Have you been impacted by the Great Recession?

[Black Dragon]

Here in the United States we're in the midst of a seemingly endless recession. Locally, people are losing their jobs and it is next to impossible to find employment. The housing market is a catastrophe.

The situation appears to be getting worse, not better. I've been spared from this disaster, but I have family and friends who are suffering.

How is the situation in your part of the world? Are you seeing the effects of this Great Recession?

 

[Amanita]

I'm sorry about your friends and family and the others who are suffering from the recession around you. I know you don't get much support from the government in such situations and hope that you'll find a way to get through this.

Here, the economy is doing quite well as far as I know and finding jobs isn't that much of a problem, but everyone is worried by the Euro-crisis. No one really understands what's going on and what consequences those decisions might have, and I'm afraid, the politicians don't know either.
That's not only an economical but also a political problem because more and more rights are being transfered to the EU and it seems as if the elected parliaments and politicians will lose influence to no one really knows whom. Many people in various countries are worried that their interests won't be respected and it's not really sure what can be believed and what can't.
Therefore many people, my father included, worry that the money at the bank will soon be worth less and many people try to invest in things like gold or houses.

 

[grahamguitarman]

Here in the UK the recession is certainly hitting the creative community, every artist I speak to is finding times hard. Even artists / galleries with an established reputation are finding it hard to make ends meet.

I don't think things have got as bad as they are in America yet, but then we have a welfare state that cushions us from the worst of the recession. I just hope things turn around soon!

 

[Philip Overby]

In Japan we have the disaster looming over our heads at all times and the economy was already suffering even before that. It seems like every couple of months there is something we're not supposed to eat. It was spinach, then milk, and now beef. So all these industries are suffering because people are so afraid to eat certain things. So that trickles down. Luckily, I teach English so there are always jobs in regards to that even though the bubble popped over here long ago. One thing I like about teaching is that it's one of those jobs like the medical industry where you'll always be able to get jobs. As long as people keep having kids there will be education, so that gives me a semblance of job security although I recognize that nothing is written in stone.

 

[Kelise]

In Australia my mother thinks everything's about to get a lot worse. We weren't hit too hard at all when it first happened, and most people are happy (who buy overseas) because it's so cheap to buy things from America at the moment. Though the gov is thinking of bringing in a tax on things we buy overseas, which will stuff everything up, but I think that's a different thing all together.

A co-worker lost her job in Melbourne and had to move back home to live with her parents and get a job here because of the recession. Jobs where I live are always in abundance since we live so 'rurally' and no one wants to live here, we're made up mostly of people who work (or married to those) in the army. My father was posted here for an airline about 25 years ago, and has never moved.

Anyhow, Mum thinks it'll be a chain reaction. Because our things will be too expensive for America to import, that will go down. Other areas of Australia will be effected, which will effect all of Australia. Other people will lose their jobs and it'll have a knock on effect.

Same would be said for all parts of the world really, though.

 

[pskelding]

Much like Phil as long as people in China need to learn English I have a job. I have worked hard to become the teaching manager of a school so my job is relatively secure vs that of a normal foreign teacher. I also work for a company that does vocational teaching. The company is growing horizontally so it is a more secure company to work for.

On the bad side, I want to apologize to the non-Americans here, our president, congress, Wall Street, Too Big Too Fail Banks, and ponzi scheme that is the US financial system and economy has hurt almost every country on the planet either directly or indirectly. They have personally cost my family money which is invested in the Hong Kong stock market as a hedge against inflation because China does not have good cash deposit or interest rates at the banks. The collapse is coming and it's probably much nearer than any of us know.

The best part is I will be alive to see the "Great Reset" and hopefully a US uprising and overthrow of the government.

 

[mythique890]

My dad is a Realtor, so the housing market crash here in the U.S. hit them really, really hard. As for me, I've been living as a poor married college student since 2006, when things were still good. I finished the student part, but my husband is still in school, so even though it's been five years, not much has changed.
We went through a really hard time from the beginning of 2009-May of this year because neither of us could get a decent job.
Recently we moved from Ohio to Utah though, and jobs seem to be easier to come by here. At least, entry-level or labor type jobs (which is where we are anyway). I'm hoping that things will be better when the husband graduates in 2013. Of course, he's trying to get into the video game industry, so we'll see.

