Spyntek Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Man, a lot of info from one nights transcripts of Lou Dobbs "Well, if you think economic conditions are tougher than ever, you're exactly right. The middle class is being squeezed and squeezed hard. Christine Romans is here now with more disturbing news about shrinking American paychecks -- Christine. CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, Americans' purchasing power is faltering here. Real wage growth has turned negative for the first time since 1995 and it has deteriorated dramatically in the past year and a half, these numbers from Merrill Lynch, high gas prices and a weak jobs market delivering a one-two punch to consumers. Economist David Rosenberg says that pain at the pump has wiped out more than $20 billion of the coming $40 billion in tax refund checks. And nothing affects the consumer more than jobs, right? Merrill called jobs growth amazingly anemic. And for those with jobs, just like Lisa said, purchasing power further in jeopardy as benefit costs gets pushed back onto the worker, Lou, a tough situation for the American middle class. " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuka_t Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 we need a smiley like the one where the guy smashes a sign that says "spam" on it except have it say "bush." greedy piece of **** dumbass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isomer Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Man, a lot of info from one nights transcripts of Lou Dobbs well we now know what sort of folks watch his show... :rolleyes: "greedy piece of **** dumbass." :wacko: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spyntek Posted March 24, 2004 Author Share Posted March 24, 2004 well we now know what sort of folks watch his show... :rolleyes: "greedy piece of **** dumbass." :wacko: Yeah, the ones who live in the real world and actually care about the welfare of others, not just the welfare of one's own bank account Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isomer Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Yeah, the ones who live in the real world and actually care about the welfare of others, not just the welfare of one's own bank account no i was thinking more of immature people who believe in socialism, communis or marxism also people who believe that any news that is negative must be ture, and there are no doubts about it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spyntek Posted March 24, 2004 Author Share Posted March 24, 2004 no i was thinking more of immature people who believe in socialism, communis or marxismalso people who believe that any news that is negative must be ture, and there are no doubts about it The news I read and post is based on fact, and as far as immaturity goes, I believe that you are morally immature, or lacking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongit Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 The news I read and post is based on fact hah! given the right facts I could tell you that the moon is made of green cheese. Don't just say that it is based on facts. That doesn't mean it is true. I am not saying that what you posted is false, but I won't say it is true either. Just don't argue that because it is based on "facts" that it is true. You gotta know where the facts came from, if there are any facts counter the facts given, and the infernences drawn from the facts. Lacking any of those three and "facts" are no longer factual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spyntek Posted March 24, 2004 Author Share Posted March 24, 2004 hah! given the right facts I could tell you that the moon is made of green cheese. Don't just say that it is based on facts. That doesn't mean it is true. I am not saying that what you posted is false, but I won't say it is true either. Just don't argue that because it is based on "facts" that it is true. You gotta know where the facts came from, if there are any facts counter the facts given, and the infernences drawn from the facts. Lacking any of those three and "facts" are no longer factual. If you had bothered to read my post, you would see that this is what MERRYL LYNCH is reporting. Go ahead and call them liars. On top of that, economists are quoted as well. I look at the issue from ALL sides and from every angle and what I see is The US economy in a downward spiral. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linsook Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 the post by Spyntek of the transciprt from lou is al la reiteration of already said facts of poor jo growth. u can google "merril lynch on us job growth" and it'll turn up mroe than enough articles for you to read from respected sournces... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3beanlimit Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 no i was thinking more of immature people who believe in socialism, communis or marxismalso people who believe that any news that is negative must be ture, and there are no doubts about it In case you were not aware....Lou Dobbs is a Republican and untill lately, has been on the Bush bandwagon. :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongit Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 "Well, if you think economic conditions are tougher than ever, you're exactly right. The middle class is being squeezed and squeezed hard. Christine Romans is here now with more disturbing news about shrinking American paychecks -- Christine. CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, Americans' purchasing power is faltering here. Real wage growth has turned negative for the first time since 1995 and it has deteriorated dramatically in the past year and a half, these numbers from Merrill Lynch, high gas prices and a weak jobs market delivering a one-two punch to consumers. Economist David Rosenberg says that pain at the pump has wiped out more than $20 billion of the coming $40 billion in tax refund checks. And nothing affects the consumer more than jobs, right? Merrill called jobs growth amazingly anemic. And for those with jobs, just like Lisa said, purchasing power further in jeopardy as benefit costs gets pushed back onto the worker, Lou, a tough situation for the American middle class. " Alright nothing in this post is out of order or wrong. I am just going to say that this is merril lynch's interpretation of the facts. One could view it as middle class becoming more financially dominant and thus purchasing more stuff back before the deprecation of the wage growth. If the middle class had been more fiscally responsible then they wouldn't have any problems with wage growth lowering as they were prepared for it. Even now if the middle class become more fiscally responsible they wouldn't have a problem. The middle class has the urge to become like the upper class and buy "upper class" products. Further more the companies that produce "upper class" products are jumping on this fact and advertising their "upper class" products on the middle class. Take for example the Dodge commercial where the 2 lower class guys are looking at a middle class guy in his dodge truck wishing they had one. Middle class viewers want to be the guy in the truck and not the 2 guys in the fast food resturant. This is typical of class struggle in the middle class: they want to be better than the lower class. Following the dodge example the middle class would buy a rather expensive new truck that they don't need in order to seperate themselves from the lower class. This dodge truck is an example of an "upper class" product: it is expensive, but not required for day to day life. If the middle class wants a truck they would be better off buying a used dodge truck for half or less the price of the new one. The upper class has the advantage of having