In chi.general wrote:

: Bob F wrote:
: wrote in message
: ps.com...
:
: wrote:
: We have spent a lifetime of throwing americans out of work, every time
: we buy imported goods.......... the wages of china etc are no where
: ours.
:
: this year china begins exporting a economy car. $7000 10 year 100,000
: mile warranty.
:
: the american standard of living will HAVE to drop at some point we
: just arent affordable workers anymore.........
:
:
:
: Of course there is another aspect of this that you completely overlook.
: And that is the great benefit of people being able to buy that car for
: $7000. All the folks who complain about jobs lost to lower cost
: labor completely ignore the fact that everyone is also receiving a huge
: positive benefit from this. This is especially true of lower income
: families. If they had to pay 2X for everything they buy at Walmart and
: everywhere else, it's not clear that they would be any better off.
:
:
: And that $7000 mostly leaves the country - resulting in no benefit
: to the economy here, or negative benefit due to the trade deficit.
: As the chinese buy up our country with that money, the American
: economy will continue to collapse, until this is a third world nation.

: Continue to collapse? See, this is what I'm talking about. Talk
: about only looking at only the negatives. The unemployment rate is at
: 4.4%. That is well below the average of the past 40 years (6.0%), the
: 90's (5.8%), and below levels that are considered full employment.
: Over the last 3 years, GDP has grown at a 3.5% rate, which is faster
: than either the 80's or 90's. Inflation is under control and interest
: rates are low. Real estate prices are at record levels, the Dow has
: just made a new all time high, and more Americans own homes than ever
: before.

A number of the people I know that were laid off between 2001 and 2004 have
taken new jobs that pay 50% to 75% of what they used to earn... One is a
mechanical engineer who has given up and long ago ran out of unemployment
insurance so he's no longer counted... one who was a bank vp has opened his
own financial planning business but he said aside from tax season, he doesn't
make enough to support his family (his house is paid off though), both are
dependant on their wives working for the moment.

One who had been a software engineer took a job selling yellowbook ad's...

: If that's a continuing collapse, I want more of it!

Sadly... the housing industry isn't doing so well anymore... my mother-in-law
is a realtor and the place she works for did a new listing near us... I asked
how come there was no sign up on the house and she told me they were out of
signs. She says that has never happened before... The housing market has
stopped... the rehabbers who own the house next to me have been lowering
the price by $10k every few weeks and are 50k below what they started asking
and we haven't seen anyone look at the house now in a few weeks...

: Had that money remained here, it would have resulted in more
: purchases from those that earned it. Repeat as needed.
: Short term thinking in a long term world.

Deflation is a bad thing... if home prices fall, some people will be forced
out and be negative in their homes... (lots of people were buying 0% down)...

It could turn out very bad if people who took home equity loans to pay off
bills find themselves owing more on their homes than they are worth...


--
John Nelson
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