who said our economy is declining?
The banks mills, the ones with our money.
Personally, i’m doing alright! I’ve had a tax rebate and a 5% pay increase in the last 2 months.
i know bex, i thought someone would recognize my facetiousness…
There’s that websters dictionary serving you well again mills! :-p
don’t patronize me bex -_-
I wasn’t, I just don’t know many people who know how to spell facetiousness!
Well, I’m in a different part of the world, so there hasn’t been much change accept for prices going up.
Our economy is struggling moreso because of the drought we are facing (who said global warming doesn’t exist…look at our poor river) a bit of an economic struggle. Our farms can’t produce because of water restrictions, our price of food is going sky high, our gas prices are going up. (Though they’re going down at the moment, they’re almost $1 a litre again.)
However, with the U.S running a lot of the economy, pretty much the world is sitting on the brink waiting for the outcome. If the U.S goes to crappola, so does the rest of the world. Australia is already on the edge of a recession, and it’s getting worse is time goes by. Half is due to the Global bank, half is due because of our drought issues. By Christmas to late March…we could be in trouble. Perhaps a depression.
no worries, i love picking at you :)
I got let go from my job shortly after the decline started. I got a new job a couple of months later and then as things got worse the amount of hours I was given was cut in half. I’ve since resolved my own hours issue, but other people I work with have been left with less and less hours to work during the week, and several of my friends are having similar experiences at their jobs.
Just to point out, I am as student and the jobs I am referring to are all part-time jobs.
The business that I worked for had to close it’s doors. my father and brother are out of work, my parents home value is disgusting, so now they are trying to hold on till prices get a little better. It has been getting worse slowly,… but steady for years..I think it all just came to a head recently.
well i live in another part of the world and the price of goods and necessitys r increasing day by day
My weekly grocery bill has risen 29% in less than a year (even though I shop very wisely and am frugal).
Gas and electricity prices here have risen by over 25% (even though the same supplier is capped at 2% elsewhere in Europe).
Petrol is beginning to drop down again, though it still remains a lot higher than a year ago.
Wood prices have soared as demand for alternative fuels has increased. Most of the rise is in delivery costs.
Prescription medicines remain the same, but over-the-counter medicines have gone up significantly.
School costs have risen - essential field trips, equipment.. all much higher.
Income has dropped. Freelance workers/independents in particular are finding it hard as companies trim right back on spending.
Many friends have taken pay cuts to save their jobs. Pubs and restaurants are closing daily as families can no longer afford the luxury of eating out.
On the up side… there are some companies who are doing very well out of the economic climate. Home brew kit suppliers, woodburner manufacturers, bailiffs…..
Groceries are killing me. Right now I depend on food assistance from an outside source. I don’t know what I’m going to do if I don’t get a job.
Speaking of jobs, job growth has declined. Unemployment has climbed. It’s just making it harder on me.
I don’t walk, but I’m sure I’d be paying an arm, a leg, and my firstborn child just to buy gas.
Non-essential spending has been eliminated. I used to enjoy bubblegum. Not much anymore. Soft drinks. I can’t afford them. That’s a good thing though, because that’s the number one source of added calories in American diets.
My preferred leisure has been shot to ****. If it isn’t free, I’m not watching it or playing it.
That’s all right though. I started playing board games for the first time in years. That’s been a good way to connect with the family.
I can’t think of any other way the economy is affecting me.
~Grace~ wrote:
Well, I’m in a different part of the world, so there hasn’t been much change accept for prices going up.
Our economy is struggling moreso because of the drought we are facing (who said global warming doesn’t exist…look at our poor river) a bit of an economic struggle. Our farms can’t produce because of water restrictions, our price of food is going sky high, our gas prices are going up. (Though they’re going down at the moment, they’re almost $1 a litre again.)
