I've been frequently asked why I'm so negative about the economy. I could bore you with economic minutia, but these are a few key points that are largest contributing factors. I will start with the car stimulus as I grew up in the Detroit area and it's still near and dear to my heart. What has happened there saddens me more than you can imagine.
The recent car stimulus program "Cash for Clunkers" has (arguably) been a resounding success! 700,000 new cars were sold!
Yes, the argument can be made that the foreign car makers have assembly plants here in the U.S.- BUT- Do you realize where the profit from these cars goes? Not here. Now the national debt is growing to subsidize profitable foreign companies? Living in a country trillions in debt- debt owed to other countries (mostly China. I sure hope they don't decide to collect anytime soon or my socialism rants will be replaced with your communism rants and my I told ya so's)- I just don't understand how ANY ONE OF YOU could buy a foreign car. 1 in every 100 jobs in the United States is/was a direct result of the auto industry. It is YOU who is paying for the welfare unemployed, non skilled laborers are/will be collecting. It's coming out of our social security money as well- so quit bitching about people on social services and how you'll never see your social security money. You're spending it on a Camry. I won't go on a socialism rant at this very moment, but one is always close to the surface lately and NOT because of Obama- Because of Joe right wing American. Because of Helicopter Ben and his crew. Because of Diebold voting fraud. Beause of the piss poor way things are done here on a consistent basis.
In order the top sellers were:
Ford Focus. Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Prius, Ford Escape. Toyota Camry. Dodge Caliber, Hyundai Elantra, Honda Fit, Chevy Cobalt
Top C4C trade in cars:
1998 Ford Explorer, 1997 Ford Explorer, 1996 Ford Explorer, 1999 Ford Explorer, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Cherokee, 1995 Ford Explorer, 1994 Ford Explorer, 1997 Ford Windstar, 1999 Dodge Caravan
Initial clunkers legislation sponsored by Representative Betty Sutton, an Ohio Democrat, would have barred discounts for new vehicles manufactured overseas and offered higher payments for cars and trucks produced in the U.S. than for those made in Canada and Mexico. The “Buy American” provision was dropped from the final legislation because of opposition from foreign automakers and free-trade advocates who said it would conflict with U.S. obligations to the World Trade Organization.
As the cars being turned in are being destroyed, actually crushed - getting rid of the "clunkers", has made the base price of a used car higher than ever before ($5k). If we want to help the poor, why not give them these cars or sell them and make some of that tax money back? The new vehicles purchased tend to be sturdy and long lasting. How soon do you think these 'less than fortunate' people are going to buy another car? We've just set ourselves up with a glut of available cars for the next 10 yrs.
Yesterday I had the joyous experience of registering my 1 yr old car for the year. What cost me around $60 last year has now increased to $500. Starting Sept 1st reg. price is based on depreciation value of -10% each year (here in NV anyway). This of course is a higher number and does not coincide with the Kelley Blue Book value. So- the govt IS getting money back. Too bad. so sad for me it is from those of us who weren't even part of the program. Why not just write out checks to Japan and Korea?
I'm shocked that so many of my "smart" and "intelligent" cohorts don't/can't see the lies and "fuzzy math" being thrown around. It extends into every part of our economy- from car sales to packages of food with less contents and more air so they look the same. Nico Richter shows clearly how the housing numbers were altered to look positive by the powers that be: U.S. Existing Home Sales Data - ADJUSTED!
Jobless claims have stayed the same last month! GREAT NEWS! ...or is it? Could it be possible that those numbers are the same because hundreds of thousands of unemployment benefits ran out?
Thank you for reading and I hope you consider what I have just said.
6 comments:
Thanks for the link to my blog post. Unfortunately, for some reason the pictures in posterous broke. This is the link to a working version on (my beloved) Evernote:
http://evernote.com/pub/w0nk0/p#Note/ccbdb5de-6cf4-496e-bd9e-7442b2c86703
You already know I agree with your post entirely. Times and politics like these really bring out the socialist in me.
Keynesian economics works IF only your set aside money (surpluses) in good times. That's where the $$$ comes from to inject in the bad times. Of course we can't trust Congress to set aside a surplus in good times so that's why advocate the Austrian school of economics. No fractional banking and sound hard money (gold/silver).
Yes- Congress sold our physical gold reserves many years ago. I'm sure there was a reason. I'm also sure that reason had absolutely no benefit for the average American citizen. :/
You don't seem to post very much, yet what you have to say is most interesting. Yes, FDR had the New Deal and Obama has Cash For Clunkers ( I thought Cash for Clunkers was bailing out AIG and the others...)
You're absolutely right in being negative on the economy. People flocked here in the 20th century, because a worker could earn a good living - Henry Ford paid his workers so they could afford his product. To me, that's the basis of capitalism - workers who can afford to spend. If they can't... well, here we are today.
Thank you. Well, said and it's great to get a good dialogue going about fiscal policy and how soon we are now -- especially at this time of right-winged head up their ass/no clever excuse to make besides change the subject AND blame everything on Obama. After all, it's his fault -- everything. As we talked about before "cash for clunkers" is something I need in my business (for used auto parts) and we haven't even touched on how fishy it's been on the dealer to salvage yard end.
If I were to wager a guess at why, I’d say that users don’t “browse” forms. The interaction style users engage in with forms is different, and requires its own study and design best practices.
part time money
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