Daily Agitator
Are tired of the spin yet? Well, let us be honest and call it what it is…….LIES!
We hear daily that the economy is recovering….that the markets are up….that there are jobs being created (but at a slow rate) ……..corporate dividends are rising…….CEOs are making out like bandits……..yada…yada……but are we truly recovering? According to many media outlets the recession has ended……but so far as I can see and I am not looking through rose colored glasses, it still sucks and many others are worse off than I…….
Let me see……8.9% unemployment with the real figure more like 19%……housing starts down to a 5 year low……home sales down…..foreclosures still rising……food prices up 6%…….gas prices rose by 4%….so what part of those figures look like a recovery is occurring?
OK, I will admit that if you can afford it and by it I mean investments, then you are in the middle of a recovery….but unfortunately, most Americans are NOT that heavily involved in the investing in stocks and bonds…..
But the American do not seem to see the recovery that the airwaves are reporting….
A new CNBC survey finds the percentage of Americans who believe the economy will get worse in the next year spiking to 37%, a 15 point gain from December. It’s now just five points below the all-time high of 43% in June 2008, which came in the midst of a surge in gasoline prices.
If you are an average middle class working family…..then you have NOT seen the recovery that those on Wall Street tell you that you are experiencing…….funny how that works……one part of society is doing fine and even maybe prospering and the other is stuck scratching out a living day to day, pay check to pay check…….
All the cheer leading for the economy is for those with cash to invest…..not you…your investments are such things as home payments, food, gas and the necessities….you have NO room for luxuries….what would you call this phenom?
We-ell yes… but (just in case the reincarnation mob are right) learn the lesson – in the next life be a BANKER!
The trouble with statements like “no room for luxuries” is what do you call and essential and what do you call a luxury. For instance, how many of these hard up families do you know don’t have a TV, washing machine, car, playstation, computer and several laptops and on and on.
Only the advertising on TV has persuaded us that such things are “necessities” – if we hadn’t bought the bloody TV in the first place maybe we’d ALL be playing the financial markets and making a fortune.
OK, so that’s extreme I’ll agree, but I’m sure you see my point – necessities and luxuries, just like rights, democracy, freedom and all the rest are subjective terms and we DO (all of us) get confused between the real and what we’ve been persuaded to believe.
All that said, the moment our governments decided the OUR money would be used to bail out the banks, it should have been obvious to all that THEY were going to do all right and WE were going to be paying for it…
Nothing new there then!
I see what you mean but to me luxuries are things like a Hummer, Lexus.mink. diamonds……17 bedroom mansion…..do-dahs like that….and many people a car is a luxury period…..I realize that not everyone sees things thru my glasses (and they are thick as Coke bottoms)….luxury, to me is something that I can live without…..since I am an old fart the laptop is a necessity or my sanity would be in worse shape than it is today….
That’s the point though – everything can be a luxury or a necessity to an individual (including the Hummer etc.) simply because of his or her lifestyle and for the sake of sanity…
What part of a Hummer is a necessity? It is nothing more than a status symbol…look at what I have and you don’t…….
Exactly – and to SOME people, that is a necessity “for the sake of their sanity” as you so graphically put it. We cannot judge others by our own standards. I agree that I cannot see a Hummer as a necessity, but then I don’t want one.
What about those who really are quite poor yet teach their kids (by example) that what you want is actually a necessity – like a plasma TV, play station etc. Many in the UK see those things as “essentials” that come WAY before paying their own bills or clearing their debts in terms of importance. If I can’t afford something, I go without it, but those who are being subsidised be me (and others like me) frequently don’t regard that as an option.
In theory, I agree with you. In practice, I’m not so sure…
I hate that I feel this way (maybe, maybe not) but society would be better off without them…but the sanity part…I feel that most are already insane or deluded or whatever the head shrinkers want to call it….