 

[Chilari]

When the recession hit, the construction industry was one of the worst hit in the UK. My dad works in that and was lucky not to be made redundant like some of his colleages, but he did get downgraded from a cubicle to a desk-share. The problem for me is that the construction industry funds archaeology - nobody can build anything without an archaeological survey being done first, and an excavation if necessary. So with no construction, there's no archaeology, cutting out one of the routes I could have taken career wise - I'm about to graduate with a Masters Degree. The other route I was considering was academia, but with massive funding cuts to "arts" subjects (though archaeology really spans the divide between arts and sciences), I simply can't get on a funded PhD at the moment, there are too few of them available. So instead I'm starting my own business, with my parents supporting me until the business is up and running. And in the mean time, my wedding gets put back again until we can afford it and to move to a place of our own.

 

[Justin Miller]

When you are poor you don't know what the fuss is about.

As the title states, heh. Actually, I live in the Northern VA area and it seems as if they are getting an after affect of the recession. It didn't have as large of an affect on the area where I live mainly because I am surrounded by all the people who do not have job risks... Senators. I don't make enough money to care myself, as long as I have my job I am happy, but I have seen it affect my family and friends, States like Maine (where my family lives) rely on tourism to keep the state funded, less tourism... less finding, so they are being hit pretty hard.

 

[Donny Bruso]

Personally I have been remarkably unaffected by it financially. As I'm sure some of you know from other posts, I'm a serving member of the US military, and with our out of control leadership determined to spread democracy around the world like cheap fertilizer instead of fixing our own problems, my job itself is more or less safe.

However, from that position I've seen this recession hurt others financially, and then seen their lives completely fall apart from that point on. There are times when I feel guilty for being 'part of the system' that is essentially sending the world to hell in a handbasket while taking care of itself. I have family who are struggling to keep their heads above water, and I help them as much as I can...

As far as the US uprising pskelding mentioned, I'm of two minds about it. As myself, devoid of any other responsibilities, I would wholeheartedly support any punishment anyone could dream up for the corrupt bastards who have ruined everything. However, as a soldier who is sworn to defend that corrupt entity, I would hate to see it happen because I would be called on to stop it, causing a major moral dilemma.

 

[Misusscarlet]

I lived in California for all of my life and let me tell you that state is the worst place to be. It's not even worth touring or visiting. Back in 2005 that's when the economy hit my family. My dad was a self-employed contractor and unfortunately construction gets hit first and recovers last. My family lost our house I had to quit college and move two states just to get a job even with the job I have I still only just get by. That's living and supporting myself as well. All this talk of recovery going on? Bunch of gobbledeegook. No such thing. I also hate the fact that every one is complaining about our downgraded credit score. It's our fault we did it we have to deal with it. I'm hoping with the book I am writing I can get my parents out of the poor house.

 

[Hëradïn]

I joined the military for lack of jobs locally. I will have to taken an extended leave of absence beginning jan 10. I would like to take this post to thank the asshats who got us into this mess THANK YOU WALL STREET BOUGHT POLITICIANS IN DC YOU CAN ALL GO GET ******. I would also like to thank ex-pres bush for is damnable tax cuts for the super rich and current pres obama for extending them because the rich need sooooooooooooooo much more money, and where what about everyone else? "who cares," said the random republican, "lets cut medicare medicaid social security and anything else that helps the poor!!!" to which obama says in a very timid voice "perhaps we can keep medicare?" and the republican responds with "fine we cut all those plus increase taxes on the poor 1000000000000 percent! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA" I hate that the politicians are bought by wall street and other corporations..... BLOODY MONEY CHANGERS!

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

Such anger and hatred...

I find it strange that people tend to ignore history. The great depression in america tried to spend their way out of it. The result was extended depression. Japan tried the same (more recently) and that didn't seem to help either. Why do we trust the people best at lying to solve problems when their only real skill is lying? How do you know when a politician is lying? Their lips are moving.

