US Approaching Insolvency, Fix To Be 'Painful': Fisher

ttown

US Approaching Insolvency, Fix To Be 'Painful': Fisher

yellowkid

We don't act proactively here ( the USA) , we just try to put out fires.

cohodk

Yes, the fix is painful. The fix is eliminating the welfare state we created. Lots of people have become dependant on the state rather than their families. To end this dependency will result in a lot of pain not only to those who receive entitlements but also those on the fringes of the economy who only have incomes due to excessive spending of the American consumer. Half the malls in this country could be closed and no one would miss them, except that there would be a few million more unemployed. Those that provide extraneous services such as dog grooming, nail painting, lawn care, all wedding related stuff, ect, will also suffer. Spending $40 grand on a wedding? I cant think of a more wasteful event. Give the darn kids $40 grand as a downpayment on a house instead.

pf70collector

I agree there are a lot of services that should go away that are not necessary. We need to be more self reliant. However, since we don't produce anything anymore, we are becoming a more service oriented economy instead of a manufacturing economy. Read somewhere some 42,000 factories have closed since 2000. What does this tell you.

mhammerman

Yuuup...our consumerism and hedonistic lifestyles have created a huge fringe economy of people that are basically skill-less but making a living servicing those that have even a marginal amount of disposable wherewithall. The welfare state has been created just as keeping TV programming thriving and diverse from sports to cooking has remained well funded, to keep people somewhat sedated. Nail salons, flea markets, driving ranges, mobile carwash service, streaming cell phones, etc...none would thrive with out the descretionary buks we spend on comfort and time saving services that give the masses more free time to have more pleasure.

We have created this "keep me happy" mentality with the extra buks. In addition to having candidates that offer "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." (Herbert Hoover, 1928), the candidates and their offices also deliver aid, help, entitlements, benefits, assitance, support, subsidies, food, the list is so long now and the actual funding of this largess has become noticable as a burden on our collective resources. The end result is that we have created a fringe economy here as well. The armies of social staff that man the local facilities that package these federal, state, local, and donated dollars that feed the homeless, dress the underprivledged, educate the dropouts, give medical care to the indigent, run the agencies, and despense the goods has facilitated a third economy, that of doleing out aid so that everyone with nothing can have enough and for a large part of the population, enough is good.

We have the fringe economy from the comfort givers and the third economy of aid givers, neither of which is sustainable without the excess capital flowing from the private contributors, city halls, state capitols and the fed machine; none of which is going to survive this squeeze on the economy that is just now being felt and seen. In good times, there is always room for more but in marginal times, the fringes get marginalized as in soup kitchens, Hoovervilles, and Woody Guthries' great chronicles of the last time the spigot got turned off.

Just thinking out loud.

mrearlygold

It's beyond the point of no return. If you're into poking fingers in peoples chests around the world and subsequently your fellow Americans, then then you should be really happy about where we're at and where we're going.

Bear

1. Selling my home and putting a safe reserve in bank, rest in a conservative balanced fund

60% bonds, 30% stock 10% short term cash investments averaging 4.5% a year.

2. Pay off all debts.

3. Selling off assets of unnecessary value .to me.

4. Selling off one of our two cars.

5. Cutting back on expenses

6. Moving into a retirement community with meals.

7. This might be anathema, but sold off coin collection.

8. Sold off gun collection, but keeping one loaded 357 magnum for uninvited night crawlers.
I might be old but I am no easy target.


Of course, I am 72 and retired, so that the above is very specific for my own needs.

However, everyone can and should be making plans to reduce debt and reduce expenses.

It will be difficult for most, but we seem to be approaching difficult times in any event.

and live within ones means.

streeter

Every recession provides opportunities.. Look around because there are deals all over the place.

There is no use in despairing about all the problems of this country because it will send you into a deep thunk.

I've been in the 73-75 recession when I was unemployed out of college...but it turned out just fine. I went to work for a NYSE Co and made a couple of sheckels and bought a fair amount of Bay Area r/e and did fine. I had no idea about the 73-75 recession that I was in...I just knew no one was hiring a Cal guy with my background except Jack in the Box and I didn't want to flip burgers.

The 80-82 recession provided a ton of property up for sale in CA and it was easy to buy. The 90-94 recession did a good job of preparing me for this little bugger we're in--which may last another 5 years...if we're lucky.

Look around friends because there are deals out there and a great deal of wealth can be created in this recession. The foreigners seem to think America is on sale. Shouldn't we think that way also?

Baley

In population ecology, the terms "carrying capacity" of an environment and "selection events" that culls a population of it's weakest members,
teach very painful lessons to both those selected against, and the survivors too

Human society has increasingly sought (with mixed results) to circumvent the principles that govern these processes, artificially inflating the carrying capacities of localities, as well as postponing, deflecting, and mitigating painful selection events that would otherwise reduce numbers of people who, net-net, take more than they give

it's really tough to let folks starve, but it seems a comfortable retirement should be something one earns, not one that is owed

As far as opportunities, it seems many of the next boom's strongest companies have been launched during the darkest economic times, I'm with streeter and investing in America

CaptMorgan

In all the blaming the media pushes onto the American public about the economy, they fail to acknowledge the governments own waste. In late summer early fall of 2001 Sec Def Rumsfeld admitted the Pentagon 'misplaced or couldnt account for' about $2.3 trillion of US tax payer money. And this story was overtaken by tragic events in Sept of that year. The story all but died there.
Now this is not the whole problem, far from it, but this is not just consumerism and public welfare. If an actual tab was kept of which is greater, government waste or welfare payments, Id put my money on more is wasted through our own government.
And thats just one simple case of it.
Heres another: Government Accountability Office report

The public loses homes when they overspend, but the government gets more money when they do... Something is wrong here

percyb

I'm in the camp that thinks the country is bust and that there's no cure. Raising rates increases our debt. Feeding the economy by printing more dollars is catastrphically inflationary. Doing nothing isn't the answer either. The debt will double by 2020. The clock is ticking....