However, with the U.S running a lot of the economy, pretty much the world is sitting on the brink waiting for the outcome. If the U.S goes to crappola, so does the rest of the world. Australia is already on the edge of a recession, and it’s getting worse is time goes by. Half is due to the Global bank, half is due because of our drought issues. By Christmas to late March…we could be in trouble. Perhaps a depression.
so, you personally? how have you been affected?
thanks for the good answers
I live in Florida, in the USA, a prosperous place, and so one of the last that will be affected.
But I also want to point out that I think it is less that the economy has been screwed up by any person or group, and more that the way we, in the so called free world, have been living on credit and beyond our means, is finally catching up to us.
The trouble started, really, when companies started calling in their depts, and people realized they did not have the money to pay.
My Grandfather taught me to never borrow more than i could pay back, as in, if they wanted it all paid back right away, could i optain enough money from my property and savings to pay it back. IF not, then whatever I was borrowing for was not worth it, since the thing borrowed for should be slightly less valuable than the loan.
Makes sense.
I agree with you on most of that, but I can’t help but feeling a big problem is in the resources too.
For comparison, petrol here costs $1.74 per litre.
I’ve never lived on credit in my life, always bought only what I could afford and saved when I could.
Here in UK, the banks are still pounding my doormat with “take out a credit card with us” pamphlets…
They make great fire kindling.
I haven’t been able to get a job.
Not saying there are no jobs out there, just not being hired. Possibly because I am asking for 30-40 hrs a week.
My parents bought a house in 2007, they haven’t been able to sell our old home.
or..
I have a lot of people apply for positions with my company. Siple truth is a lot of them either are not qualified, or have such a bad attitude that I would not want them around me or my customers
Between all the locations I manage, and part own, there are 38 employees and 4 people in managment. When we were bigger, we had maybe 70 on the road workers, and 10 office people.
We actually did not terminate a single driver or helper because of economic reasons, but all due to performance issues. DUI, failure to show for work, chronic tardiness, not meeting dress code, and bad customer comments.
The 6 people from the office that are gone, 5 of them were let go for simply not doing the job assigned to them. Instead, they played on the internet, made personal calls, took long lunches, and such
One of them left for personal reasons
out of the remainder, just for the sake of argument, only 9 workers are white.
but back to the subject, maybe one of the reasons that un employment is so high and some jobs go out of the country, is that a lot of american workers simply want a pay check, and do not want to actually work for it.
The very Idea of actually working 4 hour straight, then taking lunch, then four more, is beyond their comprehension.
Rambling here, but it is amazing that when i first opened my JAx location, it took going thru over 50 people to find 6 qualified guys that would actually do the job, and even at that it takes a lot of encouragement to keep 4 of them going.
Face it, America, the economic crisis is not anyones fault but the American peoples’.
Thats where the blame lies, and thats where the fix must come from. If we try to look for the President or other government to fix, it will never really be fixed.
1) I have real-estate investments, and they have all declined in value. Two out of my three mortgages exceed the values of the home they are written on. I cannot sell—partly because of the aforementioned situation and partly because the market here in New England is flat dead. One house has been on the market for two years. I am stuck, with my only choices being to keep pumping more money into losing investments, or to ceasing payment and letting the mortgage holders foreclose. So far, I have chosen to keep up with the payments.
2) Those properties are rented (four units total), but with such a flood of homes on the market for sale or purchase, the rents that I get on some of them are lower than they used to be.
3) Because of #1 and #2, my husband and I are living on a very limited budget. We try to spend less than $50 a week on groceries, and we no longer buy theater tickets, clothing, museum memberships, magazines, newspapers, or household goods. We no longer go to restaurants, movies, concerts, or any other entertainment venues. We seldom even go to church, because we cannot afford to contribute. With an income well in excess of $100,000 a year, we have no spending money—-100 percent of our income goes to cover our bills. At an age when most women are baking cookies with their grandkids, I work full-time days AND spend many weekends and some weeknights working on free-lance projects to pay down some of our debts.
4) I have had to delay my planned retirement by several years, and, after being homeowners for 35 years, we now anticipate that we will not have our own home when we retire.
