Where is everyone?

I guess I'm isolated here but how do "we" tell the rest of the world what not to talk about?

mk

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Not soon enough, regardless of how short the time. I don't think that he wants to be there any longer than necessary either.

Ed Cregger

It must be an attractive prospect: sitting there with a load of cash somewhere safe, and watching the destruction of the worlds economy and thinking 'Hey, I did my bit there too!'

I see there are class actions against the banks and credit rating agencies who may or may not have *knowingly* sold 'triple A rated' junk bonds.

GM = Greatly Missed.

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Isn't deregulation and free trade wonderful?

I can't wait until Killer Kane (character from Buck Rogers matinee serials) gets out of office. And to think that I used to support this moron.

Ed Cregger

The rumour was that FORD and GM were going chapter 11 today..

Did it happen?

I have to say of all the things I blame the weed for, this was something that was foreseen, but not preventable.

No politician 5 years ago who had said 'we bneed to stop spending money and borrowing, and stop house prices getting out of hand, and increase taxes' would have lasted 30 secs.

Even if it was the right thing to do.

Estimate 40% fall in average standard of living by 2010. Chilling.

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It was always my hope that we Americans could maintain our standard of living while assisting the rest of the world to come up to our standard of living. Keep in mind that I am 62 years old and I remember when we Americans were right at the top of the scale.

Instead, the d******ds that rule the world (and live in England, no blame on your folks) decided that it would be simpler to let we Americans drop into the standard of living of third world nations.

Our educators (USA) have let us down.

The new Volkswagen plant that they are building in Chattanooga will require that the lowest employees have at least an associates degree. When I was young, one could get a great blue collar job without a high school diploma.

Almost daily I talk to younger (than me) folks with bachelors and masters degrees that lack simple computational skills. Many cannot construct an understandable sentence and they need a calculator to figure out change at the grocery store. Stuff I did as a child in my head. And I am no genius.

I feel sorry for the generations to come. The America that I grew up in no longer exists. Now I know why old folks don't mind dying. I never thought I would get to that point.

My dreams for the colonization of Mars and orbiting colonies carved into massive meteors that were harvested from slightly beyond Mars and pushed into Earth orbit or into a Lagrange point, have disintegrated.

But enough of that. People get the government they deserve, so it is said.

Ed Cregger

snipped-for-privacy@proxy02.news.clara.net...

I'm going to disagree. This isn't the fault of people who rule the world. This is because no one in fact *does* rule the world. It happened because of who the Chinese are and who the Americans are, and how they behave culturally, and because we are at a particular point in history where 'stuff' is still there in the ground waiting to be dug up or pumped,and so we all did.

Sadly that is not an inexhaustible supply, and a whole world economic model that assumes that it is, that you can pump more and more money in to get any growth rate you want, falls apart.

It's no use having fort knox in your pocket, if there IS no gas in the pump, Ed.

So thats no.1 problem. Growth along traditional lines met a limit, as shown by spiralling commodity prices. And spiralling debt. That alone should have been the warning sign that despite massive amounts of cash flooding into the system, growth was not accelerating.

BUt the central banks were only tasked to control inflation, not debt.

Politicians are there to pander to peoples stupidity, not run things. They had no idea what it all meant.

The regulators had been told to lay off, so massive profits could be made.

The economists who were yelling were not listened to.

Now if there had been anyone with half a brain in any government, they might have tried to change things, but not in the USA where less government and no state control, and a complete distrust of academic analysis and education, is the de facto cultural norm.

You are watching the biggest and best argument as to why you need a set of rules, and cannot run financial markets as you once didn't run the Wild West: Namely that a lot of people are going to suffer, and very few people are going to win, and they aren't in the business of giving any away.

If you want to put it as an allegory, we were in a plane where someone had rammed the throttle wide own, and pulled the stick right back, but forgotten to look at the fuel gauges. And one engine coughed, and nearly quit, and the second one is showing signs of trouble.

Did you know that the *FED* is running out of money?

