The Recent Collapse In Consumer Growth Has Been WORSE Than The Great Recession

The Business Insider ^ | 10-4-2010 | Doug Short

[Tolsti2]

I hope we’ll stop hearing the mantra ‘nobody is owed a decent living’ in this country. Free traders live by it to the end though.

[cicero2k]

I will laugh when the idiots who watch TV cannot buy Busch beer, ribs and the dope they smoke to watch ball games and other idiocy on TV.

From "Bread and Circuses" to "Beer and Football". How far we've come. To those not familiar with the phrase, here's some of what Wikipeia says about it:

This phrase originates from Rome in Satire X of the Roman poet Juvenal (circa 100 AD ). In context, the Latin phrase panem et circenses (bread and circuses) is given as the only remaining cares of a Roman populace which has given up its birthright of political involvement. Here Juvenal displays his contempt for the declining heroism of his contemporary Romans.[1]: Roman politicians devised a plan in 140 B.C. to win the votes of the poor; By giving out cheap food and entertainment, politicians decided that this policy of "bread and circuses" would be the most effective way to rise to power.

[SteamShovel]

Now the bill has come due, the correction in true property values will take as long to settle out as the inflated value took to create

You are right, but I don't think it had to be this way.

If the government had decided to allow the crash to happen quick and hard in late 2008 (no TARP and later no GM/Chrysler bailouts, etc), the dust would already be settling.

I think it would have been easier to truly grow out of the bottom than it is to slowly sink in this economic quicksand we are in now.

Strategically, it may have been better too. This is because we would have taken the world economy down with us so fast that they couldn't capitalize on our predicament. But now that our economic and military foes have had time to prepare, they are ready to pounce when the time is right.

So now we wait and watch the decline in slow motion, knowing the pain is going to be harder and longer than it had to be.

[Frantzie]

Bingo. People laugh and attack me like TV is mom and apple pie. Or that Saudi Prince Al Waleed’s (largest individual shareholder) Fox News is our “friend.” The public is so stupid. The 6 TV networks own at the cable channels. Each network on avg $5 to 6 a month from your cable bill whether you watch their channels or not.

America traded freedom for an Islamic TV clicker. The sheep don’t even get it.

[Frantzie]

What eventually happened to Rome? It imploded? What happened after that - the Dark Ages for a few hundred years.

I went to a party this weekend. Unfortunately it was a party but also watching state U in a big game. It is mindless crap to me. These people were mostly Repub with money. They have been out of college 12 to 30 years. They have no clue what is going on. Brainwashed by TV like everyone else. By watching TV, which supports the beast and our enemies, they are supporting their downfall. Idiots.