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News analysis: Spirits plunge amid onslaught of grim news
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It's actually getting to where it ought to be. The dollar has been over-valued for years and American families have been led along to think this was OK.
The playing field oughta level out a bit now.
Trouble is that it won't because politics favours the well connected and the wealthy.
There are still opportunities arising, carbon trading and alternative energy sources for two.
Today's entrepreneurs will have to bite the bullet in face of grim times, but will still get good returns if they play to people's fears and bridge the gaps the big players leave.
I'm into it - aren't you - or is this really the end of the world? Have I come on the scene too late? Will there be no buying and selling in the Millenium? Still quite a while to go before that day comes, and then there's a thousand years of consumers living longer, no wars, epidemics or natural catastrophe's. Then the end will come.
Don't give up yet, Gus.
After we agreed on fuel and food problems, she told me how to do the math of food bargains and stocking up. She suggested a number of rules for keeping the gas bills down. She concluded "ebry ting gon be all right" (Bob Marley) if we use our heads. She carefully climbed back up the ladder to continue stocking the upper shelves
This college professor had been informed on dealing with what I thought were a series of universal personal consumer crises. Wait until the students hear some of this in the Fall.
Leaving the store to go to the supermarket, the Baltimore summer seemed bright and sunny rather than hot and humid. The grocery shopping would be a game to win. I noticed that some pedestrians and produce buyers were smiling back at me.
Life happens. Face it with a sense of humor and willingness to roll with the punches and take responsibility for coming out on top. Enjoy!
However, I think that it is going to continue to get worse before it gets better, because the Americans (nor the rest of the world) in general don't have the resiliance to face reality and recognize things that matter most.
We will continue to erode as a society, because we aren't going to change!
The AP makes it money shoveling bad news (during a republican administration, don'ja know...) then produces a poll that says people are despondent. Don't worry, there's a bright happy savior just around the next election...
As far as alternative energy. First we have to finally bite the bullet to buy the time to truly develop it. And second and most importantly, we have got to get the oil companies and government out of the way. My widowed mother invested in "alternative energies" in the 80's only to be hit with a HUGE tax bill in the 90's. Why? Some stupid congressional representatives decided they wanted oil company contributions rather than using new resources. Not all were Republicans either.
So as along as our politicians, on both sides, keep talking out of both sides of their mouths and promoting the fallacy of "carbon credits" things will maintain the status quo. Alternative engeries will be dreamed about, pined for, and never really developed beyond token projects and lining the pocket of people like Al Gore.
We pump millions of pounds of pollution into the air, ground and water, Bush pulls out of the Kyoto Accords (we will pollute as much as we want) and we wonder why our planet is out of balance.
We preemptively invade Iraq that was no threat to us, sending obscene amounts of money out of our economy, hiring mercenaries from abroad (Blackwater), destabilizing the region that controls the world oil markets and we wonder why our economy suffers and oil prices spiral out of control. We should have gone after those who attacked us on 9/11.
We take out home loans we cannot afford, for luxuries we do not need, flip houses like playing cards to make money that we did not earn and we wonder why there is a housing crisis.
Perhaps we need to realign our priorities. Work for what we get, quit trying to control everyone else on the planet, be responsible stewards of our environment and see if conditions improve.
We are on the wrong path, let's not stay the course.
I believe it is at times like these where people begin to realize there is more than their little corner of reality and the world. Living in Cedar Rapids has revealed the magnificence of mankind at its best in working together, across political, racial, and religious divides to shore up, clean up, restore, remove, and rebuild our community. Yes the government is here, but we are also working ourselves and not waiting for someone else to step in to save us. This is a model followed across the world when times get tough. Those who can do what they can.
Maybe less dwelling on misery and more focus on what we can do to improve life is the path.
There are two kinds of dollars ($). One is the paper dollar. You know, the kind where you send someone 10,000 of those dollars made of paper and buy 100,000 of these kinds of dollars worth of some phantom commodity and then sell it for 300,000 of those same kind of dollers, and then sit back and ponder about how wealthy I am.
Then there is the real $. you know the kind that is actually real. Something was actually produced that another someone wanted or needed. New wealth! Real wealth! You know, the kind of wealth that quenches the real thirst not like dreaming your thirsty and you just keep on drinking but the thirt is never quinced.
For proof, just look at the 10 highest paid people in America and explain what it is they produced. the honest person, the true economist will see that the 10 are still thirsty.
Get rid of pride and start producing again!
If you need help it's on the end of your ARM'S
It's beginning to happen now. Our country is not headed in the right direction. There are problems all over the place, and a lot of them aren't going to get better magically overnight. Sometimes I really worry about what kind of nation and world my kids are going to have to live in.
But even if things we're taking for granted are unraveling, that's not the end of the world.
We can't always be the world's biggest economy, the only military superpower, fight terrorism al by ourselves...but we don't have to roll over and die either.
We need to find new ways to do things, get OUT of unnecessary military conflicts, take responsibility for our finances, take better care of our own poor, improve our educational system...
It's a lot, but it can be done. But NOT if we just keep careening along this same course. This nation needs better leadership...which starts with us voters.
I, too am in a difficult spot - an over 50 displaced homemaker with a daughter to raise. One thing that helped me, besides getting help from our gov't for retraining, was a study-abroad to a poor third world country. That changed my perception of my situation. Thinking of all the people in the world now, I am in a good spot. And, historically, I am also on the earth at a good time. When I think that broadly, I am thankful for my meager living. But I also live in a prosperous part of town in a prosperous state, and sometimes I look at that and freak out!! Time for another visit to Latin America for me, I guess!! - - the poorer parts!
Please also include: and our own actions.
Just because we may vote for the candidate that we believe will make the necessary changes to help our country doesn't mean we can sit back and wait for it to happen.
You see, for these lunatics, which includes the likes of Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rummy, Wolfowitz, etal., they have to have Earth and the current times be what they are to justify their absolutist armageddon beliefs, otherwise, they and all those who believe in such destructive fundamentalist fantasies would have to admit the teachings are allegory and metaphor, not meant for self-fulfilling insanity that's remarkably similar to the very Islamic fundamentalists they eschew and label in their "Pot Calling The Kettle Black" fashion so typical of hypocrites and liars.
Want to change to path to self-fulfilling destruction? Then change the way life, religion, politics, sociology and economics have been looked at for over 2,000 years now. That's how Paradise is brought to Earth. Not a paradise of prefect this or that, but a paradise of clarity, sanity, respect for humane virtues and reality itself most importantly.
AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND
AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Prepare for the worst
I mean, come on, you've got to be a "religion is a lie" liberal, right?
Your words are busing betraying you....
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