Because you can only fool the people for so long, then reality catches up with you.
To answer your question, we really need to know the answer to a couple of other questions:
1) Where did it all start?
2) When did it all start?
For years, the current administration in Washington D.C. has been telling the American people how strong the economy is and how much stronger its getting. Every employed person in the United States jumped on that wagon train and exclaimed how strong the economy is in this country.
But, IMHO, that didn't make it so. The rich getting richer; the large corporations making record profits on the backs of the people; and the wholesale sale of our country and its assets to overseas investors do not make for a strong economy.
When the people work at jobs and make a decent living wage, they spend money to the betterment of themselves and their lives and their families lives. This in turn drives businesses to grow and prosper and employ more people. This is the mark of a strong and growing economy.
But the current administration would have us believe that most Americans are working. But how many executives have lost their jobs and found employment as a Walmart greeter, and how many "worker-bee" types are sitting at home watching the world go by because their unemployment ran out? or are competing with those executives for the limited greeter jobs? Did you know that unemployment figures only reflect people on unemployment? And that the unemployment rate in America drops as peoples' unemployment insurance runs out? Sure, they *might* be working, but not in a capacity that allows them to spend money.
Many of these people have borrowed money to support their lifestyles as they search for better jobs, that no longer exist because businesses have relocated overseas with cheaper workforces. Their credit cards are maxed out, paying fees for over-the-limit, missed payments, late payments, etc., all the while the credit card companies try to find other ways to charge for their services. People take out home equity loans to pay off credit cards, and other expenses, and then are unable to pay those. Its a viscious circle. Banks are foreclosing on homes in record numbers. And that ties up the banks' assets. Banks do not make money by holding onto property that they foreclosed on, but the housing market has slowed dramatically because the majority of people don't have the money to buy those properties, so the bank must sit on them and find other ways to charge their customers to make up the difference.
And if that's not bad enough, miraculously, since the current administration, who's "leader's" family is in the oil business, has gotten control of this country, there is a well publicized idea gaining momentum around the world, that the world is running out of oil and that's driving prices of basic necessities (shipping) and transportation through the roof. Maybe we are running out of oil. Maybe we're not. If we are, then the economy is likely to get worse before it gets better.
We live in a global economy, where the United States is just one of the major players. For years, American businesses have outsourced their "worker-bee" type jobs to people and businesses overseas, forcing thousands in this country to find (or not find) other jobs....turning booming metropolises into third world countries. And the trend continued, because its about how much money you can make for your shareholders, not about how many people you can employ. Today, we have started to see a backlash of these policies. Companies in other countries are beginning to realize that they do not need American companies to outsource business to them, but rather they can save money by eliminating the extra level of management in the United States. More jobs gone.
And if this isn't bad enough, we let i****************s into our country and give them the few jobs that we had left, and pay them ten cents on the dollar for the work that could have been done by Americans. Then the government taxes the cr.a.p out of the people who cannot afford to have tax shelters, so we can pay for all of those i****************s who arrived here without being able to find work. Based on the numbers tossed about by the government, a full 10?f our population can be considered to be i****************s.
I honestly believe that we should have been in a recession starting a while ago, but we were fooling ourselves into believing we weren't, so it appeared to the general public that we weren't. But as I said at the top of this response, eventually reality catches up, and the fiction loses its support. The cost of living is skyrocketing, the number of people who, while they may be working, cannot support the lifestyle to which they became accustomed to in the 90s is skyrocketing, the fear that our government is part of the problem and therefore won't be able to do anything about the problem is skyrocketing.
I could write a book (or maybe I just did) on this subject. My response to your question of "Why is the U.S. going into a Recession?" is "Why are you surprised?"
Answered By: JimDandy - 1/23/2008 |