Our economy is in a landslide, landslides tend to gain speed and volume very quickly.

[Lost4words]

so what we are experiencing now could be nothing compared to whats ahead.

How long can we lose 1/2 a million jobs per month? And this has been going on for some time now.

Good Ole Ross Perot was correct referring to NAFTA as a "GIANT SUCKING SOUND" of jobs leaving the USA.
thanks Clinton for getting the rape of my countrymen and women started in a way the no repuke could.

Signed a long term unemployed former IT professional.

[Beavker]

1. I'm not a business owner

But wouldn't a good mantra be that if you can't sustain your industry with U.S. Customers, U.S. Employees and U.S. Raw materials, as much as humanly possible, then you shouldn't be in business? Otherwise, yes, you are at the risk of new legislation that could hurt you. Basically you benefit from cheaper labor and a wider market base as an owner, but as an employee, you lose. Again, Main Street vs. Wall Street.

[OhioChick]

2. You're right......we ain't seen nothing yet.

K&R

[Lost4words]

3. Good Morning OC how are you doing today?

:hi:

Jim

[OhioChick]

8. Hey Jim...

Taking a break from work, wondering when I'll be getting that pink slip. :(

How are you doing today? :)

[Lost4words]

12. surviving day by day,

I have noticed many of your posts and just wanted to say Hi and thanks!

I hope you never get one of those pink slips, hang in there kiddo!

"The crazy ones are the ones not screaming"

I have an interview Friday, first in a Long time, only 100 miles from home, but it would be worth it not to watch "The View" anymore.

FYI, I saw an interview of a economist named David Cay Johnston on Democracy Now, also available at Democracynow.com check him out if you get a chance.

you can expect me to send you a friendly hello every now and then!

:hi: later

[OhioChick]

39. I'll keep you in mind tomorrow....

Good luck on your interview. I used to work quite far from home and the drive was exhausting and it killed my car....but in these times, what's one to do? Take it (if offered) until you can find something better/closer.

I'll check out David Cay Johnston on Democracy Now...sounds interesting.

Let me know how your interview goes for you tomorrow! I'll be waiting to hear. ;-)

[Dawgs]

4. Fear drives most economic landslides. Your post doesn't help.

Sorry, but posts like this, that don't do anything but spread fear, don't help.

[Lost4words]

13. you still have a job dont you!? Are you Mark Haines?

its time for fear otherwise you are denying the truth.

You are like a mischevious child who deciedes not to tell mom you set the garage on fire so you wont get in trouble. Meanwhile the house burns down.

shelfish act

[SammyWinstonJack]

19. Sorry but a whole lot of us are already living the reality of 'fear'

economically, that is. You still have a job, I guess? :shrug:

[Lost4words]

33. SWJ are you my long lost twin???

cause you sound like me.

:hi: :toast:

[pork medley]

25. Thanks for the brilliant insight, Phil Gramm

[Lost4words]

36. wish I had thought of that! I guess I am a whining sissy, so be it

[blueclown]

32. Phil Gramm, is that you?

Are you on the right board?

[Warpy]

5. I would suggest a few common sense things to do

First, learn how to cook. Use Bittman's guideline, "eat food, good food, mostly plants." If you don't cook, buy a cookbook now.

Second, get to know your neighbors. That's important not only so you can borrow and lend but that you can expand your survival skill set by their knowledge. If you can swallow your pride, bums have great brains to pick. I learned a lot of fascinating things from them over the years.

Third, develop some survival skills, from using alternative cooking and lighting sources if we have grid disruptions to learning how to darn socks, patch jeans and ravel old sweaters to re knit them for kids.

Fourth, keep at least a month's cash stashed someplace, preferably in a place that requires a ladder and flashlight to access so it's not a thief magnet.

Fifth, and most importantly, let go of the notion that you are entitled to any way of life. The life you are entitled to is the one you're living at any given moment. Adapt to it and you'll survive. Embrace it and you'll survive happily.

[raccoon]

9. That last one's a keeper, for good or bad economic times:

"most importantly, let go of the notion that you are entitled to any way of life. The life you are entitled to is the one you're living at any given moment."

[Lost4words]

16. Tell that to a person lined up next to a ditch filled with relitives!

it is a good advice to a point, I think I have made my case pretty clearly.

put the rose colored glasses back on and maybe what has happened to so many wont happen to you.

