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American Dream or Great Depression?
- Thread starter Bruce Lindfield
- Start date
that's false you don't have to fall far behind
union gigs require no prior schooling have awesome retirement funds, health insurance, and pay.
get into the local 597 pipefitters hybrid welding program and do 4 months training and you're making 27 bucks an hour and you'll be up to almost 50 an hour in 4 years.
it's not like that's the only way to go either. any skilled construction/manufacturing job requires little school and pays big.
I'm with Cherie. If you can't afford it - save 'til you can. Cash gives you way more bargaining power when haggling anyway.
I have a couple of credit cards I use for convenience sake. Pay 'em off every monthh. The credit card companies call me a deadbeat!
I'm srry that a lot of ppl bought houses that were way beyond their financial reach. It shouldn't have been possible with proper rules for the lending agencies. Even so, those buyers signed on the dotted line and, although I feel for them, they made some bad decisions.
When talking about ppl who need a little help via food stamps or unemployment, I don't mind helping out. I'm all for hand ups, not handouts. What gets me is that corporations get massive tax breaks and move offshore to gain further tax evasions. They should pay their fair share as well.
I'm not anti-corporate or anti-rich (hell the rich pay almost 70% of the tax, down from 85% in the 90s), but I think everyone should put their fair share in the pot.
I have a couple of credit cards I use for convenience sake. Pay 'em off every monthh. The credit card companies call me a deadbeat!
I'm srry that a lot of ppl bought houses that were way beyond their financial reach. It shouldn't have been possible with proper rules for the lending agencies. Even so, those buyers signed on the dotted line and, although I feel for them, they made some bad decisions.
When talking about ppl who need a little help via food stamps or unemployment, I don't mind helping out. I'm all for hand ups, not handouts. What gets me is that corporations get massive tax breaks and move offshore to gain further tax evasions. They should pay their fair share as well.
I'm not anti-corporate or anti-rich (hell the rich pay almost 70% of the tax, down from 85% in the 90s), but I think everyone should put their fair share in the pot.
Newsflash: Put aside the numbers, charts, figures, and math, and realize THIS...
If this many people are asking out loud if we're screwed, it's pretty clear that WE'RE ALREADY SCREWED.
Anything else is moot...this is what we'll hafta call "a classic case of self-evidence".
If this many people are asking out loud if we're screwed, it's pretty clear that WE'RE ALREADY SCREWED.
Anything else is moot...this is what we'll hafta call "a classic case of self-evidence".
Boy, around here the trades have really taken a tumble. Everyone's a little tense.
I work for a mason and this time of year we usually have five or six foundations getting ready to go. This spring they've all fallen through. Not very much work on the remodeling end of things either. After we finish these last two houses we're looking at a lull.
Maybe a good time to retire. Or maybe venture into the world of unemployment comp. Have never done it in my life, but am seriously considering it. Fortunately I have no big debts or payments.
One good benefit about the trades is you can always work on your own house when things get slow. YEAH RIGHT!
I work for a mason and this time of year we usually have five or six foundations getting ready to go. This spring they've all fallen through. Not very much work on the remodeling end of things either. After we finish these last two houses we're looking at a lull.
Maybe a good time to retire. Or maybe venture into the world of unemployment comp. Have never done it in my life, but am seriously considering it. Fortunately I have no big debts or payments.
One good benefit about the trades is you can always work on your own house when things get slow. YEAH RIGHT!
It really depends on your overhead. I live in California. 70k a year is not that much money.
This weekend I'm moving to Rockford, Illinois (population 150,000) and so for the past few weeks I've been searching for a job there. There are so many jobs available that I'm having a hard time choosing among them. I've thinned out dozens of good leads into a half dozen great ones and interviewed at each of them. I can take any one of them immediately if I want to but I'm waiting another week until I pick one because I have enough time to be choosy. Considering that I don't have a college degree or certification in any skilled trades (just a solid history of employment in semi-skilled professions) I don't see why anyone who can show a little ambition can't get a decent full time job that will allow you to live comfortably (if frugally) and rise to whatever levels of compensation and opportunity that desire allows.
