The Breaking Point?????????

been reading and answering all of your posts for hours....Thank you. I have to go to bed. Please tell me more...and tomorrow I will respond to the posts. Good night. Thanks again for helping me understand.

Apparently we are not answering your question. I think the reason we are not answering it is because we have never witnessed a breaking point like we are going to see this time. If this was a normal recession or even depression, everyone might not get hit. But this ain't no normal situation we got on our hands here. This is going to be different and we don't KNOW how it will happen this time. Might be slow, might be crashing fast. I personally think it will be the later and it will happen I think when the banks really feel our suffering too.

Whoever wins the election is walking into one helluva mess, 8 years of Bush has brought this country to it's knees. There is a huge illusion of prosperity in this country because working and saving doesn't drive the economy, it is debt that drives it. Only about 1% of the population has real wealth, with most everyone else it is all about how much debt they can carry, the day is coming sooner rather than later that the credit is going to dry up and I mean fast. The housing market and credit cards were the last line of defense for this economy and now the game is over, couple that with a criminal government writing hot checks to fund an illegal war and that is just for starters and we are looking at rough times ahead. The signs of the trouble will not be noticed for awhile but it is coming like a runaway train, one thing is for sure and that is our standard of living is going way down as a lack of credit and cash will put the economy in deflation.

The sky has fallen!

You have to realize that some people are already at the breaking point. There are tent cities here in my state of California. Some families in Michigan are pushing their belongings along in a shopping cart. I recently went to a post office in a sligtly run down area on a weekend, and couldn't get into the front door because there was a guy asleep with his wife in the small area in front of the door. I could tell they were newly homeless, in other words no experience sleeping on the streets. All this at the same time your business is "booming". That's the weirdness of economics. Not everything affects everyone at the same time - until a large enough crisis happens...

Ask the Zimbabweians.

I was canvassing my neighborhood the other day and I was shocked at how many vacant houses there were, at least two on every single street sometimes more. Some for rent, some foreclosed with auction notices. The for rent signs have been up for months with no one renting.

The average Joe does not have a clue, They know somethings wrong but think it will blow over like it always has. Hundreds of thousands are losing their jobs but out of three hundred million that doesn't seem like much yet.

The rich folks that can afford vacation homes at the beach are still going to drive their SUVs even at ten dollars a gallon as long as they still have their incomes. It is the middle class that is getting wiped out. But it will spread to the rich eventually.

However as it continues then things will reach a tipping point. It is just not painful enough yet and the clueless think it will blow over. Don't worry or should say do worry it's coming it is only a matter of time.

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I come from a small town, there are several factories, some fast food joints, several retail stores, bars, a bunch of hurting car lots, and a couple of furniture stores, but it's mostly the factories that keep this town going. One of the factories went overseas and another one is laying off right now due to the economy. Its slow all over here, most of the retail stores here have not brought in much new merchandise and there are 70% off racks everywhere. One of my good friends noticed this too. She went shopping for a new outfit and commented on how dead the retail stores are. Her husband also told her no more spending and he makes 140,000 a year, for this area thats a great job. I recently got laid off from my job at a furniture store, due to the sluggish economy ( no one's buying furniture and appliances here unless it's an emergency ) It got to be so slow, we were lucky to see 4 customers a day, and half of them headed up to the parts counter. Many people I know are not driving thier vehicles unless they HAVE too, some have resorted to using thier motorcycles full time ( if they have one ) most people I know are living off of credit cards or borrowing money from fast cash places or depending on relatives, but how long will that hold out? I really think that people are holding on to faith, that the government will step in and fix the gas situation. They have no clue. I tried to tell one of my good friends about why gas will not go down, he said that I need to find more joy in life! People dont want to be told the truth. Deep down they know, but they dont want to know. They are in a state of denial. Denial only lasts so long when you are out of work, with no food on the table. I know this sounds doom and gloom, but here most people are a couple of paychecks away from the streets.

you are more afraid of staying what you are then being what you can become.

Peace

the thread below. Knowing how this will pan out would be a huge advantage. Anyone with information please share.

http://www.dailypaul.com/...

Director at the YMCA in the West End of Richmond VA. This is an upscale area with McMansions on postage stamp lots. I would say if you drove through that area it would definitely be defined as Upper Middle Class. Most Y's offer financial assistance for people who use their after school child services and summer related sessions. This is dolled out on an as needed case by case basis. I am assuming that they discount the tuition costs associated with attending these programs. He and I were talking the other day and he said, "you wouldn't believe the families I meet with who apply for financial assistance" I asked him how many single Mom's working two jobs live within proximity to his YMCA. (I was thinking in stereotypical terms as they relate to the images in my head of who is appling for the assistance while at the same time being familiar with the ritzy area where it is located) He responded "that is the unbelievable part, the Mom and Dad's who come live in 380 to 420 thousand dollar homes and have SUV's etc....but when we go through the qualifying procedure and the necessary paperwork they indeed qualify for the financial assistance we provide"......in other words they are way over their heads/house poor/living on credit/ whatever you want to call it. This is the slow motion train wreck analogy just starting.....

