Double Dip Recession?

[Farmfresh]

Even jobs flipping burgers are getting all filled up in these parts. When you have 40 year old business men and women cooking fast food to keep their house it is getting bad.

The only jobs around that are still showing high demand are the skilled manual labor jobs. Plumber, electrician, mechanic, carpenter. We can not longer buy new - we have GOT to get it fixed.

 

[newmochick]

The increase in GDP in the first and second quarter of this year (hence technically out of the recession) was "fake" because it was all government subsides (sp?). Since that can't be maintained (no the government can't print money forever - China has stopped buying it!) and it didn't come from the private sector there is an appearance of a double dip coming. But in reality, we never recovered from the first one!

 

[boosted240]

This isnt really news to me, I knew this was coming right after the 2008 collapse, but "double dip" is kinda a BS term anyway. We are in a depression, and it isnt getting any better especially since the Fed has started buying Treasuries which will probably cause a dollar crisis in the future. Austrian Economists saw 2008 and this happening a long time ago...

 

[Mackay]

$3.87 for a gallon of gas? !

We are paying 3.06 for regular.

My husband worked for one of the largest architectual firms in the nation. When he started with them in 1984 they had 300 employees.

then as the years went by they went up to 1600 with offices all across the nation, Indonesia, India, Mexico.

When he got a transfer from Dallas to Salt Lake the new office had 6 people. In the 7 years he was with them they went up to about 30.

In 2008, one year after DH retired, the pink slips started going out.
Now they have 400 employes total and have closed several of their satellite offices across the nation. Now Salt Lake has about 12 employees last we checked. I sure am glad we got out before all this happened.... a lot of really good people we know have been unemployed for quite a while. Where does an architect go in these kind times? ..... especially when you are not prepared, in the middle of raising a family.... like all the rest they are thinking about flipping burgers....some probably are by now.

Think of all the jobs that this architectual firm stimulated... so many now gone.

Fortunatley my DH had the same dream as me, to get to the country ASAP.

 

[Farmfresh]

I wish the "country" part of the dream was my hubbys as soon as it was mine. Here we are still stuck in the city. At least he has always had a good vision of non materialism and frugality. We are FAR better off than a lot of city dwellers. We have no mortgage and plenty of fruit trees planted in the yard.

 

[Marshmallow Man]

Being in the country isn't all you people are making it out to be. Sure you got some land. To produce enough to make any money or even sustain yourself either requires working 16 hour days or having some very expensive equipment. If you don't have a mortgage you're ok. Most people have mortgages. If I lose my job I will pull my 401k and stop paying anything except electric till the bank kicks me out. Then I'll find some place in the suburbs to rent.

I hope we don't get to depression status. During the last depression the fed actually did something to create jobs directly. This time they gave 800 billion to the schiesters that cause it in the hopes they would lend the money to small businesses to create jobs. Instead they took the money at 1/4% and invested it in low risk securities at 2.5% and made a ton of money. Then they divided up all the loot and laughed at how stupid the fed is. The stimulus created about 3 million jobs but the fed can't pump borrowed money in to the economy forever. Somebody has to get money to small businesses to create jobs. The Senate is too busy trying to look like penny punchers so they can get re elected because most people don't understand basic economics and don't understand the meaning of stimulus. It's a real mess. I hope we don't become a 3rd world country while I or my children are still alive.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

Being in the country isn't all you people are making it out to be. Sure you got some land. To produce enough to make any money or even sustain yourself either requires working 16 hour days or having some very expensive equipment

umm... not exactly......

1. depending... it is probably better in a tight spot. the farmers didnt starve during the depression. being "farm poor" means your next meal is in the yard not in a dumpster

2. they arent making any more land

3. most of us are up to the challenge for those long days and no, you dont need expensive equipment.

you'd be surprised what you can do with a shovel, a hammer, and the willingness to get out there and do the job. i live in a Amish community - those people know what they are doing. they dont have half the stuff that we do and they out-farm many of the big farms here and they dont poison the land while they are doing it. and while many of us have struggled with our gardens, i'm buying extra from them.

i feel your frustration MM... but everyone i know in the big city has asked, even if half joking, if they can come here if "something bad happens."

and consider this - our grandma lived thru the depression on a farm. they sold meals to folks for $0.25 and were never hungry. my grandpa barely lived thru it in city. looking at their lives - i'd go with grandma and her chickens and not the soup line.

 

[Marshmallow Man]

I'm too old to plow a field with an OX. Where I live it takes 5 acres to feed 1 cow. We do make some money selling chicks and turkey poults. Growing a large enough garden to feed 7 people takes a lot of hours plus a few years to get the dirt so it will grow anything. I guess it depends on what part of the country you live in. My DW grew up in Iowa. The winters were horrible but the ground was fertile A farmer could actually get something out of that ground. Here in Colorado it is arid semi desert. You need irrigation to get any real crops. On top of that the land is expensive unless you live down towards the Springs and out east. It drops about 30% down that way.

I've also found that The total cost of raising a chicken is more than what you buy them for in a store. Of course the quality is better and the chickens are raised humanely but it still cost more. Home grown veggies are better too. However my time is worth money and when that is figured in there is no savings at all.

I live in the country because I love it. It is more expensive as far as I am concerned, but I pay the extra because I want to live here.

 

[mlynd]

OFG I'm with u ,My mom- mom and pop-pop both lived back then and i remeber all there stories, it isn't as hard as u think it's just a different way ,u will get out of ur comfert zone MM if SHTF was to happen but if u have some idea no how to grow food or where to find it u will get by and i don't work 16 hr days to put food on the table I just use my time wisely

 

[Marshmallow Man]

OFG I'm with u ,My mom- mom and pop-pop both lived back then and i remeber all there stories, it isn't as hard as u think it's just a different way ,u will get out of ur comfert zone MM if SHTF was to happen but if u have some idea no how to grow food or where to find it u will get by and i don't work 16 hr days to put food on the table I just use my time wisely

Do you have 7 people to feed? I don't spend 16 hours a day either. I grow what can be grown and buy the rest at the supermarket. I'm glad to hear that you use your time wisely. I hate wasting time too.