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Originally Posted by Useless Warrior
I predict everything will be fine for the average American. Sure, if you purchased a home within a the last few years, you probably aren't going to want to sell it for several more years since its market value is about to drop, and your 401K's value means you won't be able to retire tomorrow, otherwise, I've seen no reason to believe that we need to start looking for soup kitchens.
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I hope you are right about that, and deep down I hold that feeling that everything will be ok. But first we have to get through a recession and I hope it's not an ugly one.
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Originally Posted by LusciousDelight
I tend to agree BUT...if we continue the policies of deregulation, and if the middle class continues losing wealth while wealth concentrates at the top of the economic ladder, we're fucked. 2/3 of our economy runs on consumer spending, and when their wages cannot keep up with prices, the economy grinds to a halt. Conservatives like to remind us that it is the wealthy that creates jobs...I like to remind them that it is the non-wealthy that buys the shit they sell, and if nobody is buying, there's no economy.
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Absolutely we live in a consumer-based economy, and I agree that if the middle-class goes down then the rest of the economy tanks with it. Globalization might help soften this fall, since there is a market for American products in other parts of the world. But it comes at a cost of losing tons of domestic jobs to cheap labor overseas.
When it works, it's a big circle jerk and everyone gets off. When it doesn't work, it's a downward death spiral.