Weak Economy - Live with Mom and Dad

IvyRose · 03-23-2008, 06:56 PM

Last hope in a weak economy? Mom and Dad - AP Associated Press

Quote:

After being laid off from her job as an events planner at an upscale resort, Jo Ann Bauer struggled financially. She worked at several lower-paying jobs, relocated to a new city and even declared bankruptcy.

Then in December, she finally accepted her parents' invitation to move into their home — at age 52. "I'm back living in the bedroom that I grew up in," she said.

Taking shelter with parents isn't uncommon for young people in their 20s, especially when the job market is poor. But now the slumping economy and the credit crunch are forcing some children to do so later in life — even in middle age.

I don't feel so bad now. I also read that America is not the richest country anymore, Europe is. (Unconfirmed Source) I believe it though.

I'm scared.

TKDLady · 03-23-2008, 07:14 PM

Great, just when I thought mine were about ready to leave the nest. Well at least one of them anyway. Oh well. Can't let them starve.

Luba · 03-23-2008, 07:17 PM

I had heard of younger people moving back in with their parents, but middle-aged people is News to me...the positive thing is that the parents are willing and able to help out.

IvyRose · 03-23-2008, 07:36 PM

It's pretty bad here. There's not many jobs. A High School Diploma is nothing like it use to be 10 years ago. One must be able to have at least some College to survive now.

The house market hit rock bottom. Lots of people lost their jobs and were unable to pay for their mortgage payments and on top of that, they had opted for balloon payments, not worrying about losing their jobs.

If I had a lot of money, I would be buying up all the houses for sale right now. I think we're going to pull out of it, but it will take a couple of years.

Luba · 03-23-2008, 08:00 PM

In Vancouver people are buying Condos before they are built, and some Developers are going bankrupt due to higher building costs...more and more of those stories...

Vautrin · 03-23-2008, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IvyRose

I don't feel so bad now. I also read that America is not the richest country anymore, Europe is. (Unconfirmed Source) I believe it though.

I'm scared.

That is mainly because the dollar is weak against the Euro. So if you do a straight conversion, the EU economy is bigger than the US economy. However, if the dollar improves a bit, the US will come out on top again.

As for the weak economy, part of the problem is exactly the inflated house prices. You almost need two college level jobs, in order to actually pay for a house (provided it is not in Nowhere Central).

IvyRose · 03-23-2008, 08:46 PM

Sure, inflation. I agree with that.

I also think we hurt ourselves outsourcing our jobs. Not only is our lack of job situation due to the outsourcing, but we're also seeing more and more of these jobs producing poorly made products with hazardous materials.

A lot of call centers have even been outsourced. You use to be able to pick up a job within a week, now it's taking twice as long to find one. People wonder why they can't understand who they're speaking to when calling certain company's customer service lines. It's because it's in another country.

I'm really surprised there are so many call centers in my state, but the competition for those jobs have sky-rocketed. It's dog eat dog and employers know that their employees are stuck there for awhile. So, the professionalism has turned into snide comments and poor treatment.

I'm not going to get into the American Attitude bit that this brings up, but I know in general, we're pretty snotty. I just don't want US to fall into what we were decades ago. Balance is in order, let's just not tip the scales over into the danger zone.

Vautrin · 03-23-2008, 08:59 PM

You can blame outsourcing. But you can also blame the companies themselves. Outsourcing seems profitable, but it does cut into the purchasing power of the consumers. Everybody knows call centers simply do not work that well - their objective is simply to comply with legal regulations more than actually caring about the customer. I know there are exceptions to that rule, though.

In order to work in a "US" call center in India, you have to be updated constantly on the US sports - it is utterly ridiculous that people in India need to know about College football, baseball and NASCAR for their jobs, but they have to.

As for the use of hazardous materials, I know the Dutch don't care if they ship out poisonous junk to the likes of Central Africa - so I can't see why the Chinese should have a better attitude when they send out crap to the US or Europe. The double standards should be done away with.

Corporate greed and fraud (creative tax evasion techniques) make it much harder to actually find some money to address social ills. I would not be surprised that relative to their income the poorest pay the highest taxes in the US, relative to their income.

Instead of creating a more and more hostile society by neglecting to address these problems, one could also invest in people, to prevent decay. As an added bonus the cost of these measures is very likely to be lower than the cost of addressing the ills later down the line.

IvyRose · 03-23-2008, 09:35 PM

I don't blame the companies themselves. I blame our government for passing the Bill to outsource our labor.

The companies had to do what they could to compete with other companies to stay in business. It wasn't about greed there, it was survival.

Vautrin · 03-23-2008, 10:03 PM

In the case of call centers you can legislate a bit. If we are talking about a service that is provided to US consumers, you can.

However when the issue is making cars, cell phones and such, you can't. Unless of course you are willing to pay substantially more for a "made in the USA" product.

As for import duties, they will not help. These import duties do not lower prices of US made products, thus hitting consumers hard.

Look how farming is dependent on subisides for their products (both US and EU), thus driving 90% of the world out of business (not to mention causing famine in quite a few countries).

The whole economic system is based on paying people as little as possible. It is an added bonus that these modern day slaves call it freedom.

darkangelism · 03-23-2008, 10:10 PM

The one thing is that the EU is not a country, so its not really a direct comparison. Once we get passed the election the dollar should strengthen again. Right now is a great time to invest in the stock market cause everything is undervalued.

IvyRose · 03-23-2008, 10:26 PM

You're right, Mr. Peacock. Europe is technically not a country, it is a continent. However, serveral of the countries on the Europe continent is unified by the European Union.

You can have the stock market all you want, I'm taking land.

Vautrin · 03-23-2008, 10:27 PM

True, but the EU is only slightly bigger in terms of population (the US is the most populated country after China and India). Plus the whole internal market basically operates without borders.

I agree with your assessment on the market, DA. The hard part is predicting where the fallout will strike.