Quote: mike morrison

I know I'll make some folks mad, but we're getting what we deserve. Low voter turnout, ignorance on issues, and rampant apathy when it comes to holding our elected officials responsible for their action/inaction is going to bankrupt our nation.

I happen to agree with you. (Mis)Spending at the local level is appalling. It's rarely reported on or investigated and so the majority of people have no clue what's going on...and probably don't care enough to ask.

I'll give you three examples that I know of personally:

A city in my area is currently constructing a teen center. Gorgeous building...looks more like a house than a place for teens to hang out. Unusually, they found they hadn't spent all the money allocated for the project. Did they "redeposit" the extra $$$? No. Instead they went out and bought a $30,000 state-of-the-art barbeque for the kids. They now are scrounging around other city departments for the $20,000 needed for the extra security cameras they want so the "little darlings" don't make off with the barbeque.

Meanwhile, essential services and personnel, like what David Frost described, are cut back and laid off.

A local high school built a new classroom. The construction included Level Five painting...the kind of painting you see in museums and upscale home renovations...top-of-the line carpeting, and special pavers shipped in from the east coast at a cost of thousands of dollars. All this window dressing for a high school classroom that the kids probably dinged up within a month.

These are the same folks who have the nerve to post on a billboard in front of the school "Your bond dollars at work." I think if the people really understood where their money was going, bothered to find out, there would be heads rolling. I vote NO on every school bond measure that comes up and for this very reason.

A local hospital renovated an office space into a recording studio for promotional advertising. Again, Level Five paint was used. The carpeting was bought and installed, then ripped out and discarded for yet another, more-expensive carpet. Solid mahogeny doors were purchased for $10,000 EACH....and then thrown away, into the trash, because they just weren't good enough. Thousands and thousands of dollars wasted on a five-room office space.

This same hospital recently tried, and failed, to put through a bond measure requiring the tax payer to pick up the tab for a seismic retrofit. They think nothing of buying and renovating office spaces in the grandest style imaginable, paying architects to design landscaping and contractors to install it, paying themselves huge salaries while acting like irresponsible kids who stole Daddy's credit cards...yet somehow, we should just keep feeding the beast? I don't think so. Choke the beast.

And if this kind of stuff occurs on one small peninsula imagine how bad it is in larger cities?

 Quote:

I believe there's no getting out of this mess. We will look like France in 10 years.

The socialist mentality is already there. Instead of saying "No, dammit, I don't NEED this; No, I won't borrow the money to buy this and; Hell no, you're charging way too much for this" people are looking for the government to bail them out, help them out, hold their hand and make everything OK again. Same old, same old. There's a valuable lesson to be learned here that will be missed if we keep looking to the government to give us a band-aid.

 Quote:

My advice: pay off bills, save money, get rid of anything that you don't really need and buy a few guns and lots of ammo if you don't already own a few--seriously.

Good, common sense, advice. It's the kind of thinking that older Americans, like my Grandma, have lived by. She lived through the Depression and while she says it was really difficult, she also says that it wasn't a bad thing to learn to "make do." I often wonder what that generation must think of us today.

Ok, that was long. Sorry to vent all over the place. Please don't ban me.

 Quote: Alyssa Myracle

Snopes actually addresses (and verifies as truthful) this email.

I will add that this line (the bolded portion)

 Quote: Marj Remland

5. Walmart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer. And most can't speak English

isn't part of the original email, and was probably a bit of political satire added in.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/bigwalmart.asp

Yeah, interesting. I'll admit, I go to walmart. Every Walmart I've been to, everyone has spoken English.

Edited by Alex Corral (12/17/2008 03:58 PM)
Edit reason: Spelling

Sarah, we won't ban you. Excellent post btw.

As bad as we are all getting it, it seems this has been a long time coming, and yeah, I agree, we deserve a lot of what's happening. Kinda like the spanking we spoiled kids had coming.

All your examples are classics. Just like the bank CEOs/SOBs making millions, while everyone is losing their homes. Don't get me started on the one that was only at his job for less a few weeks and walked away with millions

Here's another nice story about the bank CEO for Merrill Lynch, dropping his bid for a $10M bonus. Geez: http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/08/news/economy/Cuomo_Thain/index.htm

Edited by Alex Corral (12/17/2008 04:04 PM)
Edit reason: Added link

Sarah, I always think your posts are so intelligent and thoughtful!

I love spending time with my grandmother, because she has such a simplistic, frugal way of looking at things. And that is something that's missing from our society today. People don't seem to treasure the little things as much anymore, it's always more bigger better more more more!!!

I don't shop at WalMart, or any of the big box stores, any longer. It's only part of the problem, but it is (IMHO) a big part of the problem. Jobs are going... gone overseas for cheaper labor, and we still pay the same amount for items. Seems like it should make it cheaper for us, too, but it really doesn't. How many people know of a community that has been ravaged after manufacturing left it a crumbling ghost town? It happened to my hometown; it was once booming and vibrant, a place you could raise a family and make a good wage. Now it's over-run with drug dealers and the growing poor of our nation.

The waste on a goverment level (state and federal) is appalling. I've been privy to it with my boyfriend and brother working for one or the other over the years.

