life help: America’s Economy - Help.com

That would create inflation. Not good either.

Part One

If you are truly scared my advice to you would be to better educate your self on the subject of economics; I’m not saying that to be rude, you are not alone in your fears and the subject of economics is one that is not properly taught and addressed in US society.

I will try to quickly help you with a few points, hopefully it will help you with your current fear.

First thing you need to understand is that the economy is not in “crises”; it has never been in a state of large scale crises since the end of the 1930s when the government set up fail safe systems so that the likes of the great depression never happen again.

Currently the economy is experiencing a state of extreme volatility after years of economic stability and sizable growth. This volatility may result in a recession, and that is the most likely outcome.

How ever be assured we are not in a crises and we are currently not even in recession. These fears, if you where, are primarily the concoction of the 24 hour cable news system acting sensationalist in order to drive up their ratings and so revenue. Not unlike the Bird flue scare of last year, for months we all thought we where going to die from bird flue, and now you hardly hear about it. The news media picks up on a topic scares us with it and then moves on; its how they make money. You should not let them scare you in this way.

Part Two

So now that you know that at worse the economy is in a state of extreme volatility and most likely heading for a recessions; let me explain recessions two you. A recession is as mach a part of the economic cycle as is an economic boom. While it is undesirable, it is also unavoidable, in any economy there are periods of growth and periods of retraction its just a way of life. In this country recession occurs every 7 to 10 years. The last one was in 2000 and so 2009 is right on par. There is nothing unusual going on, this is always to be expected. The only problem is that people don’t want to think about the bad times when their in the good times; so when the bad times hit it always feels as if the sky is falling when it simply not true and we all made it through the last time the sky fell.

Also to help your fears, this current recession is projected to be milder then the one 8/9 years ago. In 2000 when the tech bubble busted a lot of people lost their retirement and investment funds; they did so because with the advent of the internet we all thought we could be day traders with out realizing the risks we where taking when the bubble busted we where all in no position to recover. It was a big problem for people who where really counting on that money to retire or for other needed things.

So don’t worry, recessions happen all the time; there is no way to avoid them. Think of them as cleaning up after the party so that tomorrow you can have a nice clean place to through another party. Also don’t worry because as far as recessions go this one is going to be a small one.

Part Three

As for the rise in fuel prices; this is due to the inadequacies of our government. We do not have any leaders leading us at this moment. But again don’t worry, fuel prices are being artificial inflated mostly through speculation. There will come a time in the near future where this new bubble will burst and fuel prices will stabilize again.

Once again the increase in food prices are doe to the government. Their faulty attempts to trick us into thinking they are fixing the fuel problem has lead to increases in food prices. But once fuel stabilizes so too will food.

Your idea of increasing wedges to help with these two problems is not a very good one. If you increase everyone’s wages all you will do is increase inflation and in turn this will make fuel and food prices also increase. You will have done nothing to fix the problem.

The way we have created our money system is a good one and it is not beating us. However currently some unsavory people in the banking industry have found ways to by pass our money system to make more profit. This does not mean our money system is bad, because it still protects against a whole lot of bad things. All this means is that in the 21 century there are a set of new challenges that must “also” be addressed. Loopholes need to be closed and don’t worry they will be. It always happens that someone pushes the envelope before reinforcement is put into place. We are simply in a period of time in between, it’s a little shaky but no need for the average person to worry about.

I hope this helps you.

Also, keep in mind that in recent surveys 80% or more of Americans believed their personal economics where doing well; but when asked if about the economy as a whole they where much less certain. What this tells us is that for most people everything is well, they are just worried about everyone else; but if most everyone else is doing well what are they worried about? It all comes back to the media trying to scare us to make more money for themselves.

u could move somewhere else like canada we are good here. what is a bachelors degree

ok

is this a laughing matetr?

lol true

EmilyRI wrote:
Thanks. But it’s not the media affecting my being afraid. Its approaching the gas pump with agony, desperately searching for a job with a bachelor’s degree, figuring out how one can survive on minimum wage, spending twice as much at the grocery store, worrying if I’ll ever be able to afford a house. This was not media created. Unfortunately, it’s real life for me. And probably alot of other young people.

But what you said (parts 1, 2, and 3) were fantastic and I was just able to see the “postitives” which were probably being disguised by the media for the sake of making a few extra bucks.
I am however, still scared. But if you say the recession we are “due for” is not going to be as big as the previous, I’ll hope for the best and do what I can to stay on the optimistic side of things

Well then let me tell you a anecdote then if it may help; I graduated college in 2001 and I work in the tech field. I had just spent all my money and time for the last 21 years getting to a point where I could get a real job; and I got it :) . Three months latter the Tech bubble burst and recession came to visit me personally when I was laid off from that job.

For the next year I could not find a job in my field, the tech industry was down and people older and with more experience then me where taking entry level jobs so that they at lest would have a job. So that mean there was no work for me.

But like all recessions it ended and I eventually found a really good job as all the companies feverishly tried to ramp back up again. I now own a house and am doing just fine.

Don’t worry, the economy will turn around again and you’ll be fine too. As I said its just a cycle that happens all the time. Smart people set up their lives to have a cushion when this happens every 7 to 10 years; but since this is your first you didn’t have the time to do so. But next time you will be more prepared.

[R4VE G1RL wrote:
]i think it’s the government’s fault, isnt it? always yaxing, rising up prices, and it is just pathetic!

Actually no; despite what politicians want you to believe they have very very (all most none) influence over the economy.

The economy is like a self perpetuating machine; it just goes and goes and goes, and it goes in cycles driven by all the worlds corporations and consumers and investors all pushing in one direction or another in their small amounts.

The US body that has any kind of influence is the Federal reserve bank. But this is not a political body, they are not beholden to anyone or any party, they just exist and do their job.

Their job is to balance a slowing economy and rising inflation and they do so mainly through setting interest rates. They can muck some stuff up; when they lowered the interest rates to help the 2001 recession they created the housing bubble that has added to the 2009 recession. But in the grand scheme of things even they don’t have much power to do much.

Taxation can hurt individuals in the short term; but has little effect on the economy. Not balancing the US budget also is a bad thing the government does and it effects the economy more.