At stagnate to less take home pay...or no pay! What do you think is going to happen?

Increase cost of education = less graduates = less innovation = less productivity.

Increase cost of food = less food consumption = less physical energy = less productivity = poor health = no health insurance = adding to the national debt.

Increase cost in energy = more shut offs = poor health (and potential death) = no health insurance = health care needs = adding to the national debt.

Increase cost of other items such as auto insurance = less people being able to afford it = more uninsured accidents = no health insurance = increasing the national debt.

Increase cost of healthcare = less people covered = more cost to the health care = increasing the national debt to cover those that don’t have it = wider vector of disease outbreaks and deaths for those that don’t get treated which will cripple the nation and the global economy if our government don’t get a handle on providing adequate and affordable healthcare for all of its citizens.

What amazes me is the greedy thinks this paper money is going to somehow save them when it really matters. And the right call themselves god loving religious people. lol

Hypocrites!

You have been warned!

Just like the rest of us American's Dan. We sit and save, we have all learned to live with so little now we can now live in the desert and do better.

The problem is: The big companies can afford (for the most part that is) to gamble and hire. Mr. & Mrs. Average American Citizen who are barely getting by, or worst yet losing everything they have, can not gamble and certainly can not spend what they do not have.

I still say that if our Federal Government would give the Average American Citizen/worker making under $150K a year or for a family under $250K a year $500,000 tax free, the problem with our economy would soon fix itself. People could pay off their houses for the most part, or have a new house built. Housing problem fixed and construction workers would be hired to build the new homes. People would/could buy new cars (put a stipulation that they are American made cars ONLY). The problem that GM and Chrysler are having would probable be fixed and even Ford would get a boost. More demand for new cars more people needed to build them and the parts needed to build them. More money to buy food, get medial, dental and optical needs taken care of, more demand there as well. Instead of the trickle down effect it would be the tickle up effect as money comes back into the various state and local economy's via sales taxes, income taxes from the new jobs and property taxes from the paid off or newly built homes.

Perhaps it's not be best plan, but they haven't tried it yet and what they are doing isn't working!

The problem is that since we are a free country or supposed to be. We can buy from whomever we want even to the detriment of our own well being. Remember in the 80's Fisher and some other American stereo companies lost ground to stereos like Sansui or some other Asian product, Well that loses jobs here.

Everything is going this route it is hard for the U.S. to 1 compete with China manipulating its currency, And keeping its people working for pennies on the dollar. Yet we buy all that crap from them. So much for consumer power now. They are a a communist country taking advantage of our Capitalist society.

Try getting the Average American fired up about that to the point of boycotting anything from China. It wont happen! So here we are stuck buying cheap products. From another country with no jobs here. Our currency in on the brink of failure. Anything I can buy used is one dollar less going to China. And one more dollar going to an American.

I boycott Chinese products whenever I can find the teeny weeny bikini logo "Made In China" buried a distance from the General Electric's "GE" (one example) symbol. Two reasons; I am into Made In U.S.A. just because we make things better, and also, I prefer to keep the home fires burning.

And really, if organizations like Wal-Mart would use their considerable marketing skills and get rid of all that poor quality stuff made elsewhere, and STILL provide discounts based on the huge quantity they can still sell, for gosh sakes, we would all be buying more I think.

Time we buy American. Let the profit margins become more reasonable, and let the consumers spend more... and they will (in my opinion). You just cannot criticize anyone who has been laid off his job for spending less.

Earning one's way is America's way. And we have never done badly with that idea.

This isn't a economic "standoff" - this is about no jobs = no money = no disposable income - no home sales = nada! How long are these phoney articles going to keep being produced? This country is in a recession, headed for a major depression!

MtMike...NO...It's about corporate greed. The more you make, the more they take. The more they take, the more they want. It's that simple.

They want your money whether or not it bankrupts you. This is what comes of allowing CEOs and upper management to earn obscene salaries. Now, a million a year isn't enough.

It shows real signs of utter stupidity for employers to expect people to spend what they don't have. Fine. Don't hire. People can finds jobs if they are willing to cross the street to a different type of work. It can be done...been there. Done that.

This one is different.

I agree this one is way different. I talk and LISTEN to my grandfather allot. He remembers when it was real bad depression era war ration stuff.

