Is Economic Collapse Already Here?

[VIP3R 237]

Locally the average wage is about $700 per week for a family. Yet the average home price is $530k. Things don’t add up very well.

[26 Inf]

And when interest rates rise and debt coverage gets more expensive and housing prices get under pressure. We don’t have the same problems as Greece, but when interest rates go up, servicing all the debt is going to squeeze things hard in the budget.

I try to live in my means, but the other side looks at all the idiots- too many idiots- and the whole thing is going to tumble at some point because of too many bad choices.

The availability of easy credit makes it too easy to live beyond your means. When I was first married gas credit cards were about all average folks had and they had to be paid off every month. My wife and I scrimped for nearly 6 months to buy a 100.00 television. No way I would do that today, I'd just put it on a card. The easy credit thing is one of the causes of ruination in our society. WE have become a nation of impatient folks, not willing to work to achieve.

You mention living within your means. I've owned six homes. None of them cost near what we were approved for. I'm not a financial genius but even I could see I wasn't going to be able to go skiing or have any toys if I was on the hook for that much of my paycheck for a mortgage. The realtors work on commission, it is not in their best interest to put you in a lower priced home. For the most part mortgages were packaged and sold, not much incentive for the original lender to ensure you could pay over the long run. You have to rein yourself in, no one else is likely to do so until you are in way over your head.

Why should I keep capital when it will be taxed or taken, while all the idiots spent theirs.

Retirement, plain and simple. Put your money in tax-free and let it build.

We need capital to take less and employment income to take more of the economic pie. The money changers take far too much.

The reality is that our economy is a house of cards. As you said, we have too many folks making money by moving the idea of money around. People such as us, who save and invest, often in mutual funds, enable the system to continue. At some point it is going to come tumbling down.

I'm a Christian. I believe the God who created the Earth, and Man, ensures that the Earth provides the abundance to support us all, if we practice good stewardship.

Even if you don't believe as I do, the reality is that the world's agricultural output is sufficient to feed us all. Yet we have folks starving, in all parts of the world, while wheat lays on the ground in Kansas.

Why is that? Simple answer, greed. Got to have more.

[RetroRevolver77]

There is going to be a financial collapse on a biblical scale. I have zero doubt about it.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

[Moose-Knuckle]

Perform a search on YouTube for words like "L.A. third world", "homeless in CA", etc.

You think you were watching a NatGeo documentary about somewhere overseas ...

[Straight Shooter]

MANY years ago..around about 1976 or so, I was introduced to the idea of SHTF, survivalism & economic collapse via reading articles in several publications, & by a man named Al Mar, of knifemaking fame. Al was a survivalist and I clearly remember when I first heard of, and realized something like this was even a possibility, well it set me off on a lifelong path of firearms, hunting, fishing, trapping, learning the "old ways"..FOXFIRE books were and are a treasure...and was a huge factor in my joining the Marine Corps infantry in '83. There has NEVER been a time since, where the Wolf wasnt at the door, where people werent trying to ban guns, hunting, the 2A and so forth.
NEVER been a time where the American economy, much less the world's, couldnt collapse OVERNIGHT given the right set of events or circumstances.
I truly, truly believe that at one time..70's & 80's and back..that a handful of people ran the worlds economies. Now, I think its so many, none of whom are on the same page, that they will bump heads soon enough. I see countries like Iran & N. Korea & Syria who back then didnt even have modern conveniences, who were still almost medieval, who now daily give the finger to America and its ally's. There were JOKES back then. They AINT NOW. They were allowed to become what they are now,thru passing the buck.
Gents- for those of you who are young..who dont know history, who havent been around to LIVE THROUGH all the shit thats happened in the past 30 years or so..you dont know how things were, and how bad theyve gotten. I got out of high school in '83..this world..this country..is UNRECOGNIZABLE to me from what it was then. Far too much to explain here & now. You older gents know EXACTLY what Im talking about.
So, I say all this..to say this: YES, THE WOLF !!IS!! AT THE DOOR- ALWAYS HAS BEEN, ALWAYS WILL BE. PREPARE, NOW. STAY THAT WAY. But the single, solitary thing..if I had to pick just ONE THING I ever did to prepare for...whatever comes..is I took JESUS CHRIST as my personal Lord & Savior.
Now, ..I couldnt care less whats coming, because I KNOW HE is in command..and I KNOW what happens to me when I punch out.
That MY view, & you can do with it what you will.

[26 Inf]

I read this the other day. IMO, Brill is a good researcher and puts together good stuff for the common man, although he is a little left leaning his facts are, IMO straight.

I imagine this will get some of your pants in a wad. I'd always thought this was what McCain-Feingold was trying to prevent and what Citizens United actually accomplished.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter which tribe you ID with, if you aint rich enough, your f@cked.

http://time.com/5280446/baby-boomer-...a-steve-brill/

[BrigandTwoFour]

This. I’m industrial. We have two open positions, got about 50 resumes, 24 call backs, 6 showed up for competence testing and 4 passed. People just dont want jobs in this area- or they are “too good” for a certain wage. I hear that often from my fellow millenials.


How old are you? Millenial is a huge range, but ive had zero issues. Im 30 and had a cc since i was 18 or so. Have you tried a devit card to start?

I'm a Millenial, though part of the earlier "Oregon Trail" generation. Likewise, never had issue with credit. Have bought two houses and a few cars, never an issue with getting a card.

Regarding the part I bolded, about the types of jobs and pay people are willing to take. I think it's a combination of both. No skills, don't want something that lacks prestige, or the pay isn't enough to cover the debt on their useless degree (so their parents will keep paying the loan until a "real job" comes along)

[Hmac]

We as a country are in debt about $22 trillion. I don't know the extent to which economic collapse is happening at present, but given the lack of restraint in government spending and increasing world tensions, it's certainly obvious that economic collapse is inevitable.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

[THCDDM4]

Every economy is basically being artificially propped up at this point so that every last cent of wealth that can be stolen from folks in first world countries can be chiseled at and ground down before the inevitable total crash.

The only reason it hasn't all fallen apart is because there is still more wealth to milk and too many privately owned arms here in the USA.

The writing has been on the wall for quite some time.

[Double3]

I’m a millennial, who has tried to buy a car on multiple occasions, I cannot get approved to save my life. Despite a good income, and the up until recently no dept or other bills, yet I had no problem buying a new house at 2% fixed interest.

I also have never been able to get a credit card.

It’s hard for us, most my friends are in the same spot, we make our money and no one’s willing to help us out so I see a lot of my friends go out and do dumb shit with their cash because they can’t invest it where it counts.

Why is that?

Never had a problem since I was young. Always had great credit.