[wovenpaint]

11. Thanks for these great suggestions!

All sound advice-I especially love the 5th one. I'm putting that one on my wall to remind me every day!
:hi:

[Lost4words]

17. Good, then hit yourself over the head with a fryingpan until it feels right

GOOD GREIF!!

[Lost4words]

15. That transition has taken place with my family 8 years ago

where have you been? Cant keep cash that isnt there! I never felt entitled to anything other than my fair chance, And during the time in my life when I enjoyed success I gave regularly to charities to help others and the environment.

NAFTA didnt give us a fair chance.

your last line,...
Fifth, and most importantly, let go of the notion that you are entitled to any way of life. The life you are entitled to is the one you're living at any given moment. Adapt to it and you'll survive. Embrace it and you'll survive happily.

I consider that to be one of the most outlandish remarks ever addressed to me.

I repair my own appliances. cars pluming electrical, I buy , when I can, used electronics which I repair and resale. I am not unhappy to be alive, I am unhappy about the ongoing damage done to our country by those who simply want more things.

If I know the Dam is breaking, even if I live above the dam, do I not have a responsibility to do my best to notify those in future peril? I am sorry I feel I do, and will continue to live this way.

I suspect you were trying to offer useful advice and for that I thank you.
But I have to tell you it feels more like an insult! :grr:

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. I think that #5 was an insult. And condescending too.

[Lost4words]

35. I did as well, and I told them so!

they must be young, its not their fault.

[cottonseed]

26. Sixth, dont' get sick.

These are all good common sense things to do, but these days, unlike during the depression when food was your number one cost, today it' health care.

[Lost4words]

31. It was paying for health care while unemployed that helped put me in the poor house!

As far as I am concerned your item is the only valid one, the rest is IMO just happy fluff.

would you like some happy fluff on your rodent almondine? :banghead:

[ljm2002]

6. For the last couple of weeks...

...there's been a saying rattling around in my head, one that I first ran across here on DU: The avalanche has started, too late for the pebbles to vote. Your post reminded me of it.

I think you are so right, it's a big collapse brewing and the people who could do something about it are busy jockeying for political points in the usual way up on Capitol Hill. Not that I had a lot of faith in their ability to solve it anyway -- too many of the same old crooks are involved in policy positions, and their idea is let's throw (increasingly worthless) money at it to make up for the trust that has evaporated as traders around the world realize they have been victimized by outright fraud.

Our so-called leaders are suffering from a severe lack of imagination, and a severe lack of will to make needed changes. And yes, good old Ross Perot had some real insights -- why else do you think he was made into a media joke? The same way Dennis Kucinich has been marginalized, and others too numerous to mention. Start speaking the unvarnished truth to the Beltway crowd, whether they be politicians or members of the press, and poof! you're not in the "in-crowd" anymore! We'll have no rocking of boats! That is not an iceberg ahead, and we are not speeding towards it!

Here's hoping us Little People wise up and rise up before it's too late.

[Lost4words]

18. Ah, your post, you understand,a sincere ThankYou

the Pollyannas were getting to me, thanks for talking me down!

:toast:

[ljm2002]

28. I wonder how anyone can tolerate business as usual...

...or politics as usual these days.

We're hemorrhaging jobs, we've lost our manufacturing capacity, our once-respected financial system has been exposed as a fraud that exists only to line the pockets of greedy criminals.

In the meantime, we've got a Republic party that is downright obstructionist, and a Democratic party that continues to display disunity and weakness. We've got a President who lards his Cabinet with Republics and adds their provisions to his bills, while removing progressive, populist (read: riff-raff) provisions.

The citizens of the "Land of the Free" have forgotten all about what that phrase once meant. We've been drugged into a soporific haze by the deluge of mindless drivel and propaganda that is our media, and even the looming sheer drop off the cliff has not woken the masses. They're too busy fighting with each other, as per the design of the propagandists.

Well, the forces are in motion. People around the world are not in a stupor the way the American public is. Meanwhile, the rich and the super-rich are laughing all the way to the bank. I wonder how their money will taste to them when the whole damned thing collapses. I hope they choke on it.

