, and people have been conditioned to ignore it. If there is a shake-up, and some heavy hitters begin to see their empires threatened, they will pull back to protect themselves. As they do, everyone else may get a pucker moment, and not want to be the ones left holding the bag. Almost overnight, a market which ignores bad news could become a market which panics, and everything could be different. If lending is suddenly seen as risky, you will have trouble.
I agree, there is no guarantee of a depression in the next few years, but I would not rule it out. Those cars which are selling are often leases, the educations people are getting are on credit, most of the government is borrowed, and governments are not getting out of debt. China looks precarious. Especially in Europe, one card pulled out from the wrong bank, or a hiccup for the Euro, and it could trigger a chain of events which would reverberate.
On top of it, we are in a weird psychological state where I think nobody sees any risk to anything. The Boston bombing killed or maimed how many people, and we have already forgotten about it. The Stock Market goes up on bad news. Obamacare is as foreboding as anything, and everyone knows it, but who cares? We are in a weird, risk-blind, uncaring phase which I think will change back at some point. When it does, it will have economic effect.
Plus, in the background, those slackers do affect the economy, as many are not only draining borrowed tax dollars from the government, they are also producing five or six kids, who will do the same. Did you see that girl on the Zimmerman witness stand? She will have six kids before all is said and done. The Idiocracy is real, it is consuming increasing amounts of your tax dollars, making you work harder for less reward (and subconsciously conditioning everyone to see work as less rewarding) and it will affect the economy as time goes on.
From a biology perspective, this is the r-selected environment, and it cannot last forever. The question is when it will shift to K-selection, and how harshly. I would not rule out a shift in a few years.
The way things are going, it will end up being a mistrial.
Are you sure about this?
The whole Zimmerman trial WILL end up in a mistrial, count on it.
I got a car loan for 72 months at 0.9%. Free money. That cannot last. I was going to put money down but why if the money is free? The down payments sits in an investment account. My payment is $380/mo on $26,000. The first year I paid about $120 in interest. I am on the second year now.
You’ll be upside down for five years. If you don’t need to sell it and the vehicle is not totaled in an accident, you should be fine.
I had a down payment saved up but why put money down?
You owe more than the vehicle is worth and will for the majority of the loan. There can be problems associated with this.
The money I was going to put down is earning interest. How could that be mistake?
Assuming that money remains there earning interest (lol, what, half a percent?) and the car is not totaled, you should be fine.
If the car gets totaled and it’s my fault and If I had put the 10,000 as I originally intended to do, that money is still gone in that scenario so what’s your point here?
Assuming that you’ll always have cash in the bank to cover the “gap” between actual value and the balance remaining on the note is not always a safe thing to do. Your “free” money loan is costing you more than you’re getting in interest from having avoided a down payment.
Other than that, I suppose you’re good as gold.
Would you pay a “fine” of $120 per year to keep $10,000 of cash in your possession?
Someone needs to write a book called the The Great Depression of 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
I am all for prepping, and I am covered for any given scenairo. (As should everyone else) However, sometimes I think a lot of people are making irrational decisons, based on fear rather than common sense.
Assuming you do, you mean? That’s far from a certainty.
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