Quote:
Originally Posted by barry12345
Presenting a false illusion of realty is the real danger currrently of both the financial mess and continuing it. How does one really gauge how the economy is performing and where it is going with all the borrowing going on mind existing debt in the background? Both at the government and personal levels.
I do not know about you but does anyone notice the phone is not ringing as much with offers of more credit cards now as in the past? Too many people own far too much on their existing cards and have nothing of any tangiable worth to show for it. Other than they have strapped themselves pretty badly for the forseeable future. Actually sold some of their freedom if you wish for the times ahead.
It would be less than reasonable to assume that the overall effects will not be downloaded on the population. What troubles me is the methology of how this may occur. Plus the rate of implementation of any corrective factors. Everyone wants a soft landing but it may either not be possible or too selective in nature.
Personally I favour increased taxation over direct attacks on peoples existing asset bases. In one way or another we will getting those indirectly but not as bad perhaps if heavier taxation was enabled. I still even after this much time cannot get a really good handle on the real estate fiasco that occured.
Also too much of the population operating on simular debt based principals disturbs me. It too presents a false picture of the standard of living. There are some signs that things are starting to crack on the lower economic end of the population spectrum from a financial existance perspective.
Almost all the propaganda of the last twenty years or more has encouraged people to live beyond their sensible means. Many developed cultures have taken a different approach where their propaganda makes living on only a reduced porton of there income a way of life. That at least keeps their countries debt contained within their borders. A far more manageable situation than what we have.
It also allows those countries to expand their economic bases into other countries. At some point this becomes a really serious problem as some countries eventually will become mere satilite economic operations for other countries.
Many prices today are both enabled, manipulated and controlled to some extent by credit availability. The ideal that it keeps the economy going is fine if it did not also include so many potential downsides at the same time. North america has not prepared themselves for the bed of thorns that may lay ahead seemingly having no other option or policies than of making it pricklier all the time.
All I am pretty sure of is I see no will existing to address issues that will have perhaps a great negative effect on our grandchildren. Humans are not really smart to always be engaged in wars of one form or another. My belief is in todays world more than ever before it is currently economic forms of warfare. With north america on the losing end.
The rants that we are so much better off will get harder and harder to attempt to believe. If I borrow say three million I might also have a better standard of living than some of our forum members for a time. In the medium to long term though it was a false and unsustainable generation of a standard of living. Others including myself will pay for that type of stupidity in some way. Not just me.
Another thing that is getting my attention. A political system that has become seriously combative between parties and feels that is more important than the general welfare and well being of the people they are purported to serve. Or to put it another way their self interest and greed plus need for power exceeds common sense.
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well said.
example of entitlement syndrome-
I lived with a guy years back who moved into an apartment with his wife. he needed a truck so I sold him a ranger I had for 400 bucks as a favor, we agreed that he should pay me as soon as his paycheck cleared 2 days later, and in the meantime he could use the truck.
Over the next 6 months, he struggled to make payments on this POS ranger, giving me 20 here, 30 there, finally paying it off. In the meantime, every time I went by his house, there were more and better things, expensive TVs, expensive lamps, computers, ect.
On several confrontations, he admitted that he was buying all that crap with a credit card running up a massive bill, and his struggle to pay for a 400 dollar truck over 6 months actually represented his true cash flow since he was paying me cash for it, but meanwhile hes floating on a massive cloud of things he can't afford, paid by credit card companies that will never collect once he declares bankruptcy. It was a sickening mess. It was obvious that he didn't consider debt to the credit card quite real, as if he had a license to run up as much debt as he wants getting toys for himself, and he deserved it because there was a way to do it. His debt to me he considered very real, and I went through his finances with him at one point before establishing what he could pay for this truck weekly since his paycheck had evaporated into debt payments he owed earlier.
I kept asking him, why are you buying all this crap if you can't afford it, and the answer was always that he wanted it, and it was clear that he lacked the self discipline to save up for the things he wanted.
I can't believe how many people ive met in life that are like this. My fear and impression is that a majority of people under 40 may have this kind of mentality in this country.