[Lost4words]

37. Wow! you are good! And spot on! nt

[GoesTo11]

7. People tend project present trends too linearly

This might pick up some speed, but that doesn't mean things will just get worse and worse and we all die. And if that's not going to happen, we have to ask what drivers will ultimately slow down and stop the fall. Will it be that there are just so many resources - human and physical - available for so cheap that any fool can start a business? Will it be that eventually we produce enough and get taxed enough to pay off the banks graft and losses, and things return to reasonably fluid? Will it be that we reach a new equilibrium where people spend less but government spends more on public goods? Will a bunch of new, unexploited scientific and engineering innovations reach a critical mass where new economic activity is unavoidable? Something will happen. What, and perhaps more importantly, when, are critical questions.

[Lost4words]

22. Yes and No

I am determined to enjoy every moment of what ever I have left, I cant say what the future will bring I just hope to see less exploitation of planet & life for profit. I long ago discovered the work of nature or perhaps GOD to be far superior to things made by mankind. I have learned to appreciate the accomplishments of man/womankind working together for the benefit for all.

there are those who destroy and those who build.

I am a Builder.

there are those who teach and those who burn books.

I am a Teacher.

there are those who pollute and those who cherish the soil.

I am a Farmer.

there are those who horde and those who share their last bit of sustenance.

Our pantry is open to any with a need.

there are those who make judgments and those who are accepting.

I have learned to practice tolerance.

I try to be a better human being every day, sometimes I fail and sometimes I succeed, but I never stop learning. And the one single lesson I have learned in my half century didnt come from school or religion or governments.


Its about people,
Its always been about people,
and
It will always be about people.


Its time to focus on the miracle of our being and how to insure the advancement of the human race.

[ThomWV]

10. Only as long as they are on a downward slope, even out the field and the landslide stops.

[Lost4words]

23. Not if it is coal ash and water it dosent! But you make a good point!

and yes, nothing lasts for ever. Better times are ahead for some of us I trully hope.

[cobalt1999]

14. Assuming economies follow the physics of landslides.

They don't.

[Lost4words]

24. It was a euphemism silly!

gosh I didnt know they wernt exactly the same. Is this really your best reply?

[anonymous171]

20. That's funny because every IT person I know loved free trade

when it was just the lowly manual laborers losing their jobs.

I am not attacking you or your situation. I myself am in your very situation (although I'm not an IT guy.) Shit sucks.

[Lost4words]

27. I fell for the lie, hook line and sinker. I am trully sorry. Pro Labor +!

Half my family were white and the other blue collor. I have never looked down on anyone doing an honest days work, prior to my professional life I worked construction and then several years as a cable jerk, proud of the term BTW, then I got into electronics, Passed my FirstClass FCC lic and worked radio engineer and on air in the Wash DC metro area. I then hopped on the PC revolution, so you see I am a cross over.
Now I am just a long term unemploied 54 year old. Life can be a real learning experience.

My hope is to get into labor organizing, I have been self studying USA labor history and let me tell you, its a major eye opener. They have killed us before and they might do it again if we upset their apple cart. it is the only way to stop the daily beatings. Somebody has to speak for the working man & woman, we were taught in school our govt would keep things fair, then they sidded with mngt. They allowed Enron to rip off California, elderly people died, or were killed by enrons phony power shortage, govt said nothing. Then we get a phony war, I could go on and on on and on
on and on
on and on
on and on. But then you know as well as I do.

I am hoping for both of us, nae, all of us to return to a place of equalibrium. Thanks for your reply to my post

May God bless the salt of the earth.

RIP long time IWW member and folk singer Utah Phillips.

[OhioChick]

38. Funny....

Every IT person "I know" has always been against free trade.

I think it's time for all workers in every industry to be "heard" in unison.

[tom_paine]

29. "The avalanche has begun. It's too late for the pebbles to vote."

--Ambassador Kosh, "Bablyon 5"

[Mike 03]

30. Your post is most likely prescient and accurate, unfortunately.

Predictions for unemployment go as high as 12%, and I'm watching to see how many retailers file for bankruptcy over the next two months. I think it will be grim.

But these jobs are not going south or going anywhere. They are just going....

This is a global economic contraction. Even China is shrinking.

[Lost4words]

34. the current unemployment numbers are bogus, they have to be

they dont count anyone who has aged out of unemployment ins. And like a GD fool I have never applied or collected any form of Unemployment Ins. You see I was sure I would land another good job in no time. I always did before.

IN NO TIME was correct, I am too ashamed to state how long its been for me. then I made the mistake of going for menial jobs. Let me tell you not getting hired to wash dishes or clean bathrooms totally killed any self esteem I may have had left.

Thanks for your post Mike 03