I agree 100%

When I talked about investing in silver rather then leave the money in the bank people look at me as though I am crazy. It has to HIT HOME for us lazy Americans to bat an eyelash.

Its sad BUT that is the reason Ron wrote this book so WE don't have to TRY and explain it anymore.

"You don't believe me? read the book yourself THEN come back here and we can discuss it".

This simple reasoning has de-stressed me so much. Let the BOOK and their own mind come to the realization instead of US or Ron for that matter trying to yell it at them through the news.

The Revolution : A manifesto is much more powerful then I think the grassroots even realizes.

Don

http://www.RevolutionByMa... - Getting the manifesto into every delegates hand before the convention.

and they look at me like a kook. But lately, I think they are starting to wonder if the kook might know something. They can fool people for quite awhile considering how clueless they are, but for me and my husband we are very nervous trying to save every penny we can. If nothing happens fine we will be alright is things go down well hopefully, we will be alright too. Peace

I will start off by saying that our Country is in a Recession, do not believe the Wallstreeters, our Federal Reserve, or our Government please. Do you live on the east coast or on the west coast? I know that a lot people on the west coast continue to travel, alot of them are either retired, or have those wonderful jobs that pay anywhere between $250,000.00-$500,000.00 a year either because they are in the film industry, or something to that effect, but I must add, a lot of those jobs are moving out of California, Yes, Hollywood is looking for a new home folks. The Governator Swartz is begging for them to stay. My husband and I take probably 2 trips a year which consists of either a 2 day stay, or possibly 3-4 day stay to the coast in Cambria, CA. and that is our vacation for the year. The rooms usually go for $250.00-$300.00 a night in a really nice beach front Condo, but we usually go off season, and get our rooms for $140.00-$200.00 a night. This year we will only be able to plan this trip once this year, we have a small business in Central California, our sales have been down 20% since 2006, as most small businesses in California, and we cannot afford to do this trip but once, the rooms have jumped to $250.00 plus a night during the off season. So we will do without, and just stay home.

Whatever hyperinflationary thingamabob we are in now is actually worse than a recession. A real recession is a financial correction. We are in a steady downward spiral of the dollar with a crisis in consumer confidence.

Our corporate media and corporate government (is there a difference in the two anymore) are playing see no evil/hear no evil/speak no evil, a la "Hey--there are no sharks on our beaches!" But the public is seeing black fins circling out there in the surf.

If (when?) consumer spending on leisure, tourism and junk shuts down severely, our economy will hit a tipping point like the Titanic. With every nickel added to the price of gasoline, we advance steadily toward that tipping point.

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as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. Businesses stop expanding, employment falls, house prices decline etc. I personally believe that we started this in December 2007, which means that here in May would be the end of the second quarter. Things are only just starting to sink in, and the wealthy (people with boats) would feel it last.

The question is whether or not the Fed and government tricks, like the stimulus package, bank new cash auctions etc. can hold things together for another economic go around before a total collapse. Things have a delayed effect in economics. Unfortunately, the dollar will not likely get any stronger and will continue to lose its purchasing power, which makes eventual economic demise unavoidable, even if it can be temporarily delayed. My prediction has always been that we won't make it to 2009, but if we do, that would almost certainly be the last year of lifespan for our inflationary economic system.

It's probably all denial...people get scared very easily nowadays. Remember how scared people were after 9/11? What did our president tell us to do? He told us to go out and shop and spend at the stores...shop the fear away.

Most people can't afford a boat that would require a 3000 dollar sound system. Yes the rich are getting richer while the poor are moving into Tents cities all over the country.

I hope we can wake enough of them up, soon.

The people you were seeing are richer than the average joe's. The economy won't bother them until the dollar completely crashes and a loaf of bread will be a fair trade for their $50,000 boat.

I was listening to a local news affiliate's traffic report. Seems that commute times are getting better due to fewer cars on the road. The talking heads were commenting on how "empty" the roads were at morning rush hour (not empty by normal standards, but by rush hour standards).

So yes, I do believe many are feeling it....But I have a feeling it's pretty much confined to the middle-class and downward; for upper-middle and up it's still probably do-able for a while.

I've personally changed my driving habits of late.