Middle Class Job Losses Batter Economy

Associated Press | January 2 2006 | Associated Press and Vicki Smith

[Nowhere Man]

HI...I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas ( or Hanukkah ) and that the New Year treats you well, old friend! :-)

It was fine, made it thru another year. How was yours?

No new Victorian/Edwardian books out for this Christmas, so no, I'm off reading on a different topic. I like alternative history books, so I just may look into what you're now reading. Thanks for the tip!

It's called "The Great War Series" where the South is fighting alongside the UK, France, Japan and Canada plus with Mormon rebels that were defeated by the US. The US and Germany are allies.

Oh pleeeeeeeeeeeeease...don't hand me that tired excuse for not saving; it's so old, its white beard is trailing on the ground! Even the poorest of the poor can save, if they REALLY want to and some of them used to. Almost nobody lives from hand to mouth today. There is absolutely NO valid reason to NOT save; yet fewer and fewer people think ahead and put anything by. Part of it,I lay at the feet of Benjamin Spock, whose baby rearing book is partly responsible for generations of instant gratification whingers.

Although I do partially recognize what you say about the Spock generation, that is true in that case so I'll agree with you on that one point but I've seen a lot of hand to mouth living and even experienced it. I do admit that although I am very conservative morally, socially and militarily, when it comes to economics, I'm more of a progressive, at least when compared to an average Freeper, more of a William's Jennings Bryant or Teddy Roosevelt type. Mainly it is my religious views, I'd make a good Catholic, I like the roles of captial and labor have that Pope Leo XIII wrote in his 1891 piece, "Rerum Novarum." B-) Don't worry, no name calling, I try not to do that and all it does is add to the rancor where you get more heat than light although I've done it sadly, but we are all sinners. I'll just say on some of this, we respectfully disagree.

Can you play Quidditch on line?

Got to take a look. I know there is a Quidditch game for the Playstation II.

[Sunnyflorida]

"With the cost of living and taxes so high, who can save?"

What I find amazing are the number of poh who cannot afford to save but can afford beer and cigarettes.

[eeevil conservative]

Actually- I am having a GREAT time on this thread- LOL!

I am learning a few things, and the comedic value of some of the "cakes" is priceless....

I learned tonight that Fords are not made by 100% Americans.....lol--

[Nowhere Man]

What I find amazing are the number of poh who cannot afford to save but can afford beer and cigarettes.

Yeah, I got to agree with you on that, can't argue on that one. Literally I can't see why people do smoke, you're literally burning money when you think about it. I'm not suggesting that we take all repsonsibility away from the person but here are other forces out there, luck, circumstanes and so on that plays in all of this too. I never considered economics a science but something of an art or mysticism if you will, it's murky at best.

[Sunnyflorida]

You are wrong. Look at the volume of trading. Quarterly profits is what drives the market. I'm in it every day and if I look only to next year I get may head handed to me. I'm not saying that y.y is not important but it is measured on a quarterly bases. If companies only reported once a year the cost of capital would be much higher. MUCH.

In any case you are pissing into the wind. The markets will always invest or not invest based on quarterly profits. Companies that make their quarterly estimates will have better access to capital than those that do not.

Look at the cost of capital for private companies. VC have a 10x model going in. They do not always hit it but because of the lack of liquidity that is the price entrepreneurs need to pay.

I'll find a good book for you to read! I'd start with Sowell referenced elsewhere in this thread.

[bannie]

I guess it's good to be low class.

Nothin' to lose!

[sauropod]

Don't bother arguing with "IT."

"IT" is not worth your time. "IT" is very similar to a dinosaur. "IT" has a small brain and refuses to learn.

[Sunnyflorida]

Read Thomas Sowell. It will change your life. Litterally.

[tyen]

I was responsible for fixing computer problems that caused hundreds to millions of dollars in downtime per minute.