enough money to purchase a new truck, but the middle class doesn't and will have to take out a loan. Middle class workers should avoid taking out loans. Especially in the market today with the future uncertain. Another example is in the computer market. The newest games and products are mostly being developed for the newest computers. Therefore older computers become obsolete and the user needs to buy a new computer. However a new computer isn't necessary for day to day life. Do why do companies keep making newer and newer products and advertising their newer products? because there is a large market for them. The upper class are much to small to be the majority in this market. It is the middle class that buys most of the new computers. They buy the newer computers for pleasure. Pleasure isn't something that the middle class should be spending excessive amounts of money on. If the middle class would like to play video games they don't need the newest no matter how much hype it gets. Go to a local store that sells used software and get an older game that will run on your computer. In my opinion the middle class is mostly responsible for the squeeze that is theoretically being placed on them. If the middle class was more diligent in their financial affairs then they would have no squeeze on them. And as for a job market: the united states still has about the highest unemployment rate in the world. If the worker feels like he really needs a job then he can either move to where he can get a job or work for less. The job market is still strong, just people are refusing to work for less because they will have to change their lifestyle. This attitude will often lead to a forcible lifestyle change. You have to live with the economy not fight against it because you will almost never win. This was all my opinion. If you have something wrong with it tough. If you would like to intelligently discuss it I would be more than happy to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poind Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Most recent stuff I'd heard had been particularly related to middle-class getting hurt most with health care costs and what's happening. "Systems" seem to continue to protect the high and low extremes via various methods, but gosh darn, U.S. health care has *got* to be dealt with or else the U.S. is really going to be hurting in the long-run. It's really really shameful that such an "advanced" country still can't figure out basic health coverage stuff, in particular. Folk in the "middle class" can't qualify for the most basic, default health care coverage -- depending on situation, there can even be incentive to make less income to receive more health care. I'm not aware of stuff like this and incentives involved occurring in any other country, myself. [And I don't know that the U.S. is in an outright "downward spiral", but, best I can figure, it is still cleaning up a *lot* of mess from the 90s and still trying to recover from the consequences of all that happened (or got ignored and didn't happen) during that period. U.S. simply seems to be returning to a more "sober" baseline, bit-by-bit. There's been a *lot* that's happened in recent years across-the-board, and there's a lot still trying to establish what new foundations are and why.] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spyntek Posted March 24, 2004 Author Share Posted March 24, 2004 Alright nothing in this post is out of order or wrong. I am just going to say that this is merril lynch's interpretation of the facts. One could view it as middle class becoming more financially dominant and thus purchasing more stuff back before the deprecation of the wage growth. If the middle class had been more fiscally responsible then they wouldn't have any problems with wage growth lowering as they were prepared for it. Even now if the middle class become more fiscally responsible they wouldn't have a problem. The middle class has the urge to become like the upper class and buy "upper class" products. Further more the companies that produce "upper class" products are jumping on this fact and advertising their "upper class" products on the middle class. Take for example the Dodge commercial where the 2 lower class guys are looking at a middle class guy in his dodge truck wishing they had one. Middle class viewers want to be the guy in the truck and not the 2 guys in the fast food resturant. This is typical of class struggle in the middle class: they want to be better than the lower class. Following the dodge example the middle class would buy a rather expensive new truck that they don't need in order to seperate themselves from the lower class. This dodge truck is an example of an "upper class" product: it is expensive, but not required for day to day life. If the middle class wants a truck they would be better off buying a used dodge truck for half or less the price of the new one. The upper class has the advantage of having enough money to purchase a new truck, but the middle class doesn't and will have to take out a loan. Middle class workers should avoid taking out loans. Especially in the market today with the future uncertain. Another example is in the computer market. The newest games and products are mostly being developed for the newest computers. Therefore older computers become obsolete and the user needs to buy a new computer. However a new computer isn't necessary for day to day life. Do why do companies keep making newer and newer products and advertising their newer products? because there is a large market for them. The upper class are much to small to be the majority in this market. It is the middle class that buys most of the new computers. They buy the newer computers for pleasure. Pleasure isn't something that the middle class should be spending excessive amounts of money on. If the middle class would like to play video games they don't need the newest no matter how much hype it gets. Go to a local store that sells used software and get an older game that will run on your computer. In my opinion the middle class is mostly responsible for the squeeze that is theoretically being placed on them. If the middle class was more diligent in their financial affairs then they would have no squeeze on them. And as for a job market: the united states still has about the highest unemployment rate in the world. If the worker feels like he really needs a job then he can either move to where he can get a job or work for less. The job market is still strong, just people are refusing to work for less because they will have to change their lifestyle. This attitude will often lead to a forcible lifestyle change. You have to live with the economy not fight against it because you will almost never win.This was all my opinion. If you have something wrong with it tough. If you would like to intelligently discuss it I would be more than happy to. Yeah, go talk to a middle class family and you will hear a totally different viewpoint. You have no room to talk whatsoever. You act as though you know every middle class family and you base your allegations on assumptions. I base my allegations on facts. Did you take a poll or survey on every middle class american? You seem to know the spending habits of at least 75 million AMericans. It is a typical rich persons reponse to say that it is the spendign habits of another why they are being squeezed. You need to look at the rising costs of health care, rising costs of goods and services and a shrinking paycheck being delivered to middle class Americans, then you will see why the middle class is being squeezed. Plus, with off-shoring of jobs, it is becoming increasingly difficult to even stay in the middle class. BUt you knew that , RIGHT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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