Our economy is on the downfall. 200$ HOCKEY TICKETS are pretty much under 10$ bucks now.

Its not as bad as people keep making out well at least not here in England, food's gone down in price but other things have got a bit more expensive

Materialism is overrated. People will have to find other ways to make each other happy. It will do them good to be less selfish.

I think I just accidently reported one of these posts. Please disregard.

What exactly is wrong with materialism?

Its worse in the US than in other places by the look of things on the surface.

What's an economy?

...just kidding...we're all doomed to a media storm in a teacup though for a few months...

What's wrong with the economy?

Hmm the economy a false construct created by our betters, the problem we are having is that the bits of paper we use to represent goods and services have been held too high in regard, we have handed our entire financial well being to a bunch of people who we are conditioned to believe have our best interests at heart.

Its a bit like tithing in the middle ages, if you dont give us money you shall go to hell if you dont have a bank account you cant be paid in your job, get a mortgage or indeed in some respects be recognised as an adult.

If we could ever abandon the free market economy with any success and actually bring in a modicum of financial sense to the world we would stop being in this situation. And before you ask.

Yes I am left wing,

Yes I have anarchist views,

no Im not some wide eyed idealist, I know we can never escape the talons of the banking system. Its a neccesary evil, which we will always be at the mercy of.

economy will turn around, sadly at the end of it with more government control. I personally am doing just peachy 1.60 gas and whatnot so i'm not hurting.

Does anyone else want the bartering system back?

Shit sucks, not much else to say, I mean you've got this money right, but then you spend it on things that are more expensive that you've always bought, but you lose more money on it.

Agreed, Living in Canada, the only thing that has changed, are gas prices lowering about 40 cents a litre, and housing prices dropping substantially. This is good, considering I am going to be purchasing a house soon. Thanks US economy for making my dreams come true.

carnkhan4:
Does anyone else want the bartering system back?

There's a system?
I just do it anyway.

Economy always waxes and wanes.
Name me one consistently unchanging, good economy in history and I'll eat my right arm.

JBarracudaL:
Economy always waxes and wanes.
Name me one consistently unchanging, good economy in history and I'll eat my right arm.

Exactly. Thing is, the last boom went on for so damn long that no-one really knows what to do in the event of a recession. We've all had blips (Black Wednesday, the housing market collapse under Thatcher) and they were indicative of things to come, but at the time people just muscled through with the capitalist dogma and everything stayed the way it was before. Now, nobody saves any more and the greying population of the West as a whole is going to bugger most governments so hard their ringpieces will fly out of their collective mouths like a bunch of heated rubber coins.

kepp those comments coming

carnkhan4:
Does anyone else want the bartering system back?

I'll trade you my dignity for a Klondike Bar.

now that`s funny

also what do you guys or girls think. After the end of World War One we had 9 or 10 years of economic prosperity. The Great Depression (1929-1939) folowed suite. It ended at the outbreak of Worl War two will this happen again( economy fails tha WW3 breaks out?)

The economic situation right now isn't bothering me. I wasn't stupid when the housing values rocketed up, I kept my condo instead of trading up for something beyond my means. I bought a fuel-efficient Japanese compact car, and I didn't overuse credit. So while people are all crying about all their financial worries, I like to rub it in their face that they made stupid choices when times were good, and so deserve to suffer now that times are bad.

I can't speak for the rest of the world, but America has painted itself into a corne re: credit. Our government pays for assets like Guided Missile Cruisers/Destroyers via credit, because we need it now.

On the individual everyman's scale, people are batcrap gonzo over living outside of their means and credit is what gets that everyman what he wants. It's not exactly necessary that we jump onto every credit card or pre-approval placed in front of us, but we do it anyway nd next thing we know we're in our own private hell of debt and phone calls from all hours of the night.

Here's where it gets twisted: Employers are doing the US economy in as well. By this I mean that in the United States, it is lawful to check a prospective employee's credit score and then make a determination as to whether to hire or leave behind a prospective employee.

More often than not, a person's credit score is the determining factor in this...

So, it should come as no surprise that many people are passed up. Therefore, the credit based economy folds upon itself.

The question inherent in this issue is: How can one pay off debts if they don't have a job in which they can earn money to pay off their debts, thus aiding the debt crisis?

Marinade on that...

I think it is getting silly. In my town we've had a few shops just close over night. And our Woolworths looks to be going the same way.
On the plus side shops are going to be desperate to get trade going over Christas and the January sales but come the March Hangover I reckon things will get nasty.

What's weird is how fast everything happens now because of the embarrassing credit (or overdraft) addiction modern business is forced to have to compete. People were running stinkin' PAYROLL on credit, for god's sake, so the second the credit markets go crap everyone gets laid off and companies shut down overnight. Add in the global spider web that linked all this credit together, AND the fact that 90% of it was based on the US housing market, and it's pretty easy to see how kicking one leg out can bring the whole giant house of stupid crumbling down.

Maybe everyone will wise up and go back to harder cash reserves. But then business will have to contract because you can't play paper that huge or fast. And now world governments are tossing free cash out with little oversight. So no one has learned a damn lesson and will just go back to doing what they were doing before.

OH, minus the part where they were giving mortgages to low income families. So in the end, the rich stay rich and don't have to change a thing, and poor people go back to getting shafted. Yay, capitalism.

