Economic Recession, Consumer Depression

nation of whiners

we are a nation of whiners. we are spoiled. we could all live on less. our parents worked so hard to give us better lives that we have gotten a sense of entitlement. i think it is part of the human condition to complain no matter what. nothing is ever good enough. always strive for more. don't be content with what you have when you could always have more. at the same time we have been constantly ripped off by politicians and ceos. they are big time thieves who are not regulated and prosecuted. it is more evident with the 24 hr news cycle and that is why we have lost faith in system. for the first time in history everyone with cable or direct tv can see how corrupt the whole system is. the population explosion hasn't helped either. neither has the immigration problem. there are so many things that contribute to our negative outlook. they are all brought to the forefront through our media. peoples attitudes are controlled by what they see and we are deluged with bad news.

robert fisher of NC @ Aug 11, 2008 14:29:44 PM

State of Affairs in America

With everyone bashing our President its no wonder were in the fix were in, instead of concentrating on the real issues Americans tend to blame the President for everything. What about our Democratic Congress are they not held to the same standards as the President. It seems to me these two parties battling ,each one veteoing each others propsals is what got us into this mess to begin with.

I believe in the two Party system, dont get me wrong we need the checks and balances, but not when it comes to hurting the poor and middle class people. What would happen to us if the Arabs just decided to cut off all our oil, like Chavez did, where would we be then? We need to drill for our own oil, and be fiscally independent. I agree outsourcing has killed our economy, and Chinese ships importing more goods than they export. Why should the Chinese ship full cargo and return with none of our goods, something is amiss there.

Let's make all of our elected officials responsible to us the American people, not to Foreign Countries. If they are not doing right by us VOTE them out. As for me I am voting all incumbents out.

Keri of FL @ Aug 11, 2008 14:22:29 PM

What no one is telling Congress about Energy

What No One is telling our Congressional Members about Energy.

I have been reading Letters to the Editor in my local newspaper that try to make the case for “More Drilling for Oil in America.” Most of us remember the mid 1970’s when we had a world wide oil shortage and the price of gasoline went up. Soon it came down and we were back enjoying our gas guzzlers.

If America and our Automobile Industry had learned from this and supported fuel efficient cars, we would not be paying the price we are now paying. The oil companies did learn. They did stop building new refineries but NOT because of environmental concerns nor NIMBY (No In My Back Yard) as one writer had written. Instead, the oil industry began merging and started slowly closing, one at a time, their existing refineries. The result was gasoline prices slowly started their climb to where they are now. Not because of any perceived oil shortages but because of decreasing refinery capacity. To prove this point, does anyone believe the new congressionally mandated 10% ethanol is made at refineries that cost one billion dollars to build or does everyone understand they are using “moth-balled/ closed" oil refineries on loan from the Oil Industry to make mandated corn ethanol?

I have been following the Congressional House hearing where the oil executives have been testifying. The oil industry is saying they do not have any "off –shore or on-shore" drilling equipment not already in use. Bottom line – they do not have the equipment to do more drilling. If they did “find some” not in use, I would suggest they start re-drilling Texas/Oklahoma oil fields where 2/3rd of all oil ever found there is still in the ground or maybe on the 38 million acres off-shore where they have found and are obtaining a lot of Gulf Oil on land already under lease. That oil is there and will come to American refineries.

The fifty years that the oil executives are telling Congress that Prudhoe Bay will keep the Alaskan Pipe line full of oil, none of that oil has ever nor will ever be made into American Gasoline. Congress does not understand all of our Alaskan oil goes to China, Japan and South Korea. So while some congressional members scream to drill ANWR, there is NO rational reason to drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refugee.

We all remember when our president failed to get Saudi Arabia to sell more oil. A week later Saudi Arabia said why they refused. Their answer was that the world oil pipe line had all the oil it can handle (meaning refinery capacity).

Since cars do not run on oil but require gasoline, if we want the price of gas to go down then the oil industry needs to put “moth-balled” refineries back into service. Surely all of our Congressional members know this. Could it just be no one wants to tell the oil industry to “do it”?

Does anyone believe the oil industry will build more drilling rigs or take old refineries out of "moth Balls" unless Congress gets involved? Why should the oil industry want the price of oil to go down? They are the ones who closed their old refineries in the first place.

Americans while hurting now must wean itself off oil and help the rest of the world learn how to successfully, peacefully and rapidly retreat from its addiction to oil. If not we will remain at the mercy of the oil industry that has since the 1970's been unregulated. My next car will be a plug in electric powered I hope by solar panels on my house.

