HarmonicaBruce said:
Why not?
In what way?
I claim the economy has never been better. We grow far more food per acre than ever before in history, and we do it with virtually no manpower being involved. We produce everything we want and need with very little effort. These are good things.
All my life I assumed I would never collect a dime of social security. They're not going to stop paying social security. They've been talking about how social security is going to run out of money ever since I was a teenager. Ronald Reagan wanted to have future recipients start collecting a few months later, and the politicians were all over him about it.
Houses? You can buy a house in Detroit for less than a good suit. Medical care you say? Suppose I need a heart transplant, what am I going to do? Well what did your grandfather do? He died, that's what he did. Just 100 years ago the richest person in the world couldn't afford a heart transplant, because one had never been done.
So people, enjoy life. Listen to the immortal Bob Marley, and Budda, don't worry, be happy.
Not worrying and I'm definitely enjoying life. That doesn't mean one can't see the weak structure of a house beneath the well-painted veneer.
And SS DID run out of money, and had to borrow and make concessions. It's happened before and will happen again - to a greater degree.
Food grown with less manpower and a larger workforce means fewer jobs. All things are a balance.
We do NOT produce everything we want - we buy a great deal from overseas markets. Yearly we become more dependent on the global market and less self sufficient. We've already shifted from a manufacturing based economy to a service based economy.
Bruce, I think you only see what affects you personally, right now. Not a criticism. Just a perception. But everything - good or bad - has a consequence elsewhere. For profit, there must be loss. Interest rates affect borrowers and savers differently - the very movement of interest rates affects the dynamics of the economy. A gain here creates a loss there.
And most people don't realize how much they are affected by the ripples of a rock tossed in a part of the pool they can't see.
Not doomsaying - it's not the end of the economic world. Nothing to fret about - what happens happens. But to ignore a pothole in the road and suffer suspension damage when a little foresight would have let one miss the pothole completely...*shrug*
Pretending there's no potential problem by closing ones eyes and loudly singing 'Be Happy'...
Enjoy what's good to you, but don't deny the possibility of change. Everything shifts, changes, arcs like a pendulum, pivots like a teeter totter. Things WILL change, one direction or another.
Not mixing my metaphors, am I???
Oil prices will go up because oil producers want the highest possible profit. As soon as the Saudis are done playing their game with the Shia dominant producers, they will slow production and increase the price. Profit is profit.
Interest rates will rise because banks and people aren't making money on their savings and CDs. Everyone with a bank savings account is losing money to inflation every year - at a quick guess over 1.5% per annum. People will get tired of it. It s economic disaster for the Feds to maintain a zero prime rate. Since fixed returns are so low for banks, they're increasing fees for services to make up the difference.
There are other economic reasons based on market trends, but most people erroneously think if they don't invest in the market, the market doesn't affect them.
