I lost mine. The last election both candidates promised all candy no medicine and the newer guy won only because he was more unknown so it was easier to believe he was the real Santa. I believed in GWB and have sadly come to the conclusion many of the rats attacks were on target.
Example: The equity bubble we had both gas/oil and houses skyrocketed in value. Many Fellow Americans I know (most) had no trouble selling their houses to the highest bidder (locking out young people) but cursed the oil companies for doing likewise. One was just capitalism, the other was greed and manipulation. Such split logic leads to my first point.
The next shortcut is trade tarrifs to save jobs, like it did in 1930s. Brilliant! That will go great with future inflation.
My faith in the country is with the Joe Plumber type, not the politicians. People find ways to survive and thrive in spite of the government. Back in the late eighties, we had a house guest for about a month. He was from Poland and Poland’s economy was a shambles at that time. He had a regular job but he also ran a business on the side. He would go to factories that produced material or yarn, get their waste materials, take them to his network of homeworkers who knitted socks or made items which he could then sell. We still have some of those socks. In the summer he and his entire family would go to Sweden to participate in the harvest there. His attitude was, I will do whatever I need to do.
I see the paroxysms of the economy right now and the pain of a lot of people, yet there are opportunities everywhere for those who look for them and are willing to work at it. What stops a lot of people is they can’t see beyond what they lost, and want to “go back” to something that is often gone. A lot of people need to just decide, things are changed, it won’t go back and they need to move on to the opportunities under a new reality. Too much of our economy was based on luxury items: giant homes, new cars every couple of years, $500 shoes or purses, massive televisions and theater sets. Until we get ourselves situated in a sustainable economy, we will be forever vulnerable to market manipulations, to credit temptations, and to pressure to live beyond our means. Let’s face it: the market sold us a bill of good, and we willingly bought it. It was not sustainable when it became an expectation of everyone, not just those who could afford it. And we had reached that point. I recall a thread near Christmas about one of those charity family cases where in the newspaper article the one of the kid asked for a surround system for his bedroom so he could enjoy his movies and games more, his brother wanted a fancy video game system and games for it, the sister wanted Hannah Montana duds, and they wanted another dog for their mother.
My sentiments too!
I see this as an eventual windfall for the younger generation, who can then buy reasonalbly-priced houses, and run businesses out of shoppingcenters that have more reasonble rents, after the franchises have failed.
This is part of a cycle, that had to come, but did not have to be this severe.