Communism doesn't work, it's been tried, and failed over and over. Socialism, pretty much the same. Why? If you tell someone that no matter who you are, what you can do, you will get the same as everyone else...you remove the drive to improve and do better. Why write a novel if you don't expect at some point to publish it, and make money off of it?? Ignorance aside, the only reason to strive to improve and do better is to improve our own situation. Why does anyone actually still believe that the govt has the answers to anything? Time after time they do dumb things that make things worse. "Let's spend a 800billion dollars to make everything better." Of which most of it went to bail out states that had overspent as well and were all in serious trouble. If you look at the money spent on the few jobs created, and worked the actual numbers, they could have paid all those people a few hundred thousand each to not work and we would have spent less money.

Blame banks, and blame capitalism. But if you look at where jobs come from, it isn't the government. While they can create a job, it takes 10 plus higher paid people to support each government worker. Businesses create jobs, not government. Currently, there are more manufacturing jobs in China than America...Why? We watch the unions demand more and more of the businesses they are squeezing out of business. When I was growing up I lived in the south. Coal minors made the big money. Coal minors went on strike a couple times a year...more money, more benefits...more, more, more...so what did the people who owned all the mineral rights to that coal do? Closed down the entire thing and moved to Columbia, South America. Now all those people who were the 'well to do' were poor. There weren't any jobs for them, and the union that helped them all loose their jobs? Packed up and cashed out. Teachers union are more concerned with their benefits package than teaching kids, and say it's the fault of greedy capitalists. It's nice to think that the world can all hold hands sing songs and just get along, but if you think I want to bust my behind, get up and go to work, spend evenings learning new technologies so I can keep my job, just to be told I need to pay more because someone else has made crappy choices and I need to pay for them? What's in if for me? Why am I responsible for all those who don't think, don't plan, and have more kids than they can afford, then demand that I pay more because thy don't have enough. Is it really wrong for me to say I don't want to pay for someone elses' kids insurance?, or food, or all the things that if it were my kid I would provide?

I'm fortunate that this current economy hasn't had that much of an effect on me. For some reason consulting is still doing well, despite the lack of sense in government. If I didn't keep up, and learn the latest technologies, then I would eventually loose my job and not be able to maintain my current life. So this is a really sore point for me. I spend quite a bit of time others would spend watching american idol, or some other pointless show, making sure I have a job tomorrow. Why is it that those who don't are just as deserving of everything I work for without any work?

I feel the same way about writing as I do life in general. If you don't want to put in the effort to be good enough, then don't. Don't blame me or anyone else if we are successful at it because we did. Personal responsibility has been removed form the American society. Blame someone else seems to be the norm now. Politicians promise the sun and the moon to those voting for them so they can get elected, but all they do is cater to those who donate the most.

I really should stay away from any form of political discussion. I can't stand the way the media has turned everything into a class warfare issue. I want to be rich. I'm not there, but I really want so much money I could never spend it all. While this may never happen, I am positive if I ever achieve that dream, I'll leave the US for some place that wont tell me I'm obligated to give most of what I've worked for to someone else because they don't have some thing they want and are too lazy to go do for themselves.

I do know there are a lot of people that have lost their jobs. I do feel for them, since they want to work, they want to do for themselves. But if you must lay blame, look at who has made the mess...spent too much money, and then says it's the fault of someone else. Regulations are killing businesses, we can't drill for oil anywhere just about, they want to kill off coal (more than 50% of energy in America is produced from coal), we can't build a nuclear plant (none in 30 years), and there hasn't been a new gas refinery in just as long. How can a business manage to hire new people when energy costs are insane. I paid more than $400 for my electric bill this month. I could buy a really nice car for that kind of money a month. If you live in America and want to do something good for the country, throw them all out, and get new people in. Maybe if we keep throwing them out, the new ones might get the idea and get out of the way so businesses can get back to work and make the economy better.

Sorry for the rant. I'll shut up now and bite my tongue.

