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Spirits plunge amid onslaught of grim news

It's getting bad, and some of the main reasons are 1) the devaluation of the US dollar and 2) the massive amounts of debt our government accumulates.

Cheer up, Gus.

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.

Part of the problem is that the media is now a 7/24 business which seeks to maximize viewers. For whatever the reason viewers tune in for bad news more than good news and the media provides ample bad news. This article is also irresponsibly perpetuating the myth that polar bears are in trouble. There never has been man-made global warming. The last naturally occurring global warming trend ending ten years ago and there has been a slight decline in tempurature since the 1998 peak. Also, the Polar Bears seemed to have survived just fine during the Medieval Warming Period. Why would they be endangered now? Also, growing middle classes in third-world countries who have the means to purchase additional resources should be considered good news! Surely we as Americans cannot believe that only the West should be allowed to have a large middle class. While mentioning some legitimate problems this article should perhaps be recast to mention that Americans are pessimistic inspite of so many good things happening around the world. That's the story.

Americans are Whimps!!!! We like to spend money we don't have. We don't like to prepare for a season of scarcity. We don't work hard any more, we just like security until the very moment we die. We spend billions if not trillions of dollars on stupid things that don't make a single bit of difference, example, video games, pornography, season tickets to the Jazz (insert your favorite team). How bad is it really? I am actually glad for this downturn because it give us an opportunity to rediscover who we as Americans have always been. Time to start using our leisure time to work. Sell the toys, flat screens, and burn off some calories. We need to stop insulate ourselves from reality and start letting the next great generation really feel the problems we have in this country and then the next true Americans will find a way to come off conquerers. Adversity is a fabulous thing. It refines us. The weak, lazy, and faithless fall by the way side but the pure gold is left behind to forge a better tomorrow, a better America. Extreme adversity has always preceeded greatness in this country. Haven't seen much greatness lately......

I'm an optimist at heart. Yeah, many things look grim, but I am just happy to be along for the ride. Hey, maybe we can help somebody along the way.

Yes, all those individual news stories, large and small, are making us look down as we walk. I suggest we seek exceptions such as an elderly clerk acquaintance in a second hand store did for me yesterday - again.

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.

I say to Josh you need a reality check. Have you lost your job rencently? My husband lost his over two years ago and we have yet to get a job offer even though he has applied for literally thousands of jobs and has had hundreds of interviews. Family relationships have been strained and we just want this to end. There seems no hope in sight for our little family. No matter what we do we just can't catch a break even though my husband is an educated man and I too have been to school and am working part time since all of our children are in school. Our youngest even had brain surgery during a time when we had no insurance, so no I don't think it is going to get any better anytime soon!!!!

Things look grim here? Puh-leez- tell it to Helen Keller. These writers need to go read They might cheer up a little

Buying and selling, and looking for opportunities to make a buck off the problems and misfortunes of others, isn't the way to solve the serious problems that the world is facing. That kind of thinking is what got us here in the first place.

Why is it grim that flood plains are flooding, that tectonic plates are shifting, the weather cycles are cycling, that deserts are in a drought phase, that the market cycles are responding to cyclical influences? Sunsets are still magnificent, trees present their seasonal faces gloriously, families and friends gather, individuals find ways to serve causes they are passionate about.

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!

When hasn't there been bad news? When my parents were born during the Great Depression? During World War II? During the Cold War and Vietnam? Even going back hundreds of years, you cannot find a stretch of 20 years without a war, famine or natural disaster; and you often find times of all three. My neighbor drives a hummer, I drive a scooter that gets 77 miles to the gallon. Guest which one of us complains more about high fuel costs. We have options. I feel for the man who hasn't found a job in two years. But, a few years ago I tried to hire qualified computer programmer and not one US citizen applied, at the same time my company had over 80 applicants for a warehouse job. Buy a more fuel efficient vehicle, get more education and study history and our time doesn't seem so bad.

I don't think the sky is falling yet and the whole bit about the Polar bears adrift is a bit over the top. You know, bad things are going to happen to you periodically throughout your life and a person measures their strength by how they respond to those situations. Cheer up and buck up. Life isn't as bad as this article would want you to believe, especially in the U.S.A. It's the people that make this country strong, not government. I wouldn't put them in your emergency plan.

I tend to agree with Whimps...

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!

Wow.
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...

Carbon trading? What a farce!!!

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.

Can we see that we are reaping what we have sewn.

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.

You better believe everything spinning out of control. Midwestern levees are bursting, global warming, the gradual degradation of an entire planet's weather that man seems powerless to stop, Polar bears are adrift, Gas prices are skyrocketing, Home values are abysmal, Airfares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable, Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism. By the way, John McCain promises and Barack Obama promises are only word's, they are the 2 only US Senator's to be put on a ticket for President in History. Poll barrel-scraping is wrong, 17 percent believe the President is moving in the right direction. But who cares, he's out the door in January. Yes Americans need do no more than check the weather, look in their wallets or turn on the news for their daily reality check on a world gone haywire. Guess it's time to vote Republican, the Dem's stalled long enough. In Washington.

Hang in there Georgia! It's your only choice. Don't take any of this the wrong way but, maybe it's time for a career change. Maybe it is time restart things from scratch. In two years it would have been possible to go back to college and learn a new skill, one that may be more marketable. Married with children and earning almost no money would certainly qualify someone in your household to go to college at no charge. Maybe it is time to move to a place where you would never consider moving to just to take a job. In the town where I live there are literally tons of jobs that pay over $50k but they can be back breaking jobs. Maybe it is time for this. Just hang in there because despair does nothing for you. I have been there before and it always gets better.

Put your typewriter away and get to work.

The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over while expecting different results. For a brighter future, people need to make different choices ... in their lives, at the marketplace and most importantly, in the voting booth.