Great Depression of 2016

[Dwkuska]

**** it, we NEED jobs, MORE jobs and get our stablity in the economy back!

Have no fear! The economy IS providing more jobs! Sure they are only minimum wage or slightly higher but their are jobs being created. Isnt that what America is all about? Having a job that doesnt pay a livable wage because we have shipped all our jobs to other countries and now we cant afford to buy those porducts back?

 

[rufus]

Ewesheep, I am sorry for the tough times you and your family are enduring. I am afraid Decatur is going the way of Detroit. Manufacturing is a dead industry in the US. The contract with Australia probably required in country manufacturing. That way, they keep the money in country.

Your family is just one of hundred of thousands suffering through this. Things won't change until we change the way business and government deal with each other. Over regulation, excessive taxation and union problems have put us out of business. Government treats businesses as if they were criminals. The way they treat small business is even worse.

So many of the companies we think of as "American" companies are actually owned by foreigners. When they gain control of the company, it will be moved to where it benefits the owners. The name is the same, and the product is the same, but it is made in China, Korea or some other low labor country. It is better to buy something in the second hand store rather than buy a new product made outside the US.

Unemployment benefits may be restored, but that will not solve the problem. Our ancestors came to this country to escape similar problems. Maybe it is time to move on, but to where?

Some of us have gotten too old to move on, and our capital has dwindled to nothing. Taxes will make us all poor, and then there will be no income inequality.

Hope and pray.

 

[Dwkuska]

I am just wondering what banks are going to do with all this land. If everyone is going broke then nobody will be able to afford the payments on their homes and land. Banks dont want land our houses as they prefer hard currency. But sooner or later the banks are going to own 80% of the country.. Makes me wonder if we will sell the US to the highest bidder to pay back our astronomical debts.

 

[rufus]

I am afraid we have already sold out. The Chinese are spending all of that money they collected up on US real estate and companies. We just bought too many plastic gee gaws from them. They have what used to be our capital.

The fed keeps the interest rate low and the Chinese borrow money dirt cheap. Then they loan it back to us through their banks, and people in this country end up paying twenty two or twenty three per cent on their charge cards.

A couple of years ago, I looked up who owned some properties my family had to sell to pay taxes. They were all bought by overseas Chinese companies.

Pretty soon we will be unwelcome guest in our own country. Better learn Mandarin so you can talk to your new landlord.

 

[EweSheep]

I am afraid to say for those folks who has been working for years (hubby is 51 years old, never been on UI for longer than a few months, over thirty years ago), worked in a factory or a trade they are skilled in, now have to pick a career or go back to school to learn a new trade, putting us more in debt so he could get a job that classified as "in", as in medical field, electronic fields, construction jobs (not all of them can do it) that IDES has created a test for anyone, saying you can go in this field, go to school and have jobs for them. Isn't it false adverising when one goes thru all that trouble?

When hubby took the test that IDES had, the tests revealed that he could be a psychologist, CRNA, a counselor and computer analyst! Are they for real?!!!! He can NOT be any of those things (he is ADHD/AS with serious PTSD, did not do very well in math (no alegbra taught at all), and sucks at any social issues, no teamwork or managerial abilities and has no patience with computers that is simply cranky (virus or simply quit working). All simply because of the test. He is not going to waste his time for schooling (he had EMT certfication and took some classes in pblebotmy, but employers have issues with him on a social issue (because of his AS). When he told IDES that these jobs will NOT be a good fit for him since he enjoys dead, mind numbing, repetitive jobs (factory, manfacturing, inventory, newspaper printing/sorting, sorting thru bins) but there ARE no jobs available for the "common" men. Sure he can be a truck driver but unable to do so because of her perception problems in distance and can not rationalize split second reactions or decisions and too overcautious that he is a danger to other drivers on a bad day. He will NOT nor WANT to collect disability which that is OK with me because he is too proud to get when he is physically able, not crippled.

He was talking about moving out of the state to find jobs but they are just as bad and it is so disheartening to see 100 or more people scrambling to put in application for one job over and over in this town or anything offered out of state, to go for a job interview, you would have to turn it down because it cost too much gas to get there and back. Last time he did that, for a job interview, and putting in job applications, it cost us 200 dollars in gas and 50 in food (cheapest on menu) out of state that we were 200 short for the rest of the month.

I am thankful for food pantries but it can only stretch so far when Public Aid only give you less than 200 dollars a month to feed your family because of the budget cuts that the state imposes on. We were denied many times because we simply made too much on hubby's UI and my SS benefits. Now UI suspended, we are still waiting for response from PA and hope for the best. Better stock up on staples, such as rice and beans but thankfully I am still able to have my chickens and rabbits for eggs and meat.

 

[Dwkuska]

depending on your property size you can let your chickens free range in your yard. Thats what we are doing and it cuts their feed bill by 70%

 

[rufus]

I hear a lot of folks have gone to North Dakota to work in the oil fields. This sounds a lot like when folks left Oklahoma and Texas for California in the 1930's. I would like to hear from some of those folks in North Dakota; is it working out for them? People sure shouldn't give up the home place until they found a job. I hope someone will answer up on this issue.

North Dakota is a real cold place sometimes. It would be a bad place to find oneself without assets.

 

[Dwkuska]

I hear a lot of folks have gone to North Dakota to work in the oil fields. This sounds a lot like when folks left Oklahoma and Texas for California in the 1930's. I would like to hear from some of those folks in North Dakota; is it working out for them? People sure shouldn't give up the home place until they found a job. I hope someone will answer up on this issue.

North Dakota is a real cold place sometimes. It would be a bad place to find oneself without assets.

My brother went there for electrical work. He says everyone is hiring lots of folks starting entry level 60k+/yr The problem is their is no housing. People are living in hotels and RVs because every house or apartment is full up.

 

[rufus]

I suspect that is where a lot of those FEMA trailers that GAO is selling off are going. North Dakota was settled by homesteaders, but sometime in the 1930's a lot of them moved on. I hear there are a lot of abandoned farm houses falling down. They are uninhabitable relics of the past.

Is he sending money home, or is it all being eaten up in living expenses?

 

[Dwkuska]

Is he sending money home, or is it all being eaten up in living expenses?

Well that is where he and his new wife(my ex) are living. He told me for a few months they were staying in a studio apartment for $1800/mo But a month ago he said he put an offer on a house.