 

[Hëradïn]

Of course I'm angry, my government is being taken over by a bunch of corporate robots, who want nothing more than to tax the middle class out of existence all the while the top 5 percent own more than half of the rest of the 95 percent, does that disparity not infuriate you? I agree that businesses are the job creators but they don't need tax breaks what they need is for people to buy their stuff so they will produce more and hire more people. with the way things are people don't want to spend for fear of what may happen if they lose their jobs and run out of money. so then how do we get people to spend? well, **** if I know.

Unions are a good thing, they are the reason we have minimum wage laws so people are paid a fare wage and 10 year olds don't have to quite school to help the family scrape by. The key to capitalism is education, as is the key to democracy, but fewer and fewer people in the states care enough to educate themselves, THAT is the fundamental problem, we have grown lethargic and ambivalent about our democracy, which allowed congress to pass laws to let corporate donors donate as much as they wanted, which lead them being bought, which lead to this mess we are in now.

tell me, what incentive is there to do good when you feel like all your money is going to stolen by the crooks on the hill?

 

[TPushit]

The situation is tricky. My family had a very rocky road for the past couple of years, but now we are somewhat stable economically. I just don't know how I'm going to go to college in the near future. But anyways, this thread reminds me of a documentary I watched (And a book I am going to read) called Collapse. Has anybody heard of it?

 

[Shadoe]

I know it's popular to blame "the masses" for the mess the US is in. Everybody rags on "entitlements" and the like. I came across a quote the other day:

"When communities come under pressure, they look for scapegoats. It plays into traditional beliefs that someone is responsible for a negative change ... and children are defenseless."

Granted, it was talking about children being denounced as witches by Christian pastors, but the concept is true all over. Whenever something bad happens, people looooove to find a scapegoat, and that scapegoat is usually the weakest members of society. Then you get decent people performing atrocities. Hitler's Germany is a prime example. But looking at today's America is a good one too. We live in a land of plenty. There is enough wealth, enough food, enough medicine, enough everything in this country for every single citizen to live a decent, happy life. But we don't. Instead, more and more people are homeless every day, people starving in the street, people dying from curable diseases, the percentage on welfare increases even while our government allocates less and less into the system. All the while, folks in the middle class, just one step away from poverty, insist we punish the poor even more. As if that was going to cure anything.

And why? Because the poor are the scapegoats of today's America. They are America's weak and defenseless. Somehow, the disadvantaged, uneducated, unwanted, and just plain unlucky people of America are expected to just pick themselves up, brush themselves off, and get to work. If they don't, hey, it's THEIR fault they're poor in the first place. I find this attitude especially discouraging when it comes from Christians, a group that pretends to follow the world's foremost advocate of charity toward one's fellow man.

Nobody has jobs because there are no jobs. Because the jobs are in China and Mexico and Thailand and anywhere that pays a subhuman wage and offers sweatshop conditions. Why do we do that? It's because the guy who made one million dollars last year expects to make two million this year, and if he has to screw America to do it, he will. And has.

I've listened and listened, for the past 20 years about how we need to bolster business, make all the laws favor business, get rid of regulation, give more and more and more to the rich, and then the economy will recover. It isn't recovering, because the guys who drive the economy have nothing to drive it with. The jobs are in China and the people who are supposed to buy what they make are in the US. But what happens then they ship the Chinese televisions to the US and nobody's there to buy them?

Blame the poor all you want, but we've proven over and over that the only way to make an economy recover is to pump money into the people who are willing to spend it. No society prospers if most of its citizens are poor. This is where we're heading, and we'll just keep driving the bus off the cliff until the wealthy and those who feed them realize there's nobody left to buy what they're selling.

And a few points:

Government spending directed at the poor dragged us out of the Great Depression. It put the people to work and jump started the economy. The government gave handouts, sure, but it also created jobs. The systems put in place then kept America going for decades. Once those systems started getting sabotaged, America started sinking again. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is selling you something.

Coal doesn't need to continue. We've polluted enough and it doesn't bring enough power. New nuclear plants are in the works - 24 of them last I heard. The earliest will be online by 2020.

