Reply #2: What else do you expect?

[MadHound]

After all, real world wages have been dropping steadily for the past thirty plus years, inflation, medical care, all of this has been going up and up. The shortfall has to be made up somehow, so around and around goes the credit card merry go round. Average amount of credit card debt per person, $8000.00.

And all of this is encouraged, even applauded by corporate America, and it's political puppets in government. Buy, Buy, Buy! is the new corporate mantra, with all of the political puppets mouthing along. What was Bush's message to Americans after 911? Not donate relief money, or blood, or other actions that could have had real significance, no. It was that we should be patriotic and Go Shopping.

And thus, we have spent ourselves right up to the brink of an economic disaster. The economy has come to rely almost totally on the consumer class to prop it up, yet with interest rates soaring, people are now starting to pull back on spending. Thus the dominoe falls that will bring down our economy. Less spending leads to a slow down in the economy, leads to fewer jobs, leads to less spending, etc etc. Meanwhile, with all of those credit cards due, people will go bankrupt right and left. And yet the monied class will simply consider it a buying opportunity, like they did the Great Depression.

I'm telling you people, pay off your credit cards, and as much other debt as you can handle. Save as much as possible, and preferably put some aside in "real wealth" such as gold or other intrinsic wealth holders, for the dollar could very well become meaningless. Plant a garden, become energy and economically self sufficient as much as you can. Get to know your neighbors, for you're going to have to help each other to survive. There is the perfect economic storm on the horizon, and I would be willing to bet that before all is said and done, it will kill more people worldwide than the tsunami did.