Your economic confidence - A thread for painter

[LyricalGomez]

That and 25 cent bags of chips, always been 25 cents.

Where?

[crx girl]

indeed. i wonder how my parents are doing.

after 30 years in the telecommunications industry without ever being involuntarily out of work my dad lost his job a couple of weeks ago...

[Luna]

Goddamm you, Hybrid...this is supposed to be a SERIOUS thread and now you've made me laugh!
--------->
:lol:

[GonzoStyle]

Dude you don't have the 25 cent bag of potato chips by you? Dude you are too fuckin rich.

[LyricalGomez]

It's at least 50 cents around here

But we do have the 25 cent gum

[GonzoStyle]

Dude we still got the 25 cent drinks and those small 25 cent fruit drinks, the really cheap ones in the barrel type platic containers.

[Hybrid]

25 cent fruit drinks, the really cheap ones in the barrel type platic containers.

oh shit i remember those

[LyricalGomez]

Now those, we do have

[GonzoStyle]

You could wine and dine on a dollar in HS. Two bags or chips and two drinks, that was the life.

The grape ones were the best, orange was good too but it was really tangy.

[LyricalGomez]

The lemon one sucked

[AFDude]

I count myself lucky knowing I have job security as long as I want....but watching family and close friends lose jobs, struggle to make ends meet and take hits in the stock market is hard to do..

[fbd]

I'm not saying it isn't an extreme dive, I'm just saying too many people were suprised by it.....They really need to teach this stuff in school, I saw too many friends invest heavily in the stock market only to lose most of their money

they do, people just dont pay attention in the class, because its one that is useless. why listen in history class, when they talk about a time period where people had lots of money, new gadgets, just came out of a conflict, and bought lots of stock for about 10 years? its not like the baby boomers got established, finished the cold war, and started buying stock. its the great depression, part 2

[DGW]

after 30 years in the telecommunications industry without ever being involuntarily out of work my dad lost his job a couple of weeks ago...

my pops had 39 years between Western Electric, AT&T and Lucent
then he got promoted to management in his 38th year
a year and a half later he was gone
one of Lucents first casualties

i have 9 1/2 invested in my company and would hate to loose it
but i'm suprised i'm still here as it is

my long term money is now in Ginnie Mae and Puritan Fundz
can't risk the rest of the capital i have

[Rookie]

This economy concerns me, of course. I work in the IT industry for a company that has been consistently downsizing, in a building that has been the main target for the downsizing, and I just bought a house 10 months ago. If I had to find another job, I would probably have to take a pay cut due to the lack of available jobs out there. And my 401k investments have gone to the shitter.

This sucks. When is it going to be over?

[PlasticMan]

When is it going to be over?

In less than a year.

I'm toeing the line of unemployment, and fearing what the next six months may bring, but there is nothing substantial driving the economy's current sluggishness. It's all consumer confidence and shit like that. This is NOTHING like the great depression, and it'd take another 3-4 years of getting consistently worse before it even approached it.

[GonzoStyle]

Painter and Afrika's opinions were rather informative.

[PeterDragon]

We had an unfortunate convergence of problems:
1) the Stock Market was way over valued
2) 9/11 sent a shock to the American Public
3) as things started to go bad, we found out just how badly some of corporate america was ripping us off
4) Day Trading gave power to the masses, most of whom proved they were "amateurs", thereby increasing market volatility,
and most importantly
5) I finally invested in the market, insuring a turn around in our economy.

I have serious concerns about our ability to turn it around. After hearing day in and day out about Enron, Tyco, Martha Stewart, etc. who has confidence in big business?
Many people got burned and will be gun shy.

Poor market means less expansion means less construction means less jobs means less discretionary spending.

As the question was initially asked, who do you have confidence in ? who can lead us out?
Do you buy the Tax Cut's will lead us to the promised land hyperbole?

People talk about Reganomics as if it was great, but College tuition tripled during his term, and our deficit went sky high.

2 years ago I was really dissatisfied at work, and looking to move on. Today I'm happy I still have a job. :poke:

[Arpikarhu]

i love this economy. you wont get bargains on stocks like this again for a long time!

[PeterDragon]

you wont get bargains on stocks like this again for a long time!

but you never know which "rock solid" company will fold next....

[IrishAlkey]

I have two days off a month and I live paycheck to paycheck.

Everything is fine.

goo goo gah gah