Posted on 11/06/2011 3:19:33 PM PST by WOBBLY BOB
HITE BEAR LAKE - Big changes are coming worldwide as shifting demographics and economic conditions combine for a "New Normal."
Whether Americans see those changes as debilitating or a huge opportunity will decide America's future.
Those were among messages from State Economist Tom Stinson and State Demographer Tom Gillaspy as they made the presentation "The Boomer Tsunami" to a group of about 80 at Century College Oct. 5.
(Excerpt) Read more at presspubs.com ...
what a bunch of crap. IOW, just except your fate, grab your ankles, and don't fight socialism.
Older people are MORE conservative... The first boomer turned 65 this year. Every year - for the next 15 years or so - the country will become more conservative.
Why should Gillasky worry? He works for the state. The more disfunctional & needy the public becomes, the better his prospects are!
Part of the problem is, someone coins a clever phrase and then people who don’t know what they’re talking about start to misapply it. “The New Normal” originated with Bill Gross of PIMCO in 2009 as a way to describe investment strategy:
“The New Normal is a state where growth is slower, profit margins are narrower, and asset returns are smaller than in decades past based upon the delevering and reregulating of the global economy, which in turn should substantially inhibit the “gorging” of goods and services that we grew used to in decades past.”
Much of what is written now ignores the actual meaning and ascribes all kinds of new crap to the term. Gross’s original usage makes sense and his advice is still valid - things ain’t like they used to be, although that’s not to say we can’t fight like hell to change them.
The other day I came across a Google street view map of an up-scale town somewhere in California. And I thought let me take a walk around and check it out.
I passed a few nice homes, turned a corner and passed a few more nice homes and then there was a drive-way with three car garage. I turned and zoomed in, two garages were filled with stacked wood and the guy was in the third bent down working a chainsaw. I thought he was building a boat.
Then I turned and saw a port-a-potty right there next to the street and thought “ick who would want to live in a nice street like this and look at that all day.”
Then I turned again and saw a sign “Luxury Basements”.
So this guy with the three car garage is actually making a business of turning his neighbors cellars into “Luxury Basements” for their children (who have no hope of ever leaving) to live in.
What is “Luxury” about that?
I guess if you make a business out of it you need to sugarcoat the reality.
Pessimists ignore two things, illegal immigration and environmentalists are holding back US resources to recovery. Cut off illegals and Americans who work with their hands have a chance to get work and get good salaries for it. Push the environmentalists aside and out of power, and God’s blessing to America her oil, natural gas, timber and coal is available for export to generate blue collar jobs, income and yes tax revenues to help pay off our debts, put money into the pockets of American workers and jobs.
All wealth starts with natural resources —to which labor is added. Choke off access to natural resources and you destroy the fount of wealth. Newt, Gore and the others thought we could harvest other country’s natural resources and become a service or information economy. Service economies are secondary and only circulate wealth around. The information economy quickly went to India.
This nation has an abundance of natural wealth that is set aside, locked up and rendered too expensive to access, Environmental policies, a burdensome and expensive bureaucracy and over-regulation have destroyed rural economies and has put the source of wealth out of reach. Soon the know-how for developing natural resources will fade with the older generation. Our economy is tarngled in its own red tape and concern about preserving things for future generations while this one founders.
It should be noted that the author of this story is this local paper’s editor and editorialized a lot in favor of Obamacare.
Good to see our local paper last week parallels the national media’s daily propaganda pieces under the title ‘New Normal’. Its one of the more disgusting local attempts at spinning the fact the Obama Administration’s actions have made a cyclical recession into something far worse.
When we had 4.6 unemployment , Nancy Pelosi decried the “worst economy since Herbert Hoover”. What is it now at 9.2? The best thing since sliced bread?
Nothing like lowering expectations to make failure look acceptable.
While we’re at it, maybe we should be celebrating record numbers on foods stamps as ‘economic stimulus’ and achievement of “Great Society’ ideals.
The U.S. adds one international migrant (net) every 36 seconds. Immigrants account for one in 8 U.S. residents, the highest level in more than 80 years. In 1970 it was one in 21; in 1980 it was one in 16; and in 1990 it was one in 13. In a decade, it will be one in 7, the highest level in our history. And by 2050, one in 5 residents of the U.S. will be foreign-born.
Currently, 1.6 million legal and illegal immigrants settle in the country each year; 350,000 immigrants leave each year, resulting in net immigration of 1.25 million. Since 1970, the U.S. population has increased from 203 million to 310 million, i.e., over 100 million. In the next 40 years, the population will increase by 130 million. Three-quarters of the increase in our population since 1970 and the projected increase will be the result of immigration. The U.S., the world’s third most populous nation, has the highest annual rate of population growth of any major developed country in the world, i.e., 0.963% (2011 estimate), principally due to immigration.
125,000 brand new foreign workers with work permits each month -- HERE'S THE PROOF,/p>
57 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal and illegal) with children (under18) used at least one welfare program, compared to 39 percent for native households with children. The poverty rate for immigrants and their U.S.-born children (under 18) is 17 percent, nearly 50 percent higher than the rate for natives and their children. While government works to reduce the number of poor persons, massive low-skill immigration pushes the poverty numbers up. In addition, low-skill immigration siphons off government anti-poverty funding and makes government efforts to shrink poverty less effective. Milton Friedman said, “You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state.” We have both.
Old Asian saying - “When hit by an arrow, you first must pull it out, stop bleeding before you go for help, otherwise you will die”. Environmentalists are too busy trying to save us from a disaster they think may happen in the future, but starve the current society to death.
“So this guy with the three car garage is actually making a business of turning his neighbors cellars into “Luxury Basements” for their children (who have no hope of ever leaving) to live in.”
In California houses aren’t built with basements. This is the land of the concrete slab foundation. Simply having a basement is a novelty. I do know someone who added a ‘basement’, in reality a large temperature controlled wine cellar.
He could be building safe rooms, hidden storage rooms or bomb shelters and use the luxury basements as a cover.
Considering they mostly vote rat we are screwed.
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