Our high standard of living, based on easy credit, is becoming an albatros

[CoffeeAnnan]

in an age of increasing globalization.We who have been led to believe that the sky is the limit to our ambition may be forced to set our sights a lot lower as we are being assaulted on multiple fronts by the emerging global powers like India, China, Brazil,Russia and a large number of smaller powers including Vietnam,Malaysia,Korea and others.

In all cases,many countries have learned their lessons from our own economy well.Education and entrepreneurship are transforming previously stagnating societies.Capital now seeks ideas globally and this is why it is migrating to places like India.In this global game,we are going to have to either reduce our own standard of living or deliver higher value to the corporate masters.That is a game that is already affecting even people in highly paid professions.Medical,legal, banking and accounting are all targets for the emerging countries.

Expect steady erosion of living standards both for blue and white collar professions.

[acmejack]

1. I expect a rather rapid erosion

triggered by OPEC switching to the euro or (gasp) the yuan.

[sam sarrha]

2. bank of america is dedicating another 50 billion dollars to cards

and they are all raising the rate to 29.9%

[CoffeeAnnan]

3. That is how our standard of living is going to be eroded.The best

thing right now would be for all of us to get out of debt as quickly as our finances would allow.And get back to the habit of buying only what we need, not what we want and do it as a payon the spot transcation for most of our purchases.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Look at this 156x70 lot in Jupiter Fl.....

I just want to know where all the money comes from that can buy a lot priced in the ether.... what some American lifestyles consume could keep many many villages going in third world nations for years if not lifetimes. I forgot to add the price.... $860,000

[wurzel]

4. The standard of living is not high for most people.

And will continue downwards.

[CoffeeAnnan]

8. Compared to the lifestyles of most countries in Asia, including India

and China ours should be considered lavish even at the bottom of our society.That is precisely why we are being targeted for downsizing by the corporate paymasters.

[wurzel]

14. Forty years ago such contrasts would been unthinkable.

No corporation would have dared make such a comparison.

[bperci108]

6. Remember Duhbya's much ballyhooed "Ownership Society"?

Commentator/comedian and AAR "Morning Sedition" host Marc Maron more accurately dubbed it "The Culture of Debt".

Quite fitting, I think...

The mind reels imagining what will happen to the suburban yuppie society when the cheap oil and the easy credit run out, leaving only massive, unserviceable debts, unemployment and foreclosures behind.

[mcscajun]

7. I'm there already.

My work went to India over two years ago (yes, I was in IT) and because I'm a 50+ woman with a college degree and more pounds on my frame than most, I'm not at the top of the "we must hire that person list." I've seen the handwriting on the wall; I cannot compete with techies in other countries willing to work for a half or even a third of what I earned; I cannot compete with kids just out of college with a Computer Science or Electrical Engineering degree who already know more current skills than I, and who will start at a third of what I earned.

So two years ago, I lowered my sights, reduced my expectations of what the rest of my life would be, and began living frugally, paying down my debt, not incurring any new debt, etc. Instead of buying a new car two years ago as I'd planned, I put new tires on the old car. I'm still driving it today and it's in its 11th year -- still going strong. So am I.

I am, however one of the statistics: I've gone from full-time employment to part-time employment, and in the next year I'll have to take on at least one additional part-time job in order to survive.

Fun, fun, fun. And IdiotSon gets to count me as employed. Twice.

Yeah, right.

[CoffeeAnnan]

9. I know many people like you.I used to teach at a university until a few

years ago and have had many students come back to earn more advanced degrees hoping that would give them a leg up on the competition only to realize later that their competition is not coming from the guys/gals in Indiana or Michigan or Ohio but clear across the ocean in India or China.That is what gets to me.That people who play by the rules are being hung out to dry.

This is the same thing that happens to a lot of good people who get all gung ho about their assigned corporate jobs and climb up the ladder only to realize that they are expendable.Imgaine that kind of thing happening society wide and you get an idea of the fix we are in.Welcome to the Global Plantation, where we are all slaves to unseen masters.

[mcscajun]

12. And I'd only just reached the rung I needed to be on...

...to be comfortable,not wealthy, just able to do some nice things without worry and maybe actually Make Some Repairs to my home, after a lifetime of slowly climbing out of having NOTHING at the start.

I'd hardly gotten a chance to know what comfortable feels like before the rug got yanked.

You're so right: I, and so very many like me, have been HAD. Royally and thoroughly screwed. And we ARE a force to reckon with, because we are smart, and very pissed off.

[Zorbuddha]

10. Gussied-up Grapes of Wrath

Brave New Company Store...slaves to the system.

[CoffeeAnnan]

11. Very good way to put it.The fear I see in many people who have

gone into debt to gain a standard of living beyond their reach and see it crumble is real.As their hopes and joys take a beating, we are going to see a "gussied up Grapes of Wrath" reenacted in our lifetimes.It is all part of the realignment of global capitalism which has no means of growth other than to find markets in the emerging countries of India, China and Brazil, and you know what that means.As Americans we are expendable because our markets are needed only until the big markets in India and China become established by sending our jobs over there.

Our solution is going to have to be political.Otherwise our children can only find jobs as cannon fodder for the proliferating wars Bush and his corporate masters will be only too glad to foist upon us.

The only problem with picking grapes these days is, it is going to take a Ph.D. to land that job.

[Zorbuddha]

13. It's a masquerade built on the exploitation

of fast depleting finite resources. A grostesque charade propped up by the status-quo gravy-trainers who are addicted to their comforts and excesses.

All the the classical warnings of selling out for material gain are lost on a culture seduced by the big lie and mesmerized by the incessant subliminal messages reinforcing the monster.

[proud patriot]

15. Yep

I hate to say it , but many people I know are going to
be slammed by it .