The interesting thing to me is the unemployment rate in Rockford is 8.5% which is twice the national average. This number does not include those whom the government judges to have difficulty working, such as single parents with dependents or the disabled or elderly. This tells me that there are a lot of people who should be working and who could be working but aren't. My observation is that too many of those unemployed are comfortable with their non-working lifestyle and are being enabled to continue to be unemployed perpetually by being subsidized with government handouts.
jive1
Commercial User
My theory is that since it's an election year, there will be alot of fear mongering going on. The economy is shambles, but our candidate can solve that.
Economy's go in cycles. In the 80s, there were double digit interest rates, yet the housing and lending market didn't completely collapse. I graduated from college into an economic recession and within 2-3 years I had more job offers than I knew what to do with. There were guys who went from rags to riches and back to rags from that tech-bubble era but there's alot of us that still have jobs and managed to buy houses in time for the housing boom. And who knows what will come next.
The US economy is very diversified, and because of that our average recession is 11 months long while periods of expansion are an average of 6 years. So looking at the last decade or so, there was a market boom led by tech that lasted about 5 years and then bursted into a recession that lasted about a year. Then there was a housing boom that lasted for about 5 years, and now we're seeing the bubble on that burst. So it's inevitable that the US will have a recession. It's how economic cycles work.
Don't let the fear mongerers make you stop working and investing during a down time, and don't get too caught up in the frenzy of a boom. It's those that keep a level head during either time that make it through.
Economy's go in cycles. In the 80s, there were double digit interest rates, yet the housing and lending market didn't completely collapse. I graduated from college into an economic recession and within 2-3 years I had more job offers than I knew what to do with. There were guys who went from rags to riches and back to rags from that tech-bubble era but there's alot of us that still have jobs and managed to buy houses in time for the housing boom. And who knows what will come next.
The US economy is very diversified, and because of that our average recession is 11 months long while periods of expansion are an average of 6 years. So looking at the last decade or so, there was a market boom led by tech that lasted about 5 years and then bursted into a recession that lasted about a year. Then there was a housing boom that lasted for about 5 years, and now we're seeing the bubble on that burst. So it's inevitable that the US will have a recession. It's how economic cycles work.
Don't let the fear mongerers make you stop working and investing during a down time, and don't get too caught up in the frenzy of a boom. It's those that keep a level head during either time that make it through.
Exactly. In an environment where a even a modest 2 bedroom house goes for 3/4 of a million, 70K a year ain't much.
nailed it.
the problem we are facing now is the division of wealth and this plays a huge part in it. i agree whole heartedly that these are necessary programs because it is our duty as human beings to help those who cannot help themselves; however, these are also tax funded programs and its not the wealthy or the poor or the businesses that are paying out the ass to cover the costs.
as far as trade jobs go, there are good ones available, but around here many trades are subject to seasonal ebb and flow especially in carpentry/construction.
but if you consider that poor you need to get off the pipe
if you think where you live is too expensive why don't you move and help solve the demand that causes the housing to be so high?
I don't live where a 2 bedroom costs 3/4 of a million, but I'm also not oblivious to the fact that some people do.
Where I live is not exactly your concern, and I wouldn't tell you where to live. However, in the NY metropolitan area, and in California, people need to earn a living congruent with their expenses...or should we, by your measure, just tell everyone to MOVE???
Yes, we are booming like crazy here, but I don't know anybody who gets paid $17-20/hour working at McDonalds. Most of my friends are making between $10-$15/hour working part-time jobs though and most of that is in sales. The problem is that finding a place to live is pretty expensive here, so most of the money is spent on rent.
I am an agricultural framer, so construction trade, and I make about $22,000 a year. There is money to be made, but it is not "big" by a long shot. I was only arguing about there being "big" money in all trades. Around here if you have that piece of paper, you will alway be employed.
lowsound