When I ask if this is a recession or depression he says depression for sure. He told me a story on how he helped to feed the family. He was a little kid in the 30's. There was a electric moter rewinding guy in town. The guy told my grandpa he could keep the shavings on the ground if he kept the place clean.

My gramps would sweep and save the copper shavings from the floor. Then sell them to another guy that would melt it and resell it. It helped the family eat. He said allot of people think they have it hard but in the next few years it will get worse.

I asked why. His Answer was just wait for the commercial bubble to hit. Have you seen all the empty buildings for lease. Once that one hits and the banks fail again the bailout wont help enough. And people will get even more scared. When the local stores are all closed. People panic and hoard any money they have.

Guess whats happening now

Peter17...Look, there's greed and then, there's addictive, obsessive, obscene greed. The first is controllable on an individual basis. The second destroys the economic stability of an entire country.

If greed is not wiped out, there will be no recovery except to an oligarchy government of the rich, for the rich and by the rich. Then, this country will be ripe for revolution by the masses who have been done in by greed.

I think in the past (French Revolution), the people had the upper hand because of thier overpowering numbers. We have the numbers, but that has now been rendered moot because of technology. If people tried to revolt now they would be easily beaten by the all powerful state. I see feudalism in the future. The rich will basically own the poor and they will have technology to make it impossible to ever change it. There will be robots to watch everything you do and kill you if neccessary instantly. Basically Orwell had it right.

Got that right, big business has our Congress and judges in their pocket and then most go run down to Wal Marts and others and buy foreign made products to help China. No wonder they give us loans, without the loans their economy goes down the tubes. Nafta was a farce for multinationals from the beginning. I knew this day was coming. Without private jobs, the stimulus can only help so long, Private and stimulus money would have worked for our recovery but the system we have now has hurt many in manufacturing. Service jobs and outsourcing is not my idea of good job pay. The young kids have work in the technology computer or communications field but even that is drying up.

Wiliam Zaffer...Look at the the problem at its core: People who feel entitled to obscene salaries. The rich don't get rich by the sweat of their brow anymore...Maybe there are a handful who do. The rich get that way by skanking their employees at every turn. Then, they wonder why no one respects them. These employers won't hire until they know whether they can pocket more money when a healthcare bill is passed alleviating them of this responsibility.

Until salaries at the top are reduced, there will continue to be healthcare for the rich while the poor die from lack of care. It infuriates me to watch the Republicans demand that Obama start all over again with a health care plan..This is the Grand Mal Republican Stall. The Republicans will do anything and everything to stall so that Main Street does without.

Take away the healthcare of these Republican Senators who get it from taxpayers until they get the message.

Know how you feel. There isn't one rethuglicant I trust either. They're a bunch of hypocrits. Family value party but can't keep their pants zipped. Startd a war that had the country united behind them but that wasn't good enough for them so they started another and now we see the results of the first one.

Hate to tell you this folks but it's going to take a lot longer than one year to clean up the mess the former administration left this country in.

You may not trust him, but he's right.

former democrat...Are you willing to lay blame where it belongs? Or do you just want to continue Republican nitpicking? Roll up your sleeves, get your brain in gear and do something as a Republican that represents forward movement out of this mess.

At present, all Republicans are doing is obstructing progress and they know exactly why...their special interest cronies campaign donations are at stake.

You are absolutely wrong on your assumption. Giving tax breaks to 70% of the wealthy that are already rich and do not produce anything will not work. Companies hire when more demand and not due to a tax break when such unemployment. Backwards assumption. An increase in the marginal tax on the rich back up to 38% is needed to pay for the oil caused war in the Middle East that will drag on for years. Oh, send the rich kids, their turn. Such poverty and millions of people will just replace anyone we kill. Christ we want to rebuild Afgan while our country weakens. What a catch 22. I am to the point almost nuke them since we cannot afford this much longer in today's borrowing. We have to create demand from a middle class to spend and paying $7.00 an hour for the #1 employer does not increase demand. Jobs with decency and a good wage helps if we have more American made products creating jobs plus helps our tax base. What we have in place today is a disaster and may get worse.

