What if there is no recovery? What if this is as good as it gets?

~Then I would really consider Aaron Clareys advice to take the Smith and Wesson retirement plan.~

This is it but I see it as an opportunity for our culture to shed materialism and embrace community & family. Honestly, could anyone think this would last? We need to further technology but we need to end the way we use it recklessly.

It may be, it very well may be, from she who has been flat lined in middle age. One things for sure, you bet your bippy I am taking my SS benefit the second I turn 62 before that well completely dries up. haha

We are used to it.

We have had a covery.

Hard to have a “re” without a war in progress.

We’re doing pretty well. Work on some of the problems of income inequality and we can zoom. Why do you say we aren’t recovered?

@zenvelo it is in your “problems of income inequality” statement that the facts are laid out, for it is the bottom segment of the population which is on the rise percentage wise, and the area where things are acute and growing worse. For instance, the foreclosure rates on low end real estate are still through the roof. Wages are stagnant, employment scarce, and opportunities for advancement virtually nonexistent. Even in the face of falling oil prices which should be an incredible boon to consumers, other commodity prices such as food creep steadily upward in spite of the Fed’s dogged suppression of interest rates. So the stock market booms, as more Americans slip below the poverty line, and the huge crowd of baby boomers pray for the day when they can access the meager shelter from the hailstorm provided by social security.

Too many people and too few jobs make recovery unlikely as long as continued unfettered freedom to exploit the many by the few exacerbates the problem. A growing worship of Mammon will deny a resolution. People will attempt to adjust to the increasing difficulty of survival until their suffering becomes unbearable. The inevitable outcome will be bands with weapons and anarchy.

@stanleybmanly The bottom segment of the population is suffering yes, but there has also been a huge surge of middle age, middle of the road types like myself, that have fallen to near poverty line levels during this recession.
Lots of people have gone from relative riches to rags in a few short years. Lay offs, job loss, long term unemployment, lucky to land a job that is paying you a rate that you might have been making 10, 15, even 20 years ago. Combine this with the tanked interest rates, being forced to subsidize with your savings, use credit cards for such necessities as utility bills and groceries, watching your hard earned nest egg disintegrate before your eyes. Going from perfect credit and little debt to credit card debt and worse, perhaps bankruptcy.

It’s hard to miss what you’ve never had, but when you have attained a certain level of comfort, to have that rug pulled out from under you is a bitter pill to swallow. No wonder the suicide rate amongst middle aged people has gone up to over 30% during this recession. A lot of people are worth more dead than alive now. lol
Sad but true, when your death will bring a bigger payout to your family than continuing to live and work will.

If you think about it, the Republicans are expending 110% of their political capital, and gaining absolutely nothing for it.
They’re anti:
Black
Hispanic
Gay
Feminist
And the GOP militancy is only allowing those groups to make gains unprecedented since the 60’s.

Now, if only the Democrats had a viable Presidential candidate.

Alas, @stanleybmanly, this may be as good as it gets.

^ what about Bernie Saunders ?? He’s a democrat right?? My sister told me it was getting better there. I saw rents that made me almost fall of the chair. I think the wages over there are abominable anyway how the hell can people pay 1300$ a month in rent on those terrible wages?

@Coloma Yes. That’s why the numbers are growing at the bottom. Just imagine if you had been hit with the current economic realities in your 30s or 40s.

@trailsillustrated Sanders is a democrat as Trump is a republican. But Sanders is going to be a BIG shock to democratic politics, because he is saying things not championed by the democratic party since the 40s. He is a GENUINE populist, and there’s gonna be hell to pay for it.

@stanleybmanly why? Why will there be hell to pay?

Because his views and opinions are considerably left of what passes for the establishment line in today’s lackluster democratic party. Sanders actually trumpets the things that most democrats believe in. It’s just obvious that the party has been drug along with the Republican eagerness to suck from the plutocratic tit, Democrats watch the Repubs feasting and don’t want to “miss out.”.

They seem to think socialism means like North Korea or something. It’s really normal here.

That’s the big thing that never gets talked about. Most of the people screaming against the evils of socialism haven’t a clue.