02-11-2009, 01:45 PM
<!--quoteo(post=17293:date=Feb 11 2009, 11:04 AM:name=woyaokafei)-->QUOTE (woyaokafei @ Feb 11 2009, 11:04 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Thread closed. Obviously the man with the most formatting tags wins, so gg Hemisfear.
Is unemployment your own metric of whether we are better or worse off now than in the 80s? (or headed there?) What about the real estate market, or the amount of bad debt floating around? Do you understand what unemployment even measures? Here, I'll help you out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment#...abor_Statistics
Your referenced figures of not include U4, U5, U6. It's ok though, as long as you get a tax cut and everyone laid off can find a job bagging groceries or washing your car?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I realize that unemployment only measures people whom are claiming unemployment and that it's a flawed metric, but as metrics go it's a fair measure in relative terms by today's standards when it's coupled with items such as GDP, Housing ownership, Personal Wealth, all of which were brought up and left (conviniently) out of your statement.
Hey I don't mean to imply that I'm looking specifically for personal gain here. I still have a job, 2 children, a wife, a home to manage and I'm just as scared as the next guy. That being said however, I also didn't lever myself up with an ARM, I put down a hefty sum on my house, I have no debt, my children have college savings accounts, I have worked for 7 straight years, I've paid more in taxes than most (but not all of) my friends and family. I am not a part of the social problem here. I'm just another middle class, suburbanite, average American who cares about where the future is headed.
What gets me most out of this isn't the fact that, at worst, I may have to sacrifice my personal way of life, it's that I have no honest way to look in my two young children's eyes (Kyle-5 | Luke-3) and with any certainty tell them that they are in control of their own destiny, or that they can be afforded a chance at the American dream IF the bottom falls out of this thing.
So if I come off as angry, and I come off as scared, and I'm not at all convinced that the same government that told our banks to change their lending standards, completely removed any measure of risk, tolerated 30:1 leverage, and encouraged people who have no business owning a home, to own one....you'll have to find it in your heart to forgive me.
Is unemployment your own metric of whether we are better or worse off now than in the 80s? (or headed there?) What about the real estate market, or the amount of bad debt floating around? Do you understand what unemployment even measures? Here, I'll help you out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment#...abor_Statistics
Your referenced figures of not include U4, U5, U6. It's ok though, as long as you get a tax cut and everyone laid off can find a job bagging groceries or washing your car?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I realize that unemployment only measures people whom are claiming unemployment and that it's a flawed metric, but as metrics go it's a fair measure in relative terms by today's standards when it's coupled with items such as GDP, Housing ownership, Personal Wealth, all of which were brought up and left (conviniently) out of your statement.
Hey I don't mean to imply that I'm looking specifically for personal gain here. I still have a job, 2 children, a wife, a home to manage and I'm just as scared as the next guy. That being said however, I also didn't lever myself up with an ARM, I put down a hefty sum on my house, I have no debt, my children have college savings accounts, I have worked for 7 straight years, I've paid more in taxes than most (but not all of) my friends and family. I am not a part of the social problem here. I'm just another middle class, suburbanite, average American who cares about where the future is headed.
What gets me most out of this isn't the fact that, at worst, I may have to sacrifice my personal way of life, it's that I have no honest way to look in my two young children's eyes (Kyle-5 | Luke-3) and with any certainty tell them that they are in control of their own destiny, or that they can be afforded a chance at the American dream IF the bottom falls out of this thing.
So if I come off as angry, and I come off as scared, and I'm not at all convinced that the same government that told our banks to change their lending standards, completely removed any measure of risk, tolerated 30:1 leverage, and encouraged people who have no business owning a home, to own one....you'll have to find it in your heart to forgive me.