“You know it’s bad when you look at that unopened case of ramen and think,”I don’t want to break into that yet”.
Feeling Stimulated? January 25, 2009
Well, I did some math after all the babbling about the $825 billion stimulus package. So………$825B divided by the 300M estimated people in this country gives us each (every man, woman, and child) a tax burden of roughly $3000 each. It’s a bit lower, but easier to type. So, for my family of four…………….it’s about $12K.
$12,000. This is almost as much money as my family made last year.
Do I feel like this will help me in some way? No. Will this help me prepare for the economic collapse? No. Will this help me buy groceries? No. Do I feel stimulated? Well, like one hit with a tazer or cattle prod may feel stimulated.
Fuckers.
Recession Update December 10, 2008
Well, as an update, J was hired back, but P was not. Ironically enough, P was bummed, but J was pissed off. He was looking forward to a few months on the government teat (poor boy!).
P has another job lined up for a while.
Real Bail-out Plan December 4, 2008
OK, I may not be an economist paid by the feds to think of these things, but here goes.
THE WHITE RABBIT BAIL OUT PLAN!
This plan is based on a few assumptions.
1. The government is going to keep throwing money around like a bunch or trained apes without the training, this appears to be the entirety of their plan.
2. Inflation is going to get fairly unpleasant if they keep printing more fake money and throwing it around. Since more money means less value for your money.
3. I’m not sure they can pull this one out. I think it’s going to implode this time, and nothing is going to stop it.
So, the major thrust of this plan is this. Give every human living in the US a million dollars. That’s only about 300 trillion dollars, not bad considering the money they’ve already thrown away. Sure, there might me some inflation, but that’s coming already. If everyone gets this money they can pay their bills (there – the banks get some of that extra money they want). Taxes can be paid (the government gets some back). And people can afford holiday presents (the retailers get money too).
Personally, I’m not seeing how this could possibly be any worse that the dumb-ass plans the feds will come up with next.
Recession News November 20, 2008
I decided to start keeping track of how people I know are slowly being effected by this recession. Up until the last couple of months, the effects have been minimal. People were paying more for everything, and that was slowly eating away at savings, adding to debt, or people were cutting back. When people cut back, that slowly eats away at the income of others. Waitstaff and bartenders say tips are down this year, since fewer people are eating/drinking out, or they are tipping less.
I had to back burner my degree field, as few people have environmental consulting in their budgets at this time. My other job is slowing down I believe, they are not saying it, but it is also a job based on extra money people have, so it as dropped way off.
Unfortunately, now two of my friends (P and J (more of an aquainance)) have been laid-off. They work in a mine which announced two days ago that they were cutting a third of their work force, and they were both in that third. The responses have been interesting.
- J’s wife J2 is very angry, and has decided to apply for every state cent not nailed down. I haven’t spoken with J, but I suspect he’s either with her on this, or drinking, or perhaps both.
- P has put calls into everyone he knows to find another job, he and his wife S tallied everything up and they are OK for several more months. Then he went hunting. They are not worried yet, S seemed calm on the phone, and said that there are people who have it worse than they do.
Can you tell which couple I get along with better?
So my personal response this week has been one of disillusionment. The “it won’t really happen”, “it won’t really get that bad”, or the other “it won’t really effect me” thoughts that apparently were still lurking in my back brain are suddenly upset, and I’m a bit nervous (because I have some house builing bills to cover still!). This is going to get worse (perhaps a lot worse) before it gets any better.