My curiousity about your personal situation is piqued by this statement. Did you work on the hardware or the software of such systems? There are very, very few systems in the world that clock in the millions per minute. Various financial services and exchanges (equities, bonds, commodities, forex, etc.), credit card processing and extremely large retail operations like WalMart are the class of operations that use computer environments that handle $525.6 billion or more per year of transactions so frequent that you can measure downtime on a $1M (or more) per minute basis.

If you were one of the people who architect and manage such environments, then you should be able to parlay that experience into your own business.

[nopardons]

Had a lovely Christmas...THANKS!

Interesting sounding series...thanks for the title, author, and brief overview.

Historically, almost all but those living on the dole or sent to poor houses ( yes, America had them too ) did save; even if it was a penny a week. Not everyone put their money in banks ( and with so many PANICS and bank closures, you could hardly blame the almost indigent, or the lowest classes, who had scrimped and done without, just to put a little by ), but hide money in some secret place or yes, even under a mattress. But saving became something fewer and fewer people did, in the 20th century. And once we hit the 1950s, the numbers of savers dwindled even faster and faster.

GOD helps those who help themselves. And yes, I do believe in helping the truly needy, but FCOL, those who have to have what they can't really afford and/or be the first to have whatever is new/"in", no matter what...those people, I have NO patience with, when they come up short.

Read the full article. These whingers are union members, who squeezed and squeezed and SQUEEZED the companies and now that because of all of the perks and exorbitant high pay, have to lay off people or go out of business. Where were these yahoos, when the union bosses were demanding things that were unreasonable? THEY WERE THERE, EGGING THE UNION BOSSES ON, DEMANDING MORE AND MORE AND MORE!

[RedStateRocker]

"This is macro economic stuff, folks. Those of you getting off on schadenfreude at the micro economic misery of your fellow citizens keep on keepin' on. Nothing for you here"

"It's a Recession when your friends are out of work. It's a Depression if you are out of work"

Ronald Reagan.

Don't give me the micro/macro bunkum:-)

[nopardons]

ROTFLMSO !

Well, put that way, yes, we do seem to be having an "interesting" learning experience here; not to mention periodic spasm of hilarity.

[Mase]

Because "free traders" only believe in consumers and not citizens, in corporate license rather than sovereign borders, and "civil governance" instead of a constitutional republic and individual rights, that makes them traitors, in my eyes.

Welcome to planet hedgetrimmer, nopardons. In this alternative universe, limited government-minded, market-extolling conservatives are traitors while those who love government and disdain markets are the patriots.

I'm still waiting for hedgetrimmer to identify one American citizen who isn't also a consumer. She hasn't been able to do so yet but I keep asking the question.

[eeevil conservative]

Don't bother arguing with "IT."

"IT" is not worth your time. "IT" is very similar to a dinosaur. "IT" has a small brain and refuses to learn.

awwwww... I think you're just jealous of my hat...

[nopardons]

A simplified course in reading comprehension, would do you a world of good; dear. :-)

My RIGHTS have been "undermined by the fraudulently named "free traders"? They took away my right and ability to vote? WHEN, EXACTLY, DID THAT HAPPEN? I voted last November and nobody tried to stop me, nor was I ordered to vote for someone or something, that I did not want to.

What "RIGHTS", exactly ( please list them all in detail ) have been taken away from me.

[eeevil conservative]

I think hedgetrimmer is just suffering from "hat" envy....

[sauropod]

I think you just have "IT" envy...

[nopardons]

If you're going to personally attract me, the least you can do, is to ping me and to NOT refer to me as an IT!

Or, were you speaking of yourself; dinosaur?

[eeevil conservative]

LOL! That's IT! That's all? LOL!

dang! I was having so much fun!

surely you can be more funny and creative than that.....

it's no fun when you don't try....

[nopardons]

Oh, I'm SO glad that you showed up! :-)

Toddspirit was here for just a bit, but I've been doing most of the usual refutation. LOL

hedgey is a SHE? Who knew?

Hope you all had a MARVELOUS Christmas!