Of course, if the stupid poor people had paid their stinking bills in the first place, none of this would've happened. They screwed themselves.

I guess that makes me feel better that now millions of people are out on the street. A little.

curlycrouton:

carnkhan4:
Does anyone else want the bartering system back?

There's a system?
I just do it anyway.

Yes. Barter as much as you want but if there are any disagreements you take it to the thunderdome. Two men enter, one man leaves!

carnkhan4:
Does anyone else want the bartering system back?

YES! It's all I've ever wanted, seriously. I could get food by taking nude pictures of my girlfriend to the shop and requesting a trade. Screw working :D

The economy is crap but I have never seen gas prices this cheap in a long time.

I have one thing to say here: Burn motherfucker, burn.

Consumerism and the capitalist ideals of competition and profit just strike me as such stupid things to have. The moment you're driven by profit, you go for the lowest cost you can possibly have, and establish a monopoly to drive down production costs. Once you have a monopoly, you reduce competition which leads to the ability to up prices and stamp out or absorb other companies. Bitter cycle, and that's the eventual result of market deregulation.

So yes, Burn motherfucker, Burn.

down with capitalism!

EpicFailGuy:

carnkhan4:
Does anyone else want the bartering system back?

YES! It's all I've ever wanted, seriously. I could get food by taking nude pictures of my girlfriend to the shop and requesting a trade. Screw working :D

Clairaudient:

carnkhan4:
Does anyone else want the bartering system back?

I'll trade you my dignity for a Klondike Bar.

Alright! we got ourselves a working alternative monetary system! XD
I can stock on Klondike bars, which I can trade with Clairaudient (and any other products with gimmicks) for dignity, which I desperately need. Clairaudient then can trade any surplus bars with EpicFailGuy for nude pictures of his grilfriend, which frankly be traded for most other goods.

Now all I need is someone who excepts payment for Klondike bars in hair-brained schemes...

The Great Depression: now digitaly remastered on Blu-Ray!

I find it hilarious how an economy that once championed Capitalism as the way to protect the individual now screws the individual into poverty.

Comedian Paul McDermott described this year: "As if the Earth eclipsed itself into a Bizarro reality. Where socialism is good, capitalism is evil and an enemy of the average American, and Wall Street Bankers are on Welfare.."

I for one approve of increased Government Regulation of American Financial markets, but not for the same reasons as everyone else.

Well I championed the economic system of giving all your money to me, but nobody went for it.

carnkhan4:
Does anyone else want the bartering system back?

It's alive and well, but obviously doesn't work so well on the Internet.

I never pay first quote prices for anything.

Labyrinth:
I have one thing to say here: Burn motherfucker, burn.

Consumerism and the capitalist ideals of competition and profit just strike me as such stupid things to have. The moment you're driven by profit, you go for the lowest cost you can possibly have, and establish a monopoly to drive down production costs. Once you have a monopoly, you reduce competition which leads to the ability to up prices and stamp out or absorb other companies. Bitter cycle, and that's the eventual result of market deregulation.

So yes, Burn motherfucker, Burn.

Regulation is what got us here in the in the first place. Both Bush and the Democrat congress decided that everyone should own a house, so they forced the banks to make those shitty loans to people they knew couldn't pay it back. The people who run the banks know how to run their businesses better than the government does. By the way there hasn't even been a monopoly in the way you described it for at least one hundred years.

Labyrinth:
I have one thing to say here: Burn motherfucker, burn.

Consumerism and the capitalist ideals of competition and profit just strike me as such stupid things to have. The moment you're driven by profit, you go for the lowest cost you can possibly have, and establish a monopoly to drive down production costs. Once you have a monopoly, you reduce competition which leads to the ability to up prices and stamp out or absorb other companies. Bitter cycle, and that's the eventual result of market deregulation.

So yes, Burn motherfucker, Burn.

That's not capitalism, that's mercantilism. Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations) clearly argues for the state to remove/break up/destroy with fire all forms of monopoly. And I agree with him. Monopoly is bad. It screws the consumer, it screws potential entrepreneurs and it screws the economy.

If one has a case of a 'natural monopoly', then the government should simply step in.

And if you don't know who Adam Smith is, google it.(Hint- Inventor of Capitalism-UnHint)

TomNook:
Regulation is what got us here in the in the first place. Both Bush and the Democrat congress decided that everyone should own a house, so they forced the banks to make those shitty loans to people they knew couldn't pay it back. The people who run the banks know how to run their businesses better than the government does. By the way there hasn't even been a monopoly in the way you described it for at least one hundred years.

Hmmm.... I'm sorry, your post has flaws. (I must dicet thine, since I have diceted Labyrinth's).

1. The base rate of interest is determined by government. This is in essence the lowest interest rate possible. Secondly, what you fail to realise is that government does not simply say: "LOWER YOUR INTEREST RATES" to banks. They may lower the base rates, but the banks are the ones who determine the actual interest rates offered, and, more importantly, whom is allowed to get credit. So I'm afraid your post is critically flawed.

Sorry.

Provided courtesy of Lord Fondant, disciple of John Keynes and the Escapist's proffessional economist. (See also- Destoryer of both left-and-right-wing fallacies in economics, why people should use common sense, and the Imperial Guard Message Board)