The current political climate is challenging enough, yet here we are faced with another hurdle brought to light by Hurricane GWB: The Economy.
We’ve all been whispering to ourselves and/or each other about the state of our financial security as a country for some time. At least in my home town it’s quite the topic for discussion, considering that Denver has held one of the top 10 spots in the country for the past 5 years for BOTH foreclosure and unemployment rates. Let’s just say I’m not the only one loosing my house on my block. But, way before it ever really hit home for me (and we all know my situation is more likely based on shitty decision making on my end then the economy so no need to rub salt in the wound please) I began noticing commentary on Alternet.org and other sites that I frequent about the possible financial fallout of this administration. I remember a time when it was predicted that the economy wouldn’t go to hell in a hand basket for at least another 3 – 5 years (IF we didn’t go to war with Iran first) and that it might just still be salvageable if x, y and z were to happen. Well kids, it’s about that time!
What’s sad to me is that it also really wasn’t that long ago that the 6 O’clock talking heads began openly reporting the actual cost of our deficit (the largest in history by one single president), what the financial repercussions of the war in Iraq are (the most expensive in history) and finally in recent months how severely shit could potentially hit the fan. This, of course, is only based on about how far you can throw that guy reporting the news because most of the time I know most of question what is being reported and that’s partly why I still can’t decide if we should be panicking yet. It’s always so hard to pick and choose what to listen to, what to base decisions on in this day and age. But that’s another blog.
So, my question to you all is: Clearly, the results of our times are evident, I mean it’s some scary stuff what’s going on with the stock market and housing these days. But is anyone else truly concerned about the economy in terms of cataclysmic events? People are starting to scream “Depression” and that sort of thing and it’s hard not to think “Huh, that would be bad!” and “Hrm, what can be done about this?” or “These people are all full of crap, over reacting and we are going to be fine!” or somewhere in the middle? Many of the people in my life are in the financial biz and I’d be curious to hear what some of you all have to say on the subject?
2 comments:
Jeff and I discussed this late last night after he came home from work.
He and I have specifically avoided getting ourselves into deep debt over the years - and we've taken a lot of flack for it. Some of our framily and friends have looked down on us as "lower class". We've spent years with our friends shoving their big houses and fancy "new" cars in our view.
Unfortunately A lot of our society is so hooked into the notion that they MUST own a house, MUST finance a car, MUST have credit cards in order to be normal.
Let's just consider for a moment that America doesn't only need to break its addiction to foreign oil.
I know that people measure success by how much money they have in the bank - by how their investment portfolio makes them look - when you come down to times like these, you realize that an investment portfolio is just a piece of paper. It is just a number that someone has spoken - so that you can get yourself further in debt.
I sometimes wonder if this is Karmic. Our society is so greedy and judgmental. Maybe the universe is taking us down from our pedestal for a reason... instead of freaking out I suggest we all ask ourselves "what are we learning?" and "how do I teach the next generation to avoid these pitfalls?"
Well said my dear.
I've also been thinking about this karmically as I'm thinking many other cultures might as well should our financial instituion completely fall and fail.
Our country IS the energy vampire of the world on all levels. We've taken so much. I certainely am not surprised at what we are facing at this point in our own history.
I just hope we haven't reached a point of no return, where asking the questions of what can be learned from this are past due.
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