Americans are getting into debt to afford food, gas

marketwatch ^

[wally_bert]

That is good to know in case the axe falls on me out in the woods of lower SC.

[ilovesarah2012]

Well, I’m in the Upstate so you might be on your own. LOL

[Noamie]

My “non-degreed” pops got a job in his very early 20’s as a State prison gaurd and it allowed him to build a home and have a stay-at-home wife with 2 kids.

That same job today pays $18,000 a year.

And many of the applicants have bachelor degrees.

These people getting out of college now were all told that if they did not go to college they would be stupid and broke.

Then everyone from their own parents to the high school guidance counselor told these 17 year olds to “take, take, take” and just worry about it later.

Most of the Juniors in college can’t tell you how much they owe. No joke. The college counselors work to make sure they don’t really advertise it. Then you graduate and they, literally, hand you a bill.

It’s a big moment in growing up.

Then they get out, already in debt, and find out that the Obama economy is solely creating food-service jobs. And, oh hey - everything is about 300% higher in cost than when I left college.

Keep that cap and gown. You’ll need it to keep warm in the streets.

[Organic Panic]

But obama declared all cars to be more effecient and coal fired plants closed. Problam solved.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

The Economic Depression is going on its 6th year. When will it end? I don’t know. All I know is Obama is doing everything to make it worse and last longer.

[Jane Long]

But...but.... but... we keep hearing from the press that the economy’s bouncing back.

---

And, and....that there’s NO inflation. How can this be????

[Texas resident]

Obama, his party and his media are all working in concert to ruin this country economically.

When the shtf, never forget who brought us here.

[moovova]

"To them, higher borrowing, particularly credit card debt, suggests a rebound in consumer confidence stupidity is finally here."

There...fixed it.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

100% true. My own opinion is Obama was installed by Soros to do the bidding of the UN, which is deprive the USA of its international influence, which means ruining our economy so we can’t afford to influence world affairs.

Whatever the reason, Obama is intentionally destroying our culture and economy and shoving us toward true socialism.

[DannyTN]

"On the whole, the economy has been screwed up for over a decade...."

I think it's been screwed up longer than that...back to the 60's when we lowered the import tariffs. It's just the effects of the policy change weren't felt immediately. Real wages stagnated. Industries started leaving back then.

Those dang labor unions tried to warn us. But in the 60's and 70's, they were evil and greedy. Pushing for wage increases the rest of us could not afford made them the bad guys. They tried to warn us about the North American Free Trade deal too. But we wouldn't listen. Free trade would result in specialization and comparative advantage and everyone would be richer.

Republican Henry Hyde tried to tell us. He warned us that England had had their industries devastated by free trade.

It is a full-blown depression, ....that you just won’t admit it’s that bad.

I agree that it's bad. The unemployment certainly reached depression levels. But the term "depression" had a specific meaning and measure that most, not all, economists agreed on when I went to college. It was based on GNP and a depression needed a 10% decline. GNP only had 6% thanks in part to the FED pumping. (and possibly bad reporting)

Government receipts dropped 17%, but that reflects some tax policy changes in addition to the recession.

[Theophilus]

Obama is intentionally destroying our culture and economy

I don’t think he has that power. We are doing it to ourselves every time we take a seven year loan paying $740 a month for a car and many other economically maniacal practices.