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Termyn8or -> RE: Living paycheck to paycheck in America (10/22/2007 11:45:29 AM)
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It is going to get a hell of alot worse before it gets better.
In time, making say $50,000 a year you will be looking for an $800 car. The person selling that car will be doing so for food money. You think I'm kidding ? Just wait and see.
You see there are two phases to this problem. One is that we create less wealth in the US, this because of outsourcing to foreign countries. The other is that what wealth is still created is being sucked up more and more by the big guys.
In the years to come that $50,000 a year will not buy you a house. You will find that the big guys know that people need a place to live, and you will see the property available snatched up by future slumlords.
I have said it before and it warrats repeating - Money is not wealth. Money is simply a medium of exchange of true wealth, something like a representative of wealth, akin to the flag of a country. It is merely a symbol.
People think money solves everything, when in fact it is the worst thing to have. It does nothing but decrease in value every day. Anything else is better, property, tools, other durable goods. I wish I'd bought some huge underground gasoline tanks years ago when gas was "cheap".
Last week a buddy walked in here with a wood lathe, for $20. Twenty dollars !
My clan covets tools and machinery. One look at the basement will tell you. Even if it sits there and rusts, the rust can be ground off and the machine made like new almost, at least it will function. When the value of the dollar drops there is nothing that can be done. You lose.
The way I see money now is much different than years ago. I used to lust after money, and I made alot. I also spent alot. In the early 90s I had one job taking home about $350 a week, another making about $200 a week plus in my little side business I made between $200 and $400 a week. This was fifteen years ago.
Over time I lost my taste for it. When I get the stomach again to be in business, it is going to be something with alot of potential. Right now my time is worth more than money. I only work part time now and only make about two grand a month. I run out of money all the time. But I have time to think, to reflect, to participate in fora like this one. Right now I could do this without waking up before noon and always home before seven PM, but I opted for four days and almost always have Mondays off.
They say time is money, but I disagree, time is way more important than money. I was working full time back when I was like sixteen. I was making more money than my divorced Mother. I don't know how we made it before that, as I bribed her with half my take-home pay to let me quit school. Of course she knew that I was already smarter than some of the teachers. Some, not all.
Which brings us to another form of real wealth, knowledge and skills. I had them. I did not get them from school. I was designing circuits that actually worked as the electronics class was trying to teach about simple batteries. I was young enough to see certain things, like that Ohm's law is not some magical invention, it is simply a representation of the laws of nature. What price would you put on that kind of knowledge ? If I were able to sell my knowledge, that is that is would be stripped from my mind and implanted into the buyer's, it would not be for sale at any price. That's why I don't drop acid.
We have the ability to adapt, and that has been on my mind for quite some time. The time will come when it'll be like post WW1 Germany, a wheelbarrel full of money to buy a postage stamp. I can't say I am totally ready, but I am ahead of the pack.
The sad fact of the matter is, it is only going to get worse. To get better will require a massive upheaval of our socioeconomic structure. The rich are running things, and they always want more. They will never take less until we refuse. We make the wealth. Our knowledge and skills are wealth, our abilities and our drive are true wealth. It seems some of us don't have the drive anymore, but that is not always true. It's that some of us see money as the useless garbage that it is.
There is a song "Addicted to a dollar that ain't worth a dime". And you have heard the phrase "Another day another dollar". Well compared to the 1910s or so, the dollar is now worth a nickel. So if you work an eight hour day at fifteen per hour, you make 120 "dollars" a day. Taken in these terms, you need to make 200 "dollars" a day to make a real dollar a day.
There was an interesting ad for gold I read. They were advertising gold coins and illustrated that if you actually had the gold coins, from back when a new car cost a few hundred, you could still buy a new car with the same coins today. Kinda eerie to think about it that way, but I have every reason to believe it is true. A one dollar gold coin from the year 1900 is worth how much ? I won't bore you with the figures, suffice it to say that the figures do not make a good case for paper money.
This subject also creeped into the media in a song by Ronnie Montrose called "Paper Money". If you got P2P I suggest you get it. "You take away all my all my silver, take away all my gold, and hand me a stack of paper". If you decide to hear it, it might be listed under Sammy Hagar. HA.
I just happened to put that song on, another part "My car cost fifteen grand" now how old is that song ? Fucking fifteen grand for a car you probably don't get a cupholder. I'll tell you this, my Uncle was an executive at Ford, bought him a new Crown Vic, he asked "where are the floor mats ?". You don't get them anymore because of shipping costs, and this on a luxury car ! Later he bought a Buick Roadmaster. It came with floor mats I think.
This all points to the thinking of corporate America. It is so profit driven, so much into MONEY NOW MONEY NOW that they are killing the golden goose.
The existence of the stock market is part of the problem. It's almost as if the board of directors of companies are honor bound not to have any honor. It is now honorable to be greedy. What impact does that have on our lives ? look around. Everything breaks and costs a fortune to fix. And the repair shops are not making a killing either, they are pretty much hanging on by a thread in most cases. All small business suffers when big business creates these conditions.
I really don't like the media, but I do recommend the Montrose song, and a movie called "Other People's Money". The latter illustrates just how things work these days. It was one of Danny DeVitos serious roles. No humor of any import.
Another good one, if one wants to educate themself about how the world works is "The Palermo Connection" with Jim Belushi. Again, not much humor at all, but very educational. This one illustrates quite well how to manipulate public opinion, or the reporting of same.
Both of these movies should be "required reading" for people who, like me, are concerned about the shit that is going on in the world. And I very rarely send people to the TV set. I think mass media has been so abused that it is almost worthless. But every once in a while, somebody comes up with something good. Neither of the movies I mentioned got any serious promotion, and I can see the reason. If you see those two movies you will know why.
Boils down to this, there is no easy fix. Let me splain the stock market in the simplest of terms I can find. You got a company, and you can improve immensely on your widgets if only you had the money to buy a frazenstat. You go public.
People buy your stock, and then expect money for nothing, like interest from a bank, but more of it. You better make enough money not to "crash" the company, even with this debt load.
While I have been on the other side of the desk, I admit that I have never been in any sort of control in a publicly traded firm. I wouldn't want to be, that seems to me to be exactly between the old proverbial rock and hard place. Some of you may know this, I am glad not to have the stress.
I'll tell you this much, the players in the game are so big, that if I ever do start a company it will never be traded publicly and there will be no partners. The best money is made in niche markets and they require personal attention in most cases. Thing is, if it were easy everyone would be doing it.
The whole problem is that there are too many people. The old MLM scheme would never work otherwise, but when you buy that car, you get some steel and alot of plastic, and alot of over-engineering. And you are helping to pay people who produce nothing. Yes, some portion of the purchase price gets into the hands of the people who actually designed and built the car, but after you get through paying them, you are paying some suits whose function is to keep the taxes down, mismanage the company and play golf. Also, you are paying the shareholders. It's called dividends.
Now we have a situation where alot of retirement and personal investments are dependent on this system. Where do you think that money comes from ? We all pay it.
The big one is coming my friends, of that there is no doubt. Just try to be as ready as you can.
T
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