The Toledo Free Press is asking if things are spinning out of control. What do you think?
You can read the original piece at:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=5217875
You can read what others have to say in the area:
http://www.toledofreepress.com/?id=8144
A great observation/response by Ohio Blogger, Tom Blumer can be read at:
http://www.bizzyblog.com/2008/06/22/worst-ap-report-ever/
For some Blog accountability Tom notes:
UPDATE: Catch of the Day — Eric the Red at Vocal Minority found out who American “historian” Allan J. Lichtman is (Wikipedia entry is here). Eric is right: “This guy is a hard-core radical leftist with a truckload of political axes to grind against Republicans!” If there was any doubt about “worst ever,” the sole-sourcing to an outright partisan disguised as a “historian” erases it.
....
(By the way, did you notice that Fram and Putman didn’t mention who has been in control of Congress while much of this decay in confidence has taken place until the third-last paragraph? Or that Congress is the least-trusted institution in the country — less than HMOs and “Big Business”?)
....
So what do you think?
"""there is a better word to describe the “hunts for domestic Communists in the late 1940s and early 1950s.” The word is “necessary.”"""
From the last of the quoted pieces. What a load of crap.
The AP article was over-the-top, drama-queen stuff, for sure. I mean, hell, they brought up the writer's strike as part of the 'out of control' - ridiculous article. But the last entry, the blog entry, was farcically bad. A joke really. Tries to forcefit its own view down the throat of the article, and tries to pull out quotes, or deliberately misrepresent pieces of the article, toss in some insults for good measure, to support it.
There are elements of our society feeling like it's spinning out of control, or perhaps a feeling of instability. I know that I feel unsure about a host of things - economy, war, environmental crisis, future. It seems that there are a number of big picture issues that need to be tackled, and it just doesn't feel like there is a collective will or feeling that we can get it done. And perhaps that is what worries me the most, that in the face of such big challenges, inaction or reactive action can take over.
accurately conveys the frustration and pessimism many if not most Americans feel at this time. For those who believe Congress is part of the problem, fine, I don't have much of a problem with that but the facts are the Democrats have had a majority in Congress since Jan. of 2007 and George Bush (and the Republican-led Congress until 1/07) have/had been in charge since Jan. of 2001.
Let's stop playing games or avoiding the obvious or blaming the media on where the principal responsibility lies for the state of mind of the American public in mid-year of 2008.
nationally or is it bad locally?
BOTH?
I cannot speak for nationally, although my oldest tells me she is working mega hours to just by, CNA for now, nursing career coming up. She lives in New England which can expect a sharp rise in heating costs, this winter.
Costs 65$ to fill my gas tank, food costs have risen and will rise more.
Working two part time jobs, because there are too many people looking for work and employers can be very picky with so many people looking for work.
Heating costs and electricity due to increase, costs more to heat the house, so lower the temp even more.
Had to cash out my 401k to survive.
Other than that, life is peachy.
I can imagine it would be difficult to get by as a CNA in New England. High cost of living, relatively low wages. Yikes!
Actually if one works in a nursing home or other facility the wages are quite good and the benefits are there, also.
She makes more than me now.
I guess the term "good wages" is all relative.
(I'm quite familiar with average CNA wages across the country, due to my line of work. They tend to be very poorly paid. Maybe your daughter gets a boost for being a nursing student in an RN program? There are programs like that out there, though they generally obligate the person to work for the facility as an RN for a certain period of time after they complete their schooling. The average CNA wage in Massachusetts, for example is $12.12/hour...not exactly a living wage in a high priced state like that. Of course, you just said "New England," so your daughter's state could be better off than MA.)
P.S. Sorry to hear about your situation also. My husband was laid off last year...took him 10 months to find a new, full time job, but he did land a decent position. Hopefully something turns up for you too.
It's all relative.
She lives in the western side of the state. People tend to think of Mass. as Bahstan or the Cape.
I keep telling people to prepare for that sort of future, but few people seem to listen. I didn't run my furnace at all in the winter. Columbia Gas eventually tried to get into my apartment to find out why my usage was zero ... which was rather curious since they had full access to the gas meter in the basement. Curious about why they needed to see my apartment, I called them back on the provided card. They accepted being told over the phone that I didn't use NG during the winter, and used electric spot heaters to compensate.
