We have been living over our heads for a long time now

[adigal]

and it is time for an adjustment. As long as we can put food on the table, and a roof over our heads, it might bring our societies closer together. Some things we can do:

Shop at thrift stores for clothes

Walk, bike or car pool to work

Grow big vegetable gardens - you lucky southerners

Be like the Amish, and help each other with big projects

See what we can do without - no family needs a TV or computer in every bedroom when the kids can barely read at grade level.

Any other ideas???

[PVnRT]

1. Sigh.

Are people going to figure out that what's going on now isn't the direct result of people living beyond their means?

[Blue Meany]

5. It's part of the story, though...

Sure, there were banks facilitating and encouraging living on credit, and advertisers make people feel that they were up to snuff--or God forbid, middle-class--if they didn't have this or that gadget, the latest styles or a big house. But individual consumers were also culpable and complicit.

I know; I was one of them, until I figured out that I was being played. Then I paid of my credit cards, paid of the mortgage, grew a garden and began canning, drying, and freezing food; started heating with wood, walked and bicycled for work and most errands.

The problem is that a lot of people are going to have to make radical adjustments in their lifestyles in a very short period of time. And that is going to be hard. But delaying the ineviteable is a mistake.

[TahitiNut]

12. Wall Street has been living beyond the means of the working class.

Isn't it obvious? When the parasite kills the host, it's NOT a 'successful' parasite. Where's that economic Darwinism of the "free market"???

[whistle]

2. That's it Americans are to blame, my Gawd, knock me over with a feather

...I have a front lawn that is wedge shaped, I can plant onions and have some live stock grazing out front, just like in the villages of Vietnam!

[ShortnFiery]

3. With respect, speak for yourself. My family, and many others, have always been frugal.

Other than myself cutting back on my own wardrobe to allow my teenagers to dress more "trendy" (for them), the entire family does not WASTE money. No, not even on over use of cell phones nor de we own a "flat screen" TV, much less one of those HDTVs.

Our only debt is our Mortgage - but that's enough. ;)

IMO, this so called *Consumer Mentality* selfishness NEVER was in many LIBERAL American Families.

:

[adigal]

4. I have not been, but most of the people I know have been

and they do it with huge credit card debt!

[ShortnFiery]

7. Unfortunately, some people may have to "bottom out" to realize that they are living

beyond their means.

People who are even marginally cautious will adjust "just fine" but some ... well, they'll have a very difficult time adjusting.

IMNSHO, I'd rather be driving a 13 year old honda that still runs well than to have to fork over $500-$600 a month so I can show myself off cruising around in "the ultimate driving machine." Hell, that makes as much common sense as Cadillac manufacturing an Hybrid Escalade. NO! I don't get it. :crazy:

:hi:

[EFerrari]

11. I've been free of that cr@P! for a long time, too.

The only thing I splurge on is small donations and those dried up a little while my work hours are limited. It feels good to travel light. :)

[gatorboy]

6. As long as you're roughing it now, I'll take your computer!

Tell Grizzly Adams I said "Howdy!"

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. ...

:spray:

[gatorboy]

17. Another child of the 70's!

Was Grizzly Adams too much of a head scratcher?:P

[kentuck]

8. Some have.

Many have struggled to survive.

[global1]

9. Over This Past Weekend I Just Kind Of Sat Back And Observed......

NASCAR races, baseball and football games - still went on - with parking lots full of cars and stadiums full of people drinking and eating and having a gay old time. I went to the shopping center. Hard to find a parking place. The mall was packed with people carrying around shopping bags full of stuff. Later I had to wait 25 minutes before we were seated at the restaurant.

People speed down the highways - driving 20 miles over the posted speed limit and not thinking about conserving the expensive gas that they just poured into their car.

Most people are oblivious to what is going on. They are still living their high life and not cutting back and they are still ramping up the tally on their credit cards - which they pay the minimum balance every month.

Commercials on TV still are goading people to buy boats, take exotic vacations, and further drive up their credit balances on the Home Shopping Network. Infomercials abound.