Flex...If you check with the latest banking status, you'll find that all of those banks that received either TARP or ARRA stimulus are BIG banks who are operating at profits. It's the small home town banks that are suffering most. Don't use a big bank. Patronize only the small local banks.

WZ:

Read what I wrote, did I say anything about personal income taxes? I could give a rats ass about the "rich". You can tax them 100% and it won't do anything for the deficit but maybe keep the massive US government going for a few months. I suggest you stop looking in the "rich" pockets - they do not make the world go round.

If you read my post I am talking Corporate Income taxes, about EMPLOYERS, BUSINESSES, yeah institutions that hire people besides the government. We have the highest corporate income tax rates in the world, which leaves US employers less competitive. Cut the corporate taxes and they have more cash to invest and hire people. Cut the capital gains tax there is more investment in US employers. Can you say EMPLOYERS?

Econ 101.

Ewent: Who said anything about TARP? All I said is more debt is not the answer thats what got us in this mess to begin with. Companies will borrow and large/small banks will lend when there is real growth in demand for products, when consumers have the confidence to buy because they see their neighbors getting a job again by those employers that had their income taxes cut by the next US Congress.

Good Point,CVA !!! The economy is Inherently UNSTABLE due to the High DEPENDENCY on Consumers(70%+) to Spend Money they Haven't got Anymore !!!

Without the consumer there is no economy. Any idiot can tell you that consumers drive the economy. Why would a company manufacture a product if there is no demand for it? This isn't rocket surgery folks.

Back in the 1970's all the unions in this country tried to fight free trade. We were all labled as unamerican. Almost all the manufacturing jobs I have had in 50 years of working are now offshore. You can blame unions or anyone you wish but 70% of these jobs were not union. They did not pay all that well either. Another thing I know because I have seen it first hand is the goverment CAN NOT create jobs. Unfortunately we have a service economy now. Most people are now doing without services. They have cut to the bone on any spending. I do not have any answers but I do know this will have to work it's own way out. If it helps any between 1980 and 1984, I had 7 different jobs and was unemployed for about 18 to 24 months of that time. Wages also dropped during that time, too. It took a good four or five years to get back to where we were. I remember this time because we had kids and we were so scared.

Good points, I agree. Consumer spending cannot sustain the economy, obviously, nor should it.

NH Tom-896720 - What is rocket surgery? That's funny! I'd like to use that with your permission.

It's a term we used in manufacturing missile systems. A combination of rocket science and brain surgery you get rocket surgery. We were all rocket scientists, but when we had a real tough problem we called in the rocket surgeons.

Exactly, why on Earth did we let the manufacturing jobs go overseas? Consumer spending isn't going to get high enough (understament the reverse will occur) to bring the U.S out of this calamity.

It's the same thing as the guy saying repeatedly ," cut off their nose despite their face," a little bit of dyslexia or more commonly known as a brain fart.

The article was worthless. Most of the opinion writers know the real deal. The people that have been laid off for a couple of years realize that there are few good paying jobs out there. The guy making $10,000 part time scrubbing toilets while paying $2,500 property taxes and eating one meal a day is the King of the Posters today.

The system is broken and will not repair itself without drastic changes. We can all lay blame on the politicians, unions, illegal aliens, NAFTA, corporations, greed, Wall Street, Bankers, Doctors, Lawyers, and on and on. Everyone gets a part of the blame and it will take everyone to fix the problem.

If you have read any of my previous postings I will not bore you on my ideas for the solutions. I will suggest you work on situations that you do have control over and help your family and neighbors out.

The jobs went overseas to avoid environmental regulation, high paying union jobs, High capital gains taxes, I could go on and on but basically government interference and the enviro wackos are why.

Come back to Nafta also and bring more good paying jobs here by having import taxes if China does not go along. Of course they will cut off our borrowing so we put ourselves in a hole.

Dave844...Wrong. The jobs went overseas for a more diabolical reason: To lower the increasing American workers salaries. Cheap labor is the real reason. How does environmental regulations play into the fact that most customer service, accounting and technical service jobs are offshored?

Besides, the red states have such a disasterous record of lax environmental regulations that most northern manufacturing has gone south.

It is far easier to lower American standards of living than to bring the world up to ours. Lower ours and companies get more profit. That is all they care about----the Almighty dollar.