5) After a solid 40-year work record in a professional career, I feel for the first time that my job is insecure. That’s because the institution I work for lost millions of dollars in the economic downturn, and has had to trim to the bone the very projects that I work on. This causes extreme anxiety that manifests itself in headaches, chest pains, and sleepless nights, not to mention occasional panic attacks.
Let me stress here that I am NOT miserable MOST of the time. MOST of the time, I am extremely happy that, with all these economies in place, I AM keeping my head above water. I feel like I am coping successfully with a very, very difficult situation. We are MAKING IT, just. However, I do feel anxiety about what would happen if I lost my job, and also about the prospect of not having a retirement nest to call our own.
I just wish I could become a subsistence farmer, so I wouldn’t have to worry about the economy.
Verum Causa wrote:
I just wish I could become a subsistence farmer, so I wouldn’t have to worry about the economy.
You still would. There would be energy bills, water bills, medical bills, required insurances, etc. There’s no place to hide.
Energy bills? Nope. Solar power supplemented with batteries and a wood generator. Water? Nope. Dig a well. Medical bills? Possibly. I could take care of myself and hope for the best. Required insurance? Insurance is required? I have to pay when I go to the doctor… I think I could do fairly well. Maybe taxes, but what am I going to do? Pay in corn?
P.S.
I almost forgot a BIG one —
6. My retirement fund plummeted in FY08. Even as I continued to pump money into it, its value went down by $45,000. Some $23,000 of that was in the past quarter alone. Since I am already in my 60s, this is MAJOR.
Verum Causa wrote:
Energy bills? Nope. Solar power supplemented with batteries and a wood generator. Water? Nope. Dig a well. Medical bills? Possibly. I could take care of myself and hope for the best. Required insurance? Insurance is required? I have to pay when I go to the doctor… I think I could do fairly well. Maybe taxes, but what am I going to do? Pay in corn?
LOL–You really must have a better hiding place than I do. Where I live you are required by law to have medical insurance and vehicle insurance (unless you plan to do your subsistence-farming with a pail, shovel, and rake).
Go for it, then! Why not?
What way is there for me to obtain the property?
ah, so you do need money.
check for gov subsidies. supsistance farmers can get govt money, right. i dunno, i gotta run. meeting
in NZ the main changes weve noticed are grocery bills and petrol prices, and the bottom has fallen out of the real estate market.
a 1kg block of cheese this time last year cost around 6 or 7 dollars. now the cheapest costs upwards of 11.
petrol in NZ is today $1.85nz per litre.
there are 3.79 litres to a liquid US gallon, which means petrol in NZ costs $5.55nz a gallon.
$5.55nz in US currency is currently: $3.28US.
so we pay $3.28 for a gallon of petrol.
hence why it pisses me off when americans complain about their gas prices, when actually you have some of the cheapest in the world.
Appealing to pity and poisoning the well are we?
well pitys not going to get me cheaper gas prices now, is it.
Nevermind. I missed a few words.
if pity will get me cheese though….i miss cheese :(
The decline hasn’t really effected me.
I still get a ton of junk mail for loans and credit cards. There’s a reason I get this mail, STOP IT—**** banks! I try to live within my means.
The company I work for, and based on it’s location won’t be greatly effected by the decline, in fact they’re diversifying…
Both my Fiance and I are employeed.
Cost of everything has gone up, so based on theory we should be doing BETTER, but reality is, things are the same and we’re not hurting—
I wasn’t affected so much when it was just the U.S. economy in the toilet.
I mean even though food prices were going up and I had to stop eating out
completely, scrap metal prices were rising and I was making some OK $$$.
Now that the whole world is financially unstable… well scrap ain’t
bringing in so much $$$ anymore. I’m gonna have to find some other form
of work now.
But I’m not hurting as much as others, I was already poor to begin with,
I know how to get by without.
Good ole boy
~Grace~
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Times' gone mad