The temperature in my kitchen dropped to 40-45 degrees for months. As an added bonus, I don't recall ever hearing my fridge run during that period.
I figure I saved about $300. The extra increases in gasoline ate that up, of course, but I changed my automobile in May and have hopefully doubled my gasoline efficiency.
People are still in huge denial about what's happening to them, culturally. We're entering a Great Depression, and we'll be even worse off than in the 1930s since:
1. A lot fewer (percentage wise) Toledoans can feed themselves now. Canning is extremely rare. Gardens are rare. The use of energy-intensive markets and storage is frequent.
2. A lot more (percentage wise) Toledoans are under expense pressures now. In other words, we developed a lifestyle of much greater spending.
The inflationary period is just the natural effect of the Housing ATM, when people drained equity from their overpriced housing to spend, Spend, SPEND. All that money is going to seriously evaporate when the full foreclosures hit the market. There have been projections of hyperinflation, but we can't have that when a full $1 trillion in home equity will vanish. How can even corporations try to increase prices of even needed commodities when too many of the people who will buy just don't have the CASH?
Waves of pricing pressure will travel up and down the supply chain as people struggle to either survive or destroy. These waves will be metastable and there will be little predicting their amplitude or frequency. But the long term (up to 15 years) effect will be to drive DOWN prices. Corporations may be wealthy, but they still need to SELL. Remember well how many companies today don't keep sufficient inventories which they can hoard and then parcel out profitably. The "just in time" manufacturing and distribution model allowed them to maximize profit in the good times, but when the buyers can no longer buy at the prices given, the supplier can't get the income he needs to pay his own bills. Prices must therefore fall once the new pricing expectations become accepted at all levels.
I'm not with you every step of the way on all of your postings but the first few graphs of this one indicate you don't just talk the talk, but walk the f*cking walk. I respect that.
Had to cash out my 401k to survive.
I'm very sorry to hear that. Good luck to you and yours.
Hang in there Neighborhood and best of luck. I hope things get better for you.
About the 401k and surving.
We took some of the money, not a kings ransom, but a good amount and we paid down some debt and invested some in our house, windows, doors, insulation.
Do appreciate the comments.
Obviously the local economy is bad.
But I do think there is still some spinning going on...to hear the media report it, you'd think we live in a third world country. (When in actuality, most poor people in this country still have it better than people in most third world countries.)
Society needs to make some adjustments to adapt to the changing world we live in, but its still absolutely possible to have a happy,satisfying life. In general, our society had forgotten the notion that money (or material goods) don't buy happiness...once we shed ourselves of that mindset, people will be happier. (If we can get away from the constant doom and gloom being presented to us...lol)
What spin? Any examples, as in reports we can read and judge for ourselves.
"Society needs to make some adjustments to adapt to the changing world we live in, but its still absolutely possible to have a happy,satisfying life. In general, our society had forgotten the notion that money (or material goods) don't buy happiness"
Yup, and the cheerleaders in Washington want us to spend like there is no tomorrow. Which is why we were stimulated with a rebate of our tax monies.
Spend the money was the banner head lines, don't save it! Spend it now! Operators are standing by!
Lower. That. Thermostat.
Or as Jimmy Carter said in 1977:
"Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem unprecedented in our history. With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes. The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly.
It is a problem we will not solve in the next few years, and it is likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century...." (cont.)
how much gas prices are affecting us all...
http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-gas-prices
Apparently some local radio personalities think otherwise, according to reaction interviews to the 'spinning out of control' story in the Free Press.
Financial adviser Troy Neff, who hosts “The Troy Neff Show” weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. on WCWA-AM 1230, said “even though people may be richer in many ways than maybe their parents, I think the biggest thing is that they feel less secure. They may have things, but their parents paid for them. It wasn't done on credit.”
Neff said clients and callers to his radio show continue to express a general distrust for the government. Those people are more vocal in expressing their disdain for a leadership they have deemed inept at fixing the country's economic woes.
“At the beginning, people weren't sure and thought maybe things might turn around,” said Neff, who writes a weekly column for Toledo Free Press. “Now they're making real lifestyle adjustments.”