Sad isn't it? In addition if one can pay the mere neccesities it is an accomplishment as income does not even cover the very basics anymore and add to that any debt the household carries. Ships are sinking and it is sad. It was predicted, we were warned not that makes me feel any less sorry for people.

No they do not feel confident but this would be the case no matter who the president is. Presidents aren't magicians or Gods. I'll never understand blaming obama for crap that began years ago back when he was in high school.

Obama is a Radical Progressive for your information!

Job Seeker..Put the blame on chief decision makers - employers and the corporate raiders who helped themselves to lifestyle they were never entitled to. Sorry, but the government doesn't make corporate decisions. The Corporate raiders would never allow that.

No American CEO needs to earn 578 times what he pays his lowest worker. Until the sanity is restored and the greed is ended, this country will continue to see bread and milk spiral in cost.

Oh don't be so foolish. Of course this administration knows what's going on. This is the way they want it. When people feel so hopeless, so futureless, so desperate...........they will do anything the government tells them to. They collaspethe entire system to get their agenda on track.

FWBrombergir...Every employer knows from the moment he creates a job description that he places an employment ad for what the salary will be and what the per employee healthcare insurance costs will be. Get a clue.

Employers got greedy. They take more out of their companies then they are willing to put back in. That's the disposable mentality out there right now. They don't care if they put 11 million Americans out of work so long as they get that million dollar bonus. That's what is wrong with this country.

http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/home.aspx

The bulk of the stimulus went to tax breaks for nearly all Americans. Chances are, nearly everyone here got extra money in their pockets thanks to the stimulus. Another large portion went to the individual states, to avoid massive layoffs of state employees and possibly bankruptcy.

It went to cities and states to keep government workers, teachers etc. employed. They don't produce products that contribute to the gnp. They do produce votes. Bribes on a large scale.

The Fed's threw a great deal of it into the Stock Market..........that's why all of a sudden boom it went up and up and up...........

Clotho...That's the real problem with government...Civil Service employment codes that keep workers in jobs long past their shelf-life or the more ridiculous practice of terminal employment...early retirement on a six-figure salary to chiefs of police and others in municipal, county or state jobs.

Except for those who serve in the military, there is no real need for Civil Service for anyone who works for the government. It's an antiquated practice that leads to more costly abuses than anything in private industry.

Civil Servants often piggyback 2 or 3 part-time jobs and collect coverage for pensions and healthcare for all three. That's nuts. As for allowing the bankrolling of sick time for more than 12 months, that's the biggest reason for towns and cities going bankrupt. End Civil Service to all but the military now.

Actually I know three fairly good standing business that will not hire right now because cap and trade will kill them. The goverment has no business getting in the middle of business. PS Obama has alot to do with it as he could min had mandatd when he gave GE that 1.2 billion for wind that at least they should had been mandated to produce the product in the US.

Thank you.

JakeJ...Cap and Trade should kill them then. If that's the only way they can earn their keep ...selling American goods to countries that can't afford our exports? Give me a break. American goods cost more and few countries have the financial clout the US has.

We need cap and trade or the corporate raiders will continue to sell off American jobs.

Explain that, please

Jake J...Most small businesses have nothing to do with cap and trade. It's big corporate raiders who want limitless trade agreements. Bush put two through while in office: SAFTA and CAFTA.

Since I worked for an international corporation in the late 1980's, I saw firsthand what happens to American exports when the instability of a country's financial and banking sectors go down. And they do crash on a regular basis in Central and South America as well as Mexico. The only reason Mexico has not had a financial crash since the late 1970's is that the US has been propping Mexico's economy and because of the Mexican drug cartel.

Most employers are finding out its easier to move their business out of the country or close.

Last one out of America, Turn Off the Lights!!!

JakeJ...Well Good...let them move out of the country. Who needs a bunch of disloyal Americans only in it for the money they can take out of the country?

Once Americans get the idea that they can become their own independent entrepreneurs on the smallest levels, no one will miss El Biggo Corporato.

And I know I will love watching them try to skank those billion dollar salaries out of foreign countries. As far as I'm concerned...good riddance and don't let the door hit them in the ass on their way out of this country.

