September 16, 2008
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value
As of this week it’s no longer just the fringies who are seeing the potential or inevitability of financial collapse in the United States. The Fed isn’t bailing out Lehman (nor should it– just encourages risky behavior), AIG is set to go tits up any minute, and Washington Mutual (where I keep all of my 17 cents) has been rated as Junk.
I believe we are headed for the second Great Depression. Seriously. However, I’ve believed this for over a year now and I think I have come to terms with the fear. It will be bad, Bad with a capital B. And yet, This is Life. It’s the way the ball bounces, the cookie crumbles. Human fallibility will always operate this way, up/down/up/down. We’re not smart/savvy/selfless enough to operate any other way.
In the last year I’ve gone through the stages of grief for our economic stability. I think I am now in the acceptance stage. In the past week I’ve begun to notice that there are some positive effects (granted, if I can’t feed my children, it will become another outlook entirely– witness Maslow’s hierarchy).
Small pleasures I had taken for granted have become of great value to me. With affluence (of a type) I had lost the feeling of satiety from life. Seriously. Going out to eat was a given. Movies were a given. New shoes, a day trip, a hotel stay: nice, but expected. It was like an addiction. The thrill had to be bigger every day not to be met with boredom.
This weekend we went to a local football game. It was fun! Last week I went out to dinner with a friend, the first time in a month. It was novel! Instead of looking at the local movie schedule and thinking, pish, nothing all that great is playing, I’m excited thinking, wow, I’m saving my nine bucks till something I REALLY want to see is playing.
I cooked chicken and broccoli and ate in the dining room with my three kids. We played cards. It felt good.
Things are going to be Bad, but nothing is ever All Bad. There will be moments of joy. You know, until the aliens arrive and enslave us as their food source. Maybe even then.
Comments (24)
and oh yeah: sex is FREE! mostly.
Here’s what I dont understand.. cuz I know nothing of the finance world.. Why not turn over those adjustables to a fixed the people can afford, then they wont default? No answer required.. just flapping my gums.
Makes me nervous about WaMu. My biz is there. I lost my regular paid job recently due to downsizing.. that sucks. Now i have to work harder than ever to get my name out there to get business. Thankfully the wedding world isnt slowing down on using planners… just not spending as much..
yeah, I’ve been thinking the same thing. I do enjoy the simples things much more, as I did used to take so much for granted before. we didn’t use our A/C all summer (and it gets fucking hot here), and I realized that it wasn’t nearly as necessary as I thought it was.
@BeesKneesC -
yeah, you know I really don’t know. my thought would be that mortgage-holders who didn’t choose ARMs would be pissed enough to take their business elsewhere. but it really does make more sense.
@BeesKneesC -
and on further thought I imagine there is a majority of ARM holders who are making their increased payments and such a policy would cause them to discontinue doing so. some people choose an ARM as a calculated gamble (though many do so without proper advisement) that they will be more financial capable over time. to “bail out” those whose gamble did not pay off might propel more people to gamble. that is just not our current financial model, although it may become so as the picture darkens.
Yeah.. I dont know. I just think their has to be an answer out there somewhere. The banks are also at fault for allowing these people to get loans, they gambled on someone that they HOPED could make payments. I just think a compromise can be found.
it’s going to be bad…but I’m hopeful it won’t be a long time…
and take this as a small thought of the way I think: I don’t remember our economy being so badly in the shitter 8 years ago.
just a thought…
p.s. those lil grey bastards won’t take me without a fight =P
@jacksbrokenheart -
hell yes. a balanced fucking budget please! no more multi-billion-dollar debt!
@jacksbrokenheart -
and TOO LATE! we’re already in the Matrix; we just don’t know it yet. ::wink::
a great post…i totally am with you. when your economic circumstances change, the rational approach is to change lifestyle as well. we are much simpler now and have more energy and happy times because we spend a lot less time travelling to and fro.
[economic] Soylent Green is people [who work for a living]!
this was the topic of conversation with my friends in Seattle this weekend. They asked what I was doing to prepare for the economic meltdown. I shrugged and said “Continue living with my mommy and daddy?” ha. But it’s true.
The major problem with the financial issue is the stock market doesn’t make sense. Seriously. I’m not talking about it doesn’t make sense to me (it doesn’t) but it doesn’t make sense to the people who invest, and run the damn thing. And unless we let the feds (but who trusts THEM) take over and completely revamp the system and iron out all the missing stocks and what not; there’s really little to do until it implodes.
So if there is a way to fix some of these issues–it requires a dictator of sort, a money tsar, and I don’t think that’ll happen. I’ll be living in my parent’s basement and eating homemade from our stock of homemade dill pickles before that happens–not only because the feds themselves don’t know what to do with it exactly, but it goes against conventional wisdom, especially amongst conservatives (um, not eating of the dill pickles, but taking full control of wall st.)
But things like this put life in perspective, does it not? We’ve had it really, really good for far too long.
I do think we are heading for a second great depression. Sad, but maybe that is what America needs to put it in perspective.
@Fodon -
I feel the need to come out as unilaterally FOR dill pickles.
I’m going to go live with Fodon and eat dill pickles too.
I’ve been trying to convince myself that things will get better after the election…I am nothing if not eternally optimistic. In the mean time, I’m trying to pay off as much debt as possible and keeping both of my jobs in case one goes belly-up. I made a lot of cuts when when I moved out on my own but I also recognize that I could make a lot more if the need arises.
I can’t think of anything cool to say but I was here.
this was lovely. you are lovely for writing it xx
I just realized I wrote that I ate dinner with my THREE kids. yes, hm, only ate dinner with two of them. and YES, I remember the third one is on another continent!
Your third kid was there in spirit.
So. Things are gonna get bad? FOFLMAO!
Okay ok ok oh kay. Sorry. I was just being extraordinarily sarcastic.
There is a whole section of the middle class that’s going to feel this pinch like never before. And that gap between the haves and the have nots is going to get bigger. Those of us who never had anything, will have to struggle VEDDY hard to keep our nothing. Those of us who had a little something are going to use that little something … to keep afloat til’ that litto sumthin sumthin is gone and we’ll join the masses of those who ain’t got nuthin.
There are those who stay afloat through common sense and good planning. Huzzah for the few, the brave, the upper middle class. The rich will continue on as the musicians who played while the Titanic sank. They don’t care. Yanno?
Every day at work, I’m seeing it. People are shutting down their cards, doing massive balance transfers, and those who have resources are beginning to use those resources. It’s called “credit”. And the banks who once did a zero percent bt without the standard 3% bt fee aren’t doing it anymore.
Word — if you have the opportunity to do a zero % BT with a capped fee, do it now. NOW!!!! It ain’t ever gonna come back. It’s extinct.
‘nuf said.
thoughts become things!!!! don’t forget!
Just so you know, when the aliens land, I’m planning on selling half the human race into slavery. [I, for one, welcome our insect overlords.] I don’t much care if the aliens use em for labor or food or, y’know, living, breathing vibrators. Whatever. That’s their deal and if I’m selling them, they must deserve it. AAAANYway, never fear, you’re not going to be with the half that I sell. Once they’re gone, we’ll have the run of the place, right?
@RuthlessLogic -
can I be your lieutenant?
Certainly!!! Just *think* of the shit list we’ll devise….. MWWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAaaaa