It's just my own observation here, but the country appears to be in bad shape economically.
We have admittedly been in bad shape in many other areas these past seven years. Our politics have been ugly. Our voting rights and reliable voting systems are under attack. Our Constitution has been in shreds. Our emotions have been manipulated by our leaders. Our jobs have been outsourced. Our children have been tested but not educated. Our military has been misused. Our good reputation in the world has been squandered. And all the while we have been looking over our shoulders for the bogey man who the government keeps saying is coming to get us.
But through all of this, we have seen a rising stock market and consistent economic growth. Now, in the opinion of us ordinary plebeians that doesn't mean squat, as wealthy people can benefit from such an economy even when the rest of us are losing jobs and houses. Such is our current economic system.
But that is all changing.
Now the wealthy are losing money, as the housing crisis is simply affecting too many plebes who, as a result, no longer have enough dollars to keep the economy growing.
You can see it on the street in my town. There simply aren't as many cars headed to the mall. We can't even afford the cheap goods manufactured in China, let alone the gas to drive to the import store, even if the car hasn't been repossessed. And there aren't as many plebes in the stores, even in the grocery stores, as people who have just been handed pink slips eat what they have in the pantry for as long as they can. Along the roads there are foreclosure sale signs, and vacant homes.
And everyone you talk to predicts it is going to get much worse. Talk about consumer confidence!
So in this pyramid scheme we call capitalism, the capitalists are finally feeling the heat. The loan sharks who sold those deceptive and horrible loans to people all too eager to own a home they couldn't otherwise afford are losing their shirts as well as their jobs. And investors who bought packages of those awful loans are finding their portfolios devalued. Banks and loan companies are being bought and sold at fire sale prices, sometimes to oil rich countries in the Gulf. And the Dow is taking big hits. And that means, in a few months, we will probably be told by the government that we are in a recession. Except we plebes already knew that.
We're like the canary in the coal mine. We know first that we are dying, but no one mourns the death of the canary. It's only when the miners start dying that anybody pays attention, but even then little is done to improve things until the mine owners realize that dying miners cost them money.