In most of America - unless you were hit by a recent hurricane, flood or some other calamity or have to wait in long lines at the gas stations that have no gas - people are oblivious to the serious nature of the situation that *Co and the Repugs have gotten us into over since Reagan's days.

I'm really hoping that today - this failed bailout vote - is a wakeup call to these Americans - and they begin to see the folly of our ways. This is our last hope. They need to get involved. They need to take interest. They need to vote for themselves and not be influenced by pundits, cable news outlets, wedge issues or the continue to vote the way their parents voted.

We need a massive change in D.C. and if we get a McCain presidency - you might as well kiss this wonderful way of life good-bye.

[adigal]

10. I agree, I still don't see anyone bucking up

and tightening their belts. We are all living high on the hog still.

[fizzgig]

14. we all are?

tell that to me and my friends who live as frugally as possible and are still worrying about having to pay the bills

[Gemini Cat]

19. You actually had to wait 25 minutes to eat at a restaurant.

You have the money to eat in a restaurant?
A lot people in this country can barely afford food. They certainly don't eat in restaurants.

[earth mom]

20. My dh and I have been wondering how everyone is still affording stuff where we live.

We go out to dinner once in awhile-usually when we drive to the big city which is a few hours away. So about a week or so ago, we had to wait an hour to be seated at a restaurant. On the way there we saw lots of cars at the upscale shopping center the restaurant was located at with shoppers going to and fro. Which is when we asked ourselves how are people affording to shop here?!!! However, just down the road at the new Best Buy where we went to check some prices after dinner, it was a ghost town. :yoiks:

[Captiosus]

15. Oh, look, ANOTHER "trickle down", it's everyone's fault threads.

Consumerism is a problem and there will be time for a hearty debate on the virtues and vices of consumerism, including the fact that many people do live beyond their means or use products wastefully (my wife has a notorious cell phone addiction, I have a bag of cell phones she's "upgraded"); However, to tie said debate to the current economic state is disingenuous at best.

If this economic implosion was centered around consumer debt, not investment bank debt, this would be a valid discussion. At best consumer debt is on the periphery of this problem (eg. people who got mortgages and then exploited the credit rating boost and got more credit they also couldn't pay back), but not at the heart of it. The mortgage/credit default swap swindle is the middle of this problem and affects people regardless of their responsibility - or lack thereof - with their credit.

Take this all one step at a time.

Address the failures of the Mortgage/CDS problem. Then we can tackle consumerism and the consumer debt ratio problem before it goes bust and we're going through this all over again.

[fizzgig]

16. mend your clothes rather than buying new ones

raid your closets for things that no longer fit or no longer wear and give them to friends...that's how i've gotten a lot of my clothes over the past few years

[ashleigh4dem]

18. To global1

You are complaining about how people are still spending and
this and that, yet you mentioned that you had to wait 25
minutes at a restaurant.  Well why are you eating out?  

[The 12th Guru]

21. lets go back to wagons and plantations 2 clown

Deregulating the Gordon Gecko's of the world
Lowering taxes during a War
Ridiculous wasteful government spending (bridge to nowhere)
Piling up huge debt which means big debt service
No real incentives for companies to keep jobs here
Lack of funding for schools, after school programs for kids
etc. etc.

emptying our tax dollars to nation build iraq when it has a surplus of 79 billion, and using our army to keep oil execs safe in the green zone and the fields open to drill, so those companies can make record level profits on the surcharge created by the war making the region instable. Lobbyists controlling our politicians like puppets, using our military to invade a sovereign nation and open their oil wells for corporate interests at the cost of a trillion dollars. Not allowing canadian drug companies to sell us cheaper prescriptions and lower our health care costs.

If we had honest transparent government, we would have never had this economic disaster in the first place because regulation would of still existed and we would have the money to fix the nations health care crisis, fix up our infrastructure, provide real post 9.11 security, and an education system that is still competitive with the rest of the world.

This last 8 years has been an unmitigated financial disaster for the average american due to arrogance, stupidity and greed.