No they are also selling over seas. Your corperations profits are based alot by over seas purchase unless your a small business then its local. Problem is most people don't buy local they like that walmart/sams club experience.

JakeJ..Most people are finding that they can get just as good a deal from their local Mom and Pop shops as they would from Walmart.

Walmart has the old fashioned idea that it can sell cheap to people who don't have much. Similar to the late 1940's and 50's when miners gave back an entire paycheck to the company store.

I never buy anything from Walmart. This is a company that has no real respect for its workers.

So when they leave the country who do you think is going to hire?

I think we'll pick up the pieces, and work ourselves, and in a sense hire ourselves.

U.S. income gap widens, richest share hits record:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1241503820071012

I have seen articles estimating the richest one percent of Americans own forty percent of the financial assets. Other articles place the financial assets higher, all the way up to 70 percent. And need I remind anyone about the international court case where hundreds of US super rich were discovered having tax evasion bank accounts at the Swiss Bank, UBS.

So is it really up to all of the rest of us peasants to take on all the hardship while the old hog snout in the trough attitude goes on? That would be a typical rich person's attitude that the workers just have to take on the hardship while they still live in multiple mansions, have a large staff of servants, a fleet of stretch limos, yachts, private jets, etc....

Top 10% now pay 70% of the tax burden. Maybe we are carrying to much dead weight on the bottom end.

James Zander, you have spoken like someone who has never created for himself, thought for himself, or worked for himself. Corporate Americans who design new products, register patents, and watch their debt load are what sustains the economy. Why be dependent on someone else for your livelihood? I am with Jake, when they all leave (and why should they be loyal to a country that effectively punishes them for being great producers) who else is going to hire? Are you willing to move to another country for another job and paycheck? If people lived within their means and maintained savings accounts, we wouldn't be in this stupid mess anyway!

SawyerMom...Most people DO live within their means. Most Americans are fed up with the constant price increases that continue to make deeper and deeper cuts into their paychecks. There's no real reason why any product or service has to have more than 2 prices increases in a 12-month time frame. That's the kind of greed that is costing too many Americans their futures.

The cost of healthcare in this country is obscene and it wasn't that way until HMOs took over. Now, we've got a system where taxpayers fund the pensions and benefits for Civil Service employees AND can't even afford their own healthcare. Don't ask me to pay for someone else's pensions and healthcare when they don't contribute to mine.

That is what I mean ewent. Why should we tax corporations more so that we can pay to fund these pensions and health care plans? It is not the corps fault that prices increase. Sure, we can blame it on greed, but then it is the people who buy those products that tolerate that greed. Greed starts in the heart and expands at will where allowed to.

Liek Russia did that was how they ran everything. Including your grocery store.

No country can sustain 1.5 Trillion$ deficits.Interest rates are artificially low right now;when they go up MR"TAXPAYER is gonna choke.

Yep the Federal reserve holds the largest % of the US debt. We are in trouble.

To the few remaining American Indians, you get the last laugh.

America, you reap what you sow!!!!

The American Indians lost their lives, their homes, their country and you people are whining, complaining, blaming and moaning because you've lost your job, your McMansion, your SUV, your bright shiny gadgets, your ability to get credit and your savings. TOUGH!!! I for one don't feel sorry for any of you!!!

What???!!! You actually thought that just because the fat cat CEOs share YOUR complexion that they were going to look out for YOU????!!! HA!!!! They took EVERYTHING the American Indians had, took everything from the African slaves and now they've taken everything they can get from the "American" workers(and the few remaining American workers are being worked to death) and they've gone off to China, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia, etc., to keep lining their pockets while keeping expenses at a bare minimum. Now, Americans are screaming about working for "slave" wages. What comes around goes around!!

But, hey!!! Don't fret, you're legal descendants of immigrants, it's just that YOUR jobs have "immigrated" elsewhere!!!

PeacePipe....anyone?????!!!!

Isabella you do a really good job of talking outta your ass.

You are more optomistic than myself, I see widespread pandemic poverty when the bell tolls.

Cap and trade a small business killer if there ever was one.

This is not Obama's fault. The stimulus and all of the measures being taken to try to keep a sinking ship from going down were constructed by some of the most brilliant minds from all over. This think tank has been applauded by many respected people including Bill Gates.