Quote:
Originally Posted by AGDee
There are a few things that really are quite obvious:
1) Nobody wants the economy to tank
2) If there were an easy solution, it would have been implemented already
3) It's such a complicated issue that nobody really knows how to fix it
I'm starting to get really pessimistic about the whole thing. I wholeheartedly believed that GM was going to survive with the first loan but I no longer believe that. I thought when they gave the banks the bailout money that it would ease up the credit crisis, but I no longer believe that. I'm starting to believe that this is simply going to happen as part of an economic cycle from our standard living and growth being way too high to continue as it was and we are all simply going to have to adjust. College kids cannot expect to make $60K in their first job out of school. Retirees cannot expect their employers to provide them health care and retirement funds to last them into their 90's when they retire at 65. We may not be able to have more computers and TVs than people in our family. We (society) has to stop living on credit and start living within our means. We can't keep pulling equity out of our houses to get more and more stuff. Corporate execs can't expect the perks that they have gotten used to. Things are bad, really bad and it's not going to change over night. We have to adjust. Nobody is willing to admit that we are all responsible for this mess. We want to blame greedy corporations or people who were stupid to buy more house than they could afford, but seriously, most of society spends a lot of time trying to "keep up with the Joneses" and we have to stop because the Joneses are going bankrupt and losing their houses.
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Absolutely - it's a cycle that has gone on throughout history. All you have to do is look back at the 20s and the immense spending (and lack of saving) that went on before the Great Depression. The economy runs in cycles, and I firmly believe that there's not a whole lot that the government can do about it. In any economy though, bad or good, people have to be honest with themselves about what they can expect to earn, and the lifestyle they can afford.
That said...I don't think throwing money at it is the answer, and I have faith that the market (and big businesses) will self-correct at some point.
I'm not trying to come at this from some ivory tower; I have some family members who are in pretty bad shape right now.
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