Another part of our problem is we feel we "need" far more than we really do. If you're having trouble paying your bills, cancel cable and internet. That's probably a good $100/mo right there. Worried about what will keep you occupied these long winter months? Get outside and talk with your neighbors. We had an ice storm here recently, with many people losing power for days. The neatest thing was looking out my window, seeing different neighbors all outside surveying damage, working together, talking together. We have all gotten so pre-occupied with TV and computer land we've forgotten we are living real life right now! Reality TV? Bah... YOU'RE living it!!

I quit my job at PetSmart because of problems with the rest of the staff. I was unemployed for a few months while I applied everywhere, even Wal Mart. Then I found a job at the AZ Humane Society. The Monday after Thankgiving they fired me. The stated reason was that I didn't work fast enough but I think a personality conflict with my supervisor was the real reason. Before I lived with my parents and could be unemployed without it hurting too bad. But I moved out on my own when I got the job at the AHS. I like my independence and will NOT move back in with my parents. I don't have any special skills and my chance of getting a job after being fired weren't that good. So I went and joined the Army. I leave for boot camp Jan.6. I'm hoping that in 4 years the economy will be back on it's feet. My MOS in the Army will be Animal Care Specialist which is similar to a vet tech. And I'll be coming out of it with money for school if I want to do that.

I think the media had a part in the economic crash but it had already started to go before they reported on it. Experts had been warning for years that the common practice of living on credit beyond your means would come back to bite us. I think it will result in some good things like people actually living within their paychecks. People are less concerned about "keeping up" with their neighbors fancy cars and big house. I see people being more willing to admit that they don't have the money to do something or buy something. It's not shameful to admit that you can't just run out and buy whatever you want to anymore.

 Quote: stephanie biros

Worried about what will keep you occupied these long winter months? Get outside and talk with your neighbors. We had an ice storm here recently, with many people losing power for days. The neatest thing was looking out my window, seeing different neighbors all outside surveying damage, working together, talking together. We have all gotten so pre-occupied with TV and computer land we've forgotten we are living real life right now! Reality TV? Bah... YOU'RE living it!!

Thank you for saying that. I think people do tend to get isolated from each other with internet and the tv. But I'd go stir crazy without something to keep my mind busy.

 Quote: Cathy Goessman

So I went and joined the Army. I leave for boot camp Jan.6.

Holy cow~ that's a big life change. Best of luck with everything and thanks for serving.

Here's the big news gang,
You can rail against the news media for making the economy worse than it really is. Or you can get all hyped about how it wasn't reported sooner. Well news flash guys, I've been reading about it for at least two years and closer to three. Yes, in the major outlets. Was it front page as it is now? No, but it was there for anyone who cared to read the writing on the wall. It wasn't written in some mumbo jumbo arcane language one needs a degree to decipher either. It was written in plain black and white;i.e. here's the poop people react accordingly. So dump on the main stream media all you want, but they did their job......Someone else dropped the ball by not paying attention or discounting the reports as so much liberal naysaying. No matter what the source was, it always was and now is the same refrain, 'oh don't pay any mind to the media, especially to the printed word, it's just a lot of left wing propaganda.
Heres another news flash guys, read it or be surprised at the world tomorrow. Read it if no other reason then to know what the enemy is doing. But read it. Front to back.
Think of it as reading the weather report for the next day or week or the coming months.

In the same vain you can't fault the media for reporting in front page headlines on the end of the rainbow that trickle down economics was always destined for. For reporting that less government control and oversight of the free market system is not a good thing.
If one doesn't read the news, how is one to know about schools and hopitials wasting our monies before it's to late to do anything about it?
The so called pinko rags have been absolutely been screaming for years about Walmart and it's effect on the community. In terms one would think of hitting home; jobs, and displacement of the social infrastructure. But price trumps everything. So how does everybody like it so far? Yeah, the service based economy we have is really something isn't it. Humph, I won't even walk into a Walmart for a pack of cigarettes.
But don't blame the media for Walmart, or for reporting now that they have more power and money then god. Somebody wasn't paying attention......Hint, it wasn't the media.

Randy

People can complain all they want about Wal-mart, but I know that if it wasn't for their prices on certain items like drugs, coffee, and other items, I like others who are on a fixed income would have to be making harder choices than we already are, like do I eat and take my medication today or skip as much as possible so I can pay the rent and have a place to live. I'm no fan of Wal Mart but it's time to put the blame where it belongs and that's in the mirror. So quit whining about Wal Mart and be an agent of change. Truth hurts but I'd rather know it than not.

Here in NY things are looking almost as grim as the media is portraying it. Luckily my wife and I are fairly recession resistant as teacher and fireman. They are talking about closing fire companies and layoffs of cops and fireman.

As far as the bailout is concerned I don't believe we should pay to bail out the car companies. I used to live outside detroit and know how badly that it will affect that area but I still don't believe that if you make a bad product, that is overpriced, and treat your customers like crap then you deserve to go out of business. I just hope that other companies will come in and start making cars in this country that people will want to buy.

I always try to buy American products but they are so hard to find. Especially, if you go to a walmart!

I worry because desperate people will resort to desperate acts. I think that the media playing off the fears of the people will drive people to that sooner. Stock up on ammo and canned goods.