I finally get it. People are just too damn busy to bother following this serious financial crisis. Every once in a while, they get a snippet of how dire the credit crunch is. But they can’t accept it.
They don’t trust the media, so why should they accept what the media now reports? They don’t trust the government to tell the truth on either side of the coin, warning of bad times ahead while downplaying the severity of the crisis.
Many people are going to keep their rose-colored glasses on because they are too used to conspiracy theories and trying to destroy Republicans and Conservatives. They just aren’t mentally ready to accept the truth and just don’t have the luxury of time to really study up on the enormous severity of this credit crisis. I don’t expect Great Depression, the Sequel, but I certainly appreciate how close we will come to missing it and how bad the economy will get and why. Most people just don’t have the time for this. They are going to have to live it.
It is like the housing bubble. Home owners were so euphoric about seeing their house prices rise rapidly, they just refused to consider that it was all fictitious capital. Can you blame them? You work your ass off for a lifetime — or at least a half — your lifestyle constantly on the wane, eaten up by inflation, and you are working more than ever and never getting ahead. Then your home value seems to soar and the feeling is “finally! something went right and I have a little breathing room!” Who would readily give up that dream? Yet people are learning the extent of the bubble with the collapse of house sales and later house prices.
Maybe the people I call “Freepyannas” are just trying to live a bit more of the elusive dream that has escaped them too long and just don’t want to believe that times may become worse instead of better. This of course is frustrating for you and I and several here, because we aren’t trying to ruin people’s lives or shatter their dreams. I’ll speak for myself, though I have to believe you are similar, when I say, I’m not trying to show them up or crash their dreams, I’m trying to warn them to WAKE UP! WAKE UP! and protect themselves from the economic damage that complacency is going to cause. I’m trying to say “WAKE UP! and study what is really going on with this liquidity and insolvency crisis in banking and how this will affect the national economy and the world. Protect yourself from this coming financial downturn. Don’t lose your life savings.”
For those like you and I, it may be futile. I just want people to read and study and see where we may be going and to protect themselves from financial harm. But you and I and the others can’t make people accept the real possibility of a severe economic downturn. Maybe we need to change our tone. I get frustrated and become sarcastic or flippant. Maybe we just need to be more patient.
It’s just frustrating. It is like seeing floodwater come down a mountain with hours to spare and nobody is willing to evacuate town. Just very frustrating.
Exactly. You try to help them with warnings, and you are called a crank and worse.
For me, I decided to move to a location that I hope will be well positioned to ride out a prolonged downturn. Stable ethnography, plenty of water, food grown locally, etc.
I have recently applied for a new home mortgage and had no less than 6 brokers calling everyday. I just don’t see it as that bad if you saved your money and choose this time to invest.
Well I am listening. So why don’t you share some suggestions for those of us who are concerned?
Other than stocking up on canned food...
Since mid-90's, shortly after Greenspan's "Irrational Exuberance" speech, I suddenly realized that I am witnessing something I have only read in history books. A society at its peak, head and shoulder above others, starts to ruin itself due to its hubris. There are any examples in history, but I had never seen it myself. It was the eye-opener. Such a momentous event unfolding before my eyes. Furthermore, each time I thought it has run its course, it picks up again and go on again, lasting far longer than I expected. It was bewildering at first, and frightening as time passes by. Now the problem grew astronomical in size. Mind-boggling. I have been actually living in interesting time.