The real state of events.
- Thread starter pickled
- Start date
- Status
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2002
- Messages
- 39,793
The market sorting things out -
I'm sure all those people are all hard working and make good life decisions.
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2003
- Messages
- 23,587
Well, you appear to realize not all of them are just lazy bums. Fate is a fickle [censored]. Everybody, and that includes you, amigo, can be hit hard and land face down in the dirt unexpectedly without a chance of recovery. You may think you stand securely on firm ground, but it may turn out to be a false floor. One misstep, and the outcome is the same, whether you are just careless or whether you get shoved: you plummet.
Amigo - Why the (ever growing) "lecture" directed at me?
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2003
- Messages
- 23,587
Because you seem to be repulsed by the wretched rabble who simply get what they deserve. That's why.
Originally Posted By: moribundman
Because you seem to be repulsed by the wretched rabble who simply get what they deserve. That's why.
Oh really? Why would you think that? I never wrote anything like that.
Because you seem to be repulsed by the wretched rabble who simply get what they deserve. That's why.
Oh really? Why would you think that? I never wrote anything like that.
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2003
- Messages
- 23,587
Well, when you sarcastically said "I'm sure all those people are all hard working and make good life decisions," it came across just that way.
Probably itinerant workers now with no job to go along with no fixed address. They need to have access to the internet to search for jobs. Lots of jobs are out there retrofitting homes to save energy.
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2003
- Messages
- 23,587
In CA we have middle class people liveing out of their cars now. We have also lots of homeless with full time jobs.
I'm not being harsh or nasty or cold or condescending in any way. The truth bears out that many "homeless" people are that way because of mental illness, substance abuse, very poor decision making skills, or the fact that some actually do have a home. For example in a recent survey, many freeway off ramp panhandlers actually choose that form of work and actually dress up for the part. The very article uses the "foreclosure crisis" as a cause, now I'm sure some people were forced to sign papers.....
Please don't take this as a cold heart. I will feed anyone who is hungry, I will provide shelter and water for the asking. I will pray for and help any of those people - for this I do not care what their individual problem is. But to truly help the problem requires thinking above the level that got them there in the first place.
We are all just one smack to the head, one rotten person with lawsuit mania, one batch of bad Chinese soup away from plummeting off a precipice. That's life. Get up of your face and keep plugging. Been there done, that and I'm sure it will happen again.
Please don't take this as a cold heart. I will feed anyone who is hungry, I will provide shelter and water for the asking. I will pray for and help any of those people - for this I do not care what their individual problem is. But to truly help the problem requires thinking above the level that got them there in the first place.
We are all just one smack to the head, one rotten person with lawsuit mania, one batch of bad Chinese soup away from plummeting off a precipice. That's life. Get up of your face and keep plugging. Been there done, that and I'm sure it will happen again.
These poor souls.. In America do we bail out banks and let the people live in the streets.
Poor poor slobs. Snif.
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2002
- Messages
- 39,793
This isn't a problem. It's a symptom.
You'll probably burn for that.
I'm sorry for making this a huge soul search. That wasn't my intent...I merely saw this article and had to offer another datapoint that indicates things are resembling Hooverville these days vs a land of prosperity. Many hard working bright folks with Masters degrees I know have been unemployed from their real jobs for months- pursuing jobs as mystery shoppers and farm hands to make their mortgage payments/keep their children in school. They can't sell their homes to move for new opportunities (and corporations aren't handing out too many executive relocation packages these days) so they are downsizing and trying to make it work by any means necessary. I bring these folks into my business for various assignments when I can (sometimes to a fault), but these people aren't the scourge of the earth by any means.
I love our country, and am continuously inspired by the spirit of the people that helped make it a land of opportunity. I just question how much opportunity is left for the next generation if the path doesn't change. I pray that we move past this economic slump quickly, but am doubtful that it will happen in a Pollyanna fashion.
I love our country, and am continuously inspired by the spirit of the people that helped make it a land of opportunity. I just question how much opportunity is left for the next generation if the path doesn't change. I pray that we move past this economic slump quickly, but am doubtful that it will happen in a Pollyanna fashion.
As one of those people soon to be holding a masters in what a year ago was a very employable healthcare-related field, I hope we move on quickly as well. But I doubt we will, not after this wave of bad news.
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2002
- Messages
- 39,793
Quote:
but these people aren't the scourge of the earth by any means.
Many are not. We'll always have an underclass. Even if they're all at the doctorate level. The pie gets divided and the lower rungs get the crumbs. It's an immutable law. Now where you set your floor is the distinction. As you can see by the depictions, the floor is being allowed to sink.
Quote:
I pray that we move past this economic slump quickly
I pray that we do not. It's the patch job "keep the trains on time" methods that have profited few and cost many in our daily distractions that allowed this matter to evolve right under our noses. We've been buy big fancy houses and big fancy cars and Xbox's on credit ..flat screens ..all in some assumed "standard" of living that was not sustainable. When the house of cards tumbles, some are packing away LARGE ..and most are counting change.
Recessions of the neo-past were our saviors. They realigned the global trade flows/costs. Since they were inconvenient for our icons of commerce, they were artificially avoided with false vapor economics. Since we didn't have our much needed recessions ..and the relatively short pain that they brought ..and the healthier economy following them, we now appear to DESERVE a major meltdown to set things straight.
Most of our depression era folks are dead. They had the advantage of "needed people" when there was potential growth. Now technology and other evolutions have made a good chunk of our population unneeded ...or if needed, not at a viable wage. Service economies can have that contradiction.
There will be dark times ahead.
but these people aren't the scourge of the earth by any means.
Many are not. We'll always have an underclass. Even if they're all at the doctorate level. The pie gets divided and the lower rungs get the crumbs. It's an immutable law. Now where you set your floor is the distinction. As you can see by the depictions, the floor is being allowed to sink.
Quote:
I pray that we move past this economic slump quickly
I pray that we do not. It's the patch job "keep the trains on time" methods that have profited few and cost many in our daily distractions that allowed this matter to evolve right under our noses. We've been buy big fancy houses and big fancy cars and Xbox's on credit ..flat screens ..all in some assumed "standard" of living that was not sustainable. When the house of cards tumbles, some are packing away LARGE ..and most are counting change.
Recessions of the neo-past were our saviors. They realigned the global trade flows/costs. Since they were inconvenient for our icons of commerce, they were artificially avoided with false vapor economics. Since we didn't have our much needed recessions ..and the relatively short pain that they brought ..and the healthier economy following them, we now appear to DESERVE a major meltdown to set things straight.
Most of our depression era folks are dead. They had the advantage of "needed people" when there was potential growth. Now technology and other evolutions have made a good chunk of our population unneeded ...or if needed, not at a viable wage. Service economies can have that contradiction.
There will be dark times ahead.
- Status
