Honestly, regardless of your political party, do you feel the USA is going to get better again?
It seems like 1/2 of everyone I know is unemployed, underemployed, underpaid(severely--talking 85k down to 30k), or working odd jobs to barely make rent/survive. I know engineers, nurses, accountants, etc. who cannot land a job and my heart aches, because I am in a similar position and working a part-time office job for only $10/hr, here in NYC. That may sound somewhat decent, but trust me..it's not. I am only lucky enough to be catching a break from my fiance's parents. We live in their basement! Both of us are trying to finish our Bachelors, I already have my LPN license, and we are making use of this advantage, and I think..gosh..even I feel the burn of this economy. I can only imagine people with children/families. In ALL reality..give me your brutal honesty..do you think the USA will ever recover from this terrible depression, and if so, how long do you think it will take and how exactly will it happen? I can't help but seeing China as this super force and all these other countries that have some type of "goodie" to offer...we don't seem to have ANYTHING that's in demand :-/. ..and since times are hard, I know even MORE of us are buying from China and other cheap foreign countries..I mean, everything is literally made in China. It's crazy.
Politics - 13 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Are you serious??? Go talk to your parents about the early 80's little girl. And if they weren't old enough talk to grandma and grandpa ^^lol that's the fucking coolest thing I've seen on here a pooh bear made from keyboard characters!! holy sh!t
2 :
yes now that one party is no long in Control things will get bettor
3 :
I think all the world will be worst and worst, honestly, and at the bottom will be actual (still) powers : US, EU etc.
4 :
Yes things will likely improve. I am older and lived through times of higher unemployment, higher inflation, etc. It was bad waiting in long lines for your limit of 5 gallons of gas during the Carter years. And when you finally got up to the pump the station ran out, and your car ran out. There have been worse times. The younger generation just hasn't seen it.
5 :
Yes, the more we buy from China makes it even worse on our national economy. Maybe a cold war with that hybrid monstrosity would be good.The only ones benefitting from our relation with that monster are U.S. Corporatists.Yes, it does seem that more than likely they would support Republican policies.Let's talk some truth, we are more dependent on China than IT is on us.I have heard so many members on this site that China is dependent on US for its economy to stay healthy. We depend on China for ours to stay sour?We need more trade regulations, more corporate regulations, not fewer. I am mad too.
6 :
No. I think it will level off after much loss in this country but without our manufacturing base, we are a service economy. Services were never paid as well as manufacturing. It could return after we can be competitive with the 3rd world countries which will either be the result of our collapse or after many years of decline. That sounds so strange. The UN doesn't want resources to be used except for absolute necessities. There is an effort to minimalize life activities on this planet. Even our own government does not talk about restoring prosperity. They talk about living a more minimalistic life. I have never heard that in all my 63 years of living in this country. Without consumerism, many will be unemployed or working for the government in a service capacity. This country has indeed been fundamentally transformed. All Western nations are experiencing the same thing. Its a matter of spreading the wealth. Read UN Agenda 21 signed by George HW Bush in 1992 and by well over 100 other countries. Know your future. Its the New World Order.
7 :
Sorry, the American century is over. Welcome to the new normal.
8 :
If you are a nurse, check out the calls for people who know medical terminologies, a working knowledge of computers, any typing ability (good spelling a MUST), and can actually read doctors' handwritings (lol), because a job that pays around $60,000 to start is being advertised often for changing the nation's paper-laden medical records to computer-generated reports. If you look in your city's Yellow Pages under "Management," there should be a whole slew of firms listed who do NOT go through regular channels for finding qualified management personnel. Choose only those firms where the COMPANY pays any fees and some even pay relocation expenses as well. A few will help you with your resume, even. They prefer college-educated candidates who have worked in some sort of supervisory capacity (even if only managing one or two employees). As to the United States "getting better"---There are signs everywhere that this nation is edging towards a full recovery at every level. Employment was harmed by the GOP's penchant for massive OUTSOURCING of all our manufacturing jobs, but even this has been addressed by both the Obama administration and the Democrats in both the House and the Senate. How? The Republicans' foolish subsidies and tax breaks for companies who move their entire operations overseas have now been ended, and replaced with subsidies and tax breaks for companies that relocate or set up on American soil. Commonsense. In addition, if you check out the whitehouse.gov website, you will discover quite a few resources and positive actions underway for people such as yourself, working Americans. The rebuilding of our lost manufacturing base is well underway, too...see recovery.gov for details on the more than 40 states with new alternative-energy plants in operation---part of President Obama's "Green-Energy" technologies initiative that will eventually wean us off of foreign oil and onto earth-friendly renewable fuels (solar or wind-powered, water-powered, etc.). You might find jobs available in these new fields that are high-paying. This might also be an area where you'd like to make some investments, because the values will escalate over time. Chrysler (a car company we lent money to keep alive) has now moved its 800# Customer Service operations back onto American soil, setting up in both Utah and Michigan (and hiring Americans again). GM is hiring, and they now are selling their shares on Wall Street. You might consider returning to college as well. Pell Grants have been INCREASED under the Obama and Democratic team, and as part of the new Affordable Care Act (health care and insurance reforms) and its "Fix It" addendum, college students can now cut tuition costs by making DIRECT loans through the Department of Education instead of using high-interest banks as middlemen. On the health care reforms, check out cnn.com/healthcare or the whitehouse.gov sites.
