Seriously, how bad can our economy get???

[a kennedy]

D*mn, I'm getting terribly nervous. :scared: :scared: :scared:

[Poll_Blind]

1. It could get so bad, kids will have to pay their grannies to kiss 'em!

Seriously, though. I dunno. I'm trying to position myself as a Shaman-type in the coming America. You know: Help name babies, spot witches, resolve disputes between pets and their owners. Ok, that wasn't too serious, either. Actually, I can't even encompass the situation and not instantly have my brain short-circuit to something silly.

Maybe it won't be that bad?

:shrug:

PB

[xoom]

2. we will see when the markets start to open..

:shrug:

[coalition_unwilling]

3. When FDR took office in January of 1933, the national unemployment

rate stood at 25%. One out of four working Americans was without work. Keep in mind that this was the national average. Some areas were below that and some areas above, some demographic groups (like blacks and Asians) hit harder than Caucasians.

With President Romney, I predict we'll test those 1933 figures again in 2013-14.

[jwirr]

11. How bad can it get? There are plenty of examples of failed government.

The best IMO is the Hoover government of 1930. But looking around the world things can get worse than even that.

[RagAss]

4. Boiling the family pets !

[dkf]

5. We fell more than the futures are indicating last Thursday.

It sucks but it's not so bad...yet.

[Avalux]

6. I think we've only begun the tumble to the bottom.

I'm not scared though. I'm sick of all the bullshit and honestly, we deserve whatever happens to us. American citizens need to look in the mirror and point the finger at themnselves for being apathetic and taking democracy for granted.

[ixion]

7. It's going to have to get bad before it gets better

and it will never get better as long as the so-called "too-big-to-fail" hasn't failed.

[HughBeaumont]

8. We hit Peak Capitalism with Clinton.

This is Reaganomics: The End Game.

Slash taxes on the rich. Raise taxes and cost of living burden on the middle/working/poor classes. Underpay people. Fire fucktons of people. Ship their jobs overseas. Hilariously believe lots of Indians and Chinese, who you barely pay over there, can afford to buy your products. Quash unions. Make higher education that the worker needs harder and more expensive to attain year after year. Suppress worker's wages in real dollars for thirty years. Start unnecessary and never-ending military occupations of choice. Blame regulation, minorities, liberals and "crushing tax burdens" when the whole furshlugginer mess crashes like clockwork every seven years. . Yelp "TEH CLASS WARFARE!!!!" at any suggestion of making things fairer. Repeat and rinse this stupid fucking idiotic system for eternity.

I mean . . . how did anyone with a brain stem THINK this was going to end?

[Blue Meany]

9. Much worse than the Great Depression...

I don't worry about Wall Street, really just a parasite that sucks the blood of the productive sectors of the economy. But the productive sectors have rapidly diminished as industries move overseas. In the 1930s, we had our own oil, and a strong industrial base, and could easily feed ourselves; all these factors helped pull us out of the Depression.

Today we have to import oil and don't manufacture much. We can still feed ourselves, but only as long as we can afford to import oil to make fertilizers, pesticides, and run farm machinery. Right now the recession is keeping oil prices relatively low, but when the global economy grows, the price of oil will act as a damper, keeping a ceiling on growth.

My hope is that devaluing the dollar will over time have the effect of making US made products more competitive and will make it more possible to build a new energy structure that will make us less dependent on imports. This is the only scenario I can see for stabilizing the economy in the long run.

[Proles]

10. Well, it'll get to the point where there will be rioting in the streets.

Much social upheaval in the world, and America will not be immune.

A game changer is needed real soon, or the majority will be slaves to the rich.

[Curmudgeoness]

12. Don't get yourself too worried. It may be bad, and may get worse,

but Wall Street is just a money game, and all the losses are just paper losses. That money never really existed to begin with. In the end, the Reps will have to cave on raising taxes, and I just hope that it happens in time. But we are not at Great Depression time yet.

Worrying will just give you wrinkles and ulcers. There is little we can do about this but ride it out. Focus on what you can do to get by. I have been through some really ugly times, and I just do not allow it to get to me. I remember gasoline rationing during Carter administration. I remember the tech bubble burst. I lived through a time in Houston when house prices lost half their value because of so many foreclosures. These things will pass, just make plans for how you can make it.