 

[Misusscarlet]

Hmm yea they do use children as scapegouts. First thing any government tries to do is allocate money to education and school when they have the money. When they don't have the money what's the first to go? Schools and education. 1] I don't blame all the teachers all over the world for striking. 2] I do blame them I'm working towards being a teacher, any teacher well worth there salt knows you don't get into education for the money you get into it cause you want to make a difference to those children's lives. I noticed that it's kind of sad that for someone to qualify as a president they have had to have office positions, such as senator, house, governor, etc. Why don't we scrap that, I'd much rather feel safer if Joe Blow ran for presidency than people that have already been in office and have already played the corruption game.

 

[mythique890]

Ultimately, it was WWII that ended the Great Depression. It was manufacturing plants making munitions and selling them overseas for the war. Those factories ensured everyone made a decent wage and could spend extra.

Of course I'm not suggesting we make the same product, but if companies would STOP outsourcing, it would help. Manufacturing has gone overseas; the money has followed.

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

There was a professor who had a class that felt that the idea of socialism was a good thing, ie, everyone shares with everyone and all are treated equally. So the professor told the class that they would try it as a proof to see if the idea actually would work. Everyone in the class would have the same grade. All tests would be graded and the average of all those tests would be given to everyone.

The first test went quite well, those who were avid in studying and doing well did so, and the average was a B for everyone. Those who did study were not real pleased at getting a B for the hard work they put into the test, since they would have gotten an A if not for the socialistic sharing. The next test the average was a C-, since those who studied hard felt that if they had to share the same grade as everyone else, then everyone else should put in more effort after that. From there it was abysmal, and the entire class failed. It is a problem with any system that fails to reward personal effort. When you tell those working hard they can never have more than anyone else...THEY STOP! Those who aren't working at all, are quite content to ride on the backs of everyone else, since they are told they have nothing to worry about, it will be done for you.

I forget the country, but I believe it was Greece, kept making unemployment longer and longer. From two years, to three, then to four. The length of time it took for someone to find a job kept taking longer and longer as they extended it. from 2 years, to three, then to four. What happened when they moved the unemployment back to two years? Amazingly, people seemed able to find a job in two years.

It's sooooo nice to believe in the goodness of humanity. Honestly, as writers, who should take a closer look at people (since we intend to write characters based on them) and see that while it is so nice to believe in the good honest person who will do the right thing just because it's right, human nature says no. Whenever you give someone a chance to take advantage of another, they will. Offer someone something for nothing, they will take it and keep taking. The phrase, "the needy are always needy" is the most accurate statement you will find. As long as you are going to give those in need what they want, they will continue to need for the rest of their lives.

I was a contractor for a place that had a state contract. and this was when welfare was finally expiring. The state asked the company to interview people who now needed to try and find work, so maybe there might be some they could use. Guess what? All those people who had been living off welfare (which sometime in the past became 'entitlement') was interviewing for a job. No, they didn't do much work, but they did show up to the place and pretend so they could get a paycheck.

It comes to this, if you feel sorry for the poor, fine, give them whatever you want. Be as gullible as you desire, but must the rest of us pay for that same gullibility? Must I pay these people forever because you think they are deserving. Does anyone here know that America tried a version of socialism in the past? Back before America became America? Yes, it was tried, and after a few years they saw that as long as someone could get all they wanted by doing nothing, they would.

I'd just like everyone who feels that it is the job of the government to spread the wealth, to open your own wallet and empty it first. Give until you feel you have given enough...but leave me out. Let me decide what charities I want to give to, instead of having the government, whom only pay those who keep voting for them, decide where my money is best used for charity. I don't work for the good of all, I don't put my time learning how to write, how to develop software, or anything else so someone sitting on their behinds whining about how they don't have this or that can have it. I do it for my own gain, because I want more. I'm not running out with a baseball bat beating the poor back into their government (taxpayer) paid for housing to keep them from going out and getting a job, or trying to. Although, listening to the news, you would think I was.