9 :
Not with all the lobby groups representing companies who outsource jobs and keep the US unemployed, using our politicians to represent their interests over ours.
10 :
Things will get better. The economy has already been stopped from it's free fall and has begun to recover. Employment always lags behind, but will begin to improve shortly too. We are in the most serious recession since the 30's and recovery will be very slow. From what I've read, we can't expect real progress on the employment front for another 4 or 5 years. You, however, are in the enviable position of preparing for a job that is in demand and will be even more so in the future. Many Americans will never regain the earning power they once had and will have to settle for much less. Their lives will never be the same. The biggest problem with the recovery and with America's immediate future is the tremendous debt, both public and private, that we've racked up over the past thirty years. Because the federal government is so far in the hole, their number one strategy of borrowing and spending money to stimulate the economy during recession, had to be greatly tempered. Although a stimulus package was instituted, it wasn't enough to cause a quick recovery. Also, the middle class borrowed greatly, especially in the past ten years, in order to maintain their standard of living since wages, adjusted for inflation have decreased. They are now paying off that debt instead of purchasing consumer goods and services in the same volume as before. America has been on a spending spree which now must be payed back. The wealthy have been doing quite well however. Their net worths and income have risen significantly over the past thirty years, and with the recent Supreme Court decision that allows corporations to give unlimited amounts secretly to political campaigns, the wealthy are in no danger of legislation which levels the playing field to pre-Reagan days. (They currently pay a less percentage of their incomes in taxes than working class Americans) Therefore, unless you are in the top five percent of wage earners, you can expect your income to continue decreasing slowly. The good news is that 95% of us will be in this boat together so that it won't be so greatly noticed, nor so painful as it is now.
11 :
This year GM has taken the champion in China car sale,America export will be better and better.
12 :
In your situation you could improve your lot by moving where the local economy is much more diverse than NYC and the east coast in general. The south has more to offer because it's base is not in manufacturing and other industry's tied to the problem of our massive, massive debt to China. While the economy here(TN) is not robust by any means but it is overwhelmingly better than the Northeast. If I wanted a job here I could find one-not anything career building-but they are here. Our unemployment numbers are high mainly because they are dragged down by the closed Saturn plant. A quick check of the Sunday paper shows over 100 LPN positions. When I was much younger during the Reagan years you could find 5 full time jobs in one afternoon if you wanted to. My biggest problem back then was finding workers-as hard as it is too believe today we never had enough employees. As far as the USA recovering, as you say, the answer is crystal clear what needs to happen-and someday it will one way or the other. We must pay down our massive debt which overburdens every single part of our economy. You can toss blame hither and tither and up and around but all comes back to the something-we must cut entitlements for the nation to survive. As an example-a friend sent me pictures of the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans-they were mind-blowing in their scope. Recently, he sent me pictures of the same areas and lo and behold-nothing has changed one bit. The massive destruction is still there. 190 billion dollars has been pumped into this area-and it's been spent. That in a nutshell is what must be stopped for this economy to recover. sp
13 :
YES we could however this is going to be the deciding factor. "MORE of us are buying from China and other cheap foreign countries..I mean, everything is literally made in China." We as a country would have to stop the purchase of "cheap foreign goods" as much as possible and make a point to buy American Made whenever possible. I am not criticizing you as almost all of us a guilty of purchasing "cheap foreign goods", however the more ALL Americans buy cheap goods from China and other foreign countries the worse we(the US) will get and the incentive & our ability to restart our manufacturing will get weaker. Globalization has turned out to be our enemy as we have always had the lead in technology and we are starting to see the loss of that. What we have to get away from is "cheap foreign goods". If anyone has noticed they are not as "cheap" as they use to be. I never thought I would be saying or even consider thinking this but it probably is true. If we were to use isolationism on trade or a 25-30% tax on imported products that would raise the price of imports to a point where if the same product was made in the US we could compete. As crazy as isolationism sounds it would force us to restart our manufacturing ASAP and recover faster as only US made products would be available. Then any imported product we are already use to would become a potential "NEW" product to manufacture here ASAP. It would also require our laws to prevent monopolies. It would require that only American owned companies be involved in this to keep the money in the US economy. I remember when this all started and hearing people say that buying low quality imports would never affect thier job but it did catch up with them. The popular term I picked up back then and still use is "china crap"
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