-Jeff

pay attention… Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Obama… big recipients of the mortgage industry created this global mess by forcing lenders to “lower the bar” and allow people with poor credit to get loans.

This ignited all the problems we are seeing in ALL the industries. Social handouts have wiped out a decade of growth.

anyone who thinks people will pay more for a car that is smaller, slower and ugly has not thought the situation thru. I love my V-8… and hope Detroit brings back the styling that set American cars apart in the 60’s!!! Retro, but with power and better fuel efficiency.

This started with items that people bought as luxury. Plastic novelty items, kitchen gadgets, video games, you know, wal-mart crap. Now it has slowly happened with all of the stuff that people absolutely have to own. Cars are made in Mexico, Farm labor wages have been driven down by migrant workers, as has housing labor wages. IT jobs have been largly exported to India, Russia, and China. In fact, anything that can be done over the phone is largely exported now, including customer service, collections, billing, product or service ordering. In fact, as I look around here at work, I only see 5 or 6 out of 40 people that I couldn’t replace with a call to an Indian “business solutions” company. Once you export the “workers”, there is little need for middle, and most upper managers.

Now, in a healthy market, what we are seeing is normal. Jobs leave to cheaper labor, prices go down, and wages go down with the prices. Eventually, we hit an “evening out” point with foreign competition, and things stabilize. Healthy Capitalism.

But, there is a problem. People have made long term investments in things that they don’t want to see lose value. Things like:

- 401(k)s that are invested heavily in these failing US companies that are profiting less, because their prices are being driven down.
- Homes that they have spent 30% of their income on for 20 years that are worth less than when they bought them if inflation is considered.

So now, people won’t sell their homes for a price that people can afford, because it is less than what they need to justify selling it. This drives home prices up (or at least keeps them flat). And as the wage to cost ratio has gotten worse, investments in things like 401(k)s has fallen, leaving those US companies with less money to work with.

We have struggled through this for years by going from primarily one income earner homes to primarily two income earner homes. Unfortunately, there isn’t a third income earner to help put out the fire.

We have reached the breaking point. For us to return to normalcy, we need to accept the fact that home/land prices need to fall. This will give people more income to invest in savings, and keep their homes. I really think that the answer is in the Loan Modification program that the head of the FDIC is proposing.

A government big enough to give you everything is big enough to take away everything.

Reduce taxes and allow the free market to reward sound business practices and punish waste. That’s the formula for long-term growth and prosperity. It has nothing to do with short-term stability and security. Those concepts are myths, and government efforts to offer them through bailouts paid for by increased taxes or increased national debt is a recipe for long-term suffering and decline.

We are saddled with 53 trillion in obligations and the people of my generation are not even counting on Social Security, let along some pension. Everyone I know that is in my age bracket (35-45) is stuggling to make ends meet, and these folks again want us to fund their retirements and health benefits. Unbelievable.

Since they have that attitude where they can work 20-30yrs right out of high school and retire and saddle future generations with more debt, then I will take the attitude and NOT BUY ANY MORE GMCS or FORDS. I will still consider a Chrysler, because he seems to be an honorable CEO. When asked in the Senate hearing, if the CEOs would do like Lee did and accept a 1 salary, he was the only one that firmly said YES. The other two put their heads down and did not answer.

Thanks alot Unions, you drove your own business model (the hand that feeds you) in the ground while you feel ENTITLED to retiring in the 50s.

I know ya guys and gals are hard working folks, well guess what, the rest of America is as well. There is not ONE person that I know that does not put in a minimum of 60+ hours a week. MOST families have to have both people work just so we can afford to live because we have such high taxes, and you folks want to add to that.

Congress always talks about spending more money, when are they ever going to talk about reducing the size of govt and getting rid of some of these obligations that are not self sustaining, so they can help the taxpayer survive.

I would be in more favor of supporting a bailout if the govt can give me a tit for tat. Ya know, like we do around the family table. If we spend here, then we will cut here. Simple stuff guys. Simple stuff.

Its a simple formula: Cut the non self-sustaining obligations, cut the size of govt, and lower the taxes and our economy along with govt budgets will do just fine.