Its not a question whether this is a correction. Its not a question of whether its a recession. Its not even looking like a question of whether its a slump or a depression, it is quite simply that the whole economic plane we have been flying blind, is on the point of coming to pieces,and we don't have parachutes.

Around 1340, people started dying of a plague. They tried everything, prayer, prices, running away..nothing worked. They blamed it on sinful people. In fact it was simply that the worlds population had grown to such a point (as had world trade), that it only needed a rat, a flea, and a bacteria, to hit the right combination, and it was curtains for

This is a similar issue. World financial systems are highly globalised. And have been allowed to get to an unstable position. They are dead in te water.

The real world economy has likewise grown out of control. Its based ultimately on fossil energy, and we are near running out. At least of the cheap stuff.

Watch and wait. Its the end of the American Dream. If you are lucky, Obama can come up with a new one. If not, its dead end street.

You didn't want education. You mistrust education. Ive got education. I get SLAMMED by rednecks. Who think they are just as good as I am.

Watch the responses to this post by the likes of Six'o'clock dipshit..

Bush got elected because hes a redneck. He's nice enough, but he's kinda dumb, and doesn't really think much about anything. And he got totally used by those who put him there. The average redneck wants to have his gun, and his bible, and feel that as long as you can read the first, shoot the second, and say prayers, thats enough to make sure he enjoys paradise on earth, and paradise later on as well. And he hates smart arsed east coast lawyers and college folk that try an tell him otherwise..

Sorry bud, you are about discover hell on earth.

Oh yes, now you are seeing what dumbing down does. When you have the chinese and the mexicans doing all your work, why bother to learn how to do anything at all?

Heck all you need is a colt 45, and a bible.. The 45 to shoot the Mexican with, and the bible to give you the right to do it.

Watch the Chinses and the Indians.

In an amoral sense, thats correct. They get the government and the slave masters they allow themselves to be saddled with. The US middle class is now enslaved to the banking system and addicted to spending. Sadly the pusher just ran out of smack.

Withdrawal, is going to be hell.

"They tried to make me go to rehab, and i said 'NO!NO!No!'"

But she did eventually go, not that it did any good. mk

Indeed ;-)

"Ed Cregger" wrote

Don't blame the educators, Ed.

First, look to the parents, who only are willing to buy things for their kids, rather than spending some time with them while they are young, reading books, and instilling values.

Later on, they fail to provide discipline, or make sure the kid is doing his best at his/her studies.

Also, the flurry of paperwork the state and feds insist that teachers keep up with means they will have less time for teaching, and more time teaching to the tests and filling out forms. Then they change it all every couple years...

Would they be the same educators who encouraged my youngest son to quit school because he was completely bored by the curriculum that they provided? The same teachers who couldn't deal with the fact that he was being educated at home?

Let's get real here.

Geezer

Hey D.H.!

You were doing just fine until the quoted section where you proved that you really are a D.H. as your signature block of years past said.

Why are you crying that someone donkey punched you? Does your taint hurt or something?

Cheers!

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For the record, I'm not blaming the individual school teachers. I have much empathy for them and much appreciation. It is the folks at the national level who decide which and how subjects will be taught. If that makes any sense. Things such as "No one left behind" and similar nonsense.

As you can tell, I am way out of my league, but I'm pissed that our kids cannot compete with those of other countries.

Ed Cregger

I'm not crying. I am just pointing out that its people like you who are ultimately responsible in a Democratic society so called, for the utter mess we find ourselves in.

Don't expect me to get you out of it.

Would that be the boy who was so disruptive the teachers could not function?

Yes, give it a try.

Just more of your egotist fantasy.

No, that would be the boy who slept during class or just never showed up for class.

Yes, do give reality a try. Please. Our educators do what the state mandates and NOTHING MORE.

My son went out and took his GED exam a week after quitting school. Straight A's across the board. And he made it a point to send a copy to the school principal and the board of education. Speaks pretty poorly about the educational system in my book.

Geezer

Possibly, but it also speaks of a boy who's parents let him believe his ability to learn was a license to be insulting or otherwise rude to people who didn't measure up to their standards. You seem to have raised an