I still believe that the number of people willing to do for themselves still outnumber the bums who won't, but if we tell people who are making the 'big money' who we keep being told aren't paying their 'fair share' (is 60% fair?) what will motivate them to keep making that money? Or to stay in a country that demonizes them as if they have no right to have more than others because they earned it? There are more laws in America than any of us could probably count. Laws, regulations, taxes, and other things to strip those who are productive of all they have....and the socialist tell us it isn't enough. Trust the socialist to have the answer to all our problems. The world will be a better place if we just trust them with our lives, money, history...

Try reading 1984, and then look again at what you are being told. Even Harry Potter took a swipe at the "Greater Good" concept that the politicians keep telling us.

How about this, all those that believe that wealth redistribution is right and correct, pledge to give any money made on your writing to the government so they can help those in need. Put your money where your mouth is...yours, not mine, not somebody else's, but your own. When it works, then come back and tell me, I'll consider it. Till then, stop telling others that they should be happy to have the government take our hard earned money to waste on paying their personal voting block of slaves that have to vote for them to continue their existence. I don't need the government to provide my living for me, and I think the vast majority of Americans don't want them to either.

 

[Amanita]

It's sooooo nice to believe in the goodness of humanity.

Yes. And the lack thereof prevents the “perfect capitalist world, where everyone gets exactly what they deserve” as well as any communist or socialist society.
There are so many different factors that play into this that a person’s material well-being can’t be reduced to “they worked well” or “they’re lazy.”
Out-sourcing has been mentioned plenty of times here. The Chinese (or Bangladeshi, Vietnamese etc.) women who sew clothes for western companies all day barely earn enough to survive and definitely not enough for proper health care or anything of that sort. They’re forced to do this kind of work because they’re traditional agricultural life style isn’t possible anymore and they’d starve otherwise.
Is it those people’s fault that they’ve barely got enough to survive? Is it because they’re lazy?

Only if people in western countries accepted such conditions again, undoing the out-sourcing would become profitable. As soon as corporations are free to only pay as much money as someone’s work “is worth” to them, a combination of misery and hard work is the consequence. That’s why communism has been able to grow in 19th century Europe.
And not just that. Without regulations, everything that can safe costs is being done. Knowingly selling dangerous products? Plenty of examples and they’re still fighting any attempt to ban anything scientific studies have proven is dangerous. And they do so proudly and talk about it via Twitter.
Endangering the environment and the people living nearby? Plenty of examples once again, the most famous one is the Bhopal disaster. If it’s more profitable to let people die that’s the way it’s done. And if someone dares to complain they’re told that such complaints are bad for the investment climate.
It’s difficult for me to understand such behavior, maybe this is happening because due to the corporate structure, those who make the decisions are so far away from the impact of those decisions they can ignore them easily.
Corporate leaders do their job for a few years, often cutting jobs or even leading their company into a merger and receive millions of money for it. That’s where I and many other people don’t feel that they’re “earned” this due to their hard work.
Hardly anyone begrudges people who’ve become rich due to some brilliant idea of their own their money but in these cases it’s difficult to accept it as fair.

This means that I have absolutely no trust in private security corporations, private schools and school funding etc. I believe that every nation needs a government that is backed by the people, has to answer to them, is independent from corporate powers and represents it’s people’s interests. Most (all) governments are far from this ideal but this doesn’t mean that isn’t what should be tried to achieve. Anything else has little to do with democracy.
Such an institution needs money to do their duty and therefore I pay taxes even though they might not always be used the way I think is best. More public influence on the way taxes are used is definitely something that should be considered but in my case, the money that goes to unemployed people isn’t the part that bothers me most. Surely, there are those who exploit the system, but I still prefer this to the situation described above.
When I’m 45 one day and my employer decides that they don’t need my job anymore, or that somewhere in the world someone else can do it for less money, or if they go bankrupt, I know that I won’t be starving on the street even though other potential employers now think that I’m too old to work for them.

Besides that there's a big difference between "everyone is getting the same amount of money, no matter what they do" and "everyone who earns money pays a percentage of this money to the government which uses it to give less fortunate people enough to survive."