Sam Booher of GA @ Aug 11, 2008 13:37:42 PM

Blake - my goodness - are you a big government supporter or what! Just like Chris said, because you're an American doesn't mean you have a God Given right to jobs and inexpensive fuel. The government does not create jobs - they are supposed to create a level playing field (which is where the some of the problem lays). Skills and talents create jobs - that seems to be the big misunderstanding.

I'll say it one more time - the government does not create jobs - and no democrat can magically turn the economy around. Market forces will flush all this out and we'll be stronger for it.

Mike Hierholzer of NC @ Aug 11, 2008 13:33:04 PM

i don't agree with the notion we are not whine enough. Everyday ,I hear people whine about how bad is our economy. I hear from my co-workers, my friends, and people on radio shows. We whine but we did not do anything about it. They whine but they did not try to cut back their expenses and still driving those 4x4 heavy duty pickup trucks. We have a image that this is how our country should be but in fact it is not. Maybe we should change the way we look at things. Sorry Blake but maybe you and your friends should look for different types of job. There are still jobs out there...

john hoang of TX @ Aug 11, 2008 13:28:29 PM

Recession is also a mindset

To Blake S., I have to agree with most of your opinion, and to Chris of AZ., you definitely have your head in the sand.

I have been through several of the 'mini' recessions in my life, and although I am financially much more secure today than in my youth, theoretically I should have not to worry. Right?

Wrong, as I see every major institution of our economy: Automobile, Housing, Banking, oil-issues, and most of all, jobs which we have always thought we could depend upon, greatly deteriorate to desperate levels.

I blame not one political party for this mess, but both.

The Republicans for encouraging corporate interests at the expense of our jobs, and Democrats who complained that they would fix the mess after the fact.

Neither Congress nor the higher elements can figure out or agree on what best suits the America of today.

I am truly sad for my country.

S. Cook of TX @ Aug 02, 2008 03:36:58 AM

depression not just a mental state

Didn't you get the memo, we can't conserve our way out of this crisis, thats from the lips of the decider himself. One more example of behaviour above the law, the president breaks the law and lies to the people, has persons tortured, and phones tapped without warrants and he is as free as bird and does not receive so much as a censure from the congress. The press is as absent as ever, only a mouthpiece for the government, for that is the true role of corporate media, show a profit, reality and news be damned.

Fools and liars running the banking,brokerage, and financial industries, looting 401k's and IRA accounts, Social Security is underfunded, we've got a half a trillion dollar budget deficit at the same time bridges are falling into the Mississippi river for lack of maintenance. New Orleans is still in ruins, Gonzalez corrupted the Justice Department. Rumsfeld ran the war into the ground and Cheney, well all I can say is Satan is missing a soul but they'll get it back pretty soon.

This then is the landscape we are imbued with, dancing on a tight rope of a declining job market, a black abyss of debt with no health insurance, no retraining, no way out, waiting below us, waiting patiently for a misstep, a nervous tic, an ill wind to blow us from our precarious perch to netherworlds created by our financial masters with our funds, our ignorance and our oblivousness.

I'm sure the numbers are glorious, unemployment is at a new low, and inflation non-existent, the dollars a rock and my bank account is insured unless the government defaults on that half a trillion and climbing debt. Mark Twain, bless him, said there are liars, damn liars, and statistics. Anybody who reads the numbers knows the statistics are created by the damn liars for the other liars.

We've painted ourselves into a corner, unless someone starts sawing thru the floor I don't see any way out. But thats just me, I'm an optimist, some folks say were already all dead and just waiting to fall over.

John McCain of GA @ Jul 29, 2008 21:47:45 PM

The market will eventually sort this out. What government needs to do is get control of its own spending and stop regulating us to death. Fact: we would NOT have and energy crisis if Washington didn't regulate the industry to death. Fact: the housing crisis is a result of stupid consumers and greedy financial people. Well both of them got a rude awakening. They learned their lesson. I doubt we'll see that kind of lending for a long time EVEN WITHOUT government regulation. Fact: Real estate prices were growing faster than income. It had to implode AND now it has become more affordable for people to buy! I have two sons that just bought homes they would never have been able to afford. Market forces will prevail, and it will get people away from buying a home as an investment and rather as a place to live. While some poeple see all these forces as a negative they are actually for our good. They make us conserve and look for alternatives. They teach us not to buy what we can't afford. And homes are becoming more affordable in the long run for more people in the long run.

Doug of WI @ Jul 29, 2008 21:43:14 PM