HAHAHAHA!

Well people just dont blow money anymore,and a $100 dollars means alot. Everyone was conditioned to show it was ok to blow a hundred here and there, not anymore.

Increased efficiency can only go so far.  The main issue is that the economy is retracting.  We got addicted to a lifestyle level that could only be supported by super-cheap imported goods.  We're in trouble here, we need the entire country to re-think what they 'need' and accept that their previous lifestyle is a distant memory.

Time to return ro frugality, reuse and preservation of what we already have.

$100?  You can pay that just filling your tank.  The alternative is hitchiking, biking, or taking a bus.  And, um, if you have children, guess what?  Not a good plan.

The problem is that the US population is acting like a deer in the headlights. It's time to wake up, the stock market is in a downward spiral, and the media continues to overshadow the bad news...A typical example, last week the association of realtors announced that sell of new homes is back up, that thanks to uncle SAM and the stimulus package the average income for US citizens increased, that's just smoke mirrors tactics. Who do you think bought new homes lately, people with money! Not the average (middle class)citizen (the majority in the US, soon to be part of the third world). The US is the only country that is established on credit and not actual wealth.
The feds did a bad job, this country is addicted to fast, better, bigger things and easy money. I guess a young country like the US still has to make the big mistakes that other countries made in the past.

So much of our tax money is being spent in the wrong places, the war on the Iraqi people, the war on drugs (soon we will finance the war on drug in Mexico), already supporting the Columbian drug war, people in jail for minor offenses while child rapists and murderers walk the streets freely, major corporations getting away with rapping people's savings and on and on....

Come on people!wake up, or keep living this fantasy life that is turning into a real nightmare, maybe your credit card company will lower your APR by 0.5 % if you beg long enough.....

Cheers!

Commission based employment has been proven time and time again to be an ineffective compensation model. Incentives never can lead to more motivated and successful employees, it is a proven fact. A business blog promoting such behavior is just further promulgating this myth.

No plan will work if no one is spending money.  Who the heck buys a mattress when they are having to cut corners in other areas?  NO ONE.  You can have a plan as much as you want but like Mike Tyson (wingnut I know) used to say.. 'Everyone has a plan in the ring until they get punched in the face'.. that's what's happening to the average American.. we're all getting punched in the face by the economy and those who don't want to admit we're in a slump.  Like Momoney said above we're wasting money on things that can't be fixed.. legalize pot and rake in the cash like they do with tobacco.. why the heck is alcohol legal and pot isn't?  We'd make a killing.. especially since there are a gazillion legal medical marijuana patients.

We are ALREADY paying our employees a lot more than we did a few years ago.  The real estate runup has meant it is too expensive for people who work retail to live in this area and we have to pay enough that they are willing to commute.  Also, when times were good, we had to increase salaries to attract and retain employees.  Employee costs are up 37% over 5 years ago.    

Big business with the accomplice of lobbyists and congress have succeeded killing their own golden goose, the American middle class. Now what to do... flee to the globe only the globe was feeding on our economy... silly fools!!!

"Incentives never can lead to more motivated and successful employees, it is a proven fact."

CF, since it is a "proven fact", please provide a source for your "data".  I'm just guessing, and I could be wrong, but you do not have a source right?  Since when do incentives not motivate workers.  I am on a partly commissioned base salary, and I tend to be more positive, relaxed, and thus sell more when I do not have to worry about money.  If I am being rewarded ($ is only one way) I am a better worker, period.  I think you are wrong.

The falacy that ultimately limits the ability of the rich to grow ever richer is the idea that you can underpay workers and still enjoy ever growing profits.
After 9/11 Bush told Americans that we could defeat terrorism by going out and shopping which, being patriots, we have done with avengence. We have not only drained our bank accounts, we have also sucked the equity out of our homes, and run up high interest debt. With middle class real earnings stagnant or decreasing, there seems to be no answer except the wholly unAmerican concept of lowering our standard of living. Sales incentives may give some people an income boost, but only at the expense of others in the same business. Ultimately, we need to grow up, accept our consequences, and learn to live within our means. We must begin to recognize that some of our chosen leaders are quite willing to impoverish the rest of us if it enriches the already rich who fund their campaigns. Even they are deluded if they think this can go on forever.  

remember all of your comments come November.  85% of voters will do better under Obama's tax plan:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1031678,obamamccaintaxplans.article

while both candidates have decided not to address the deficit in their tax plans, Obama's deficit spending will be smaller by 1.2 trillion.  that's a lot of money.

it's time to change things back to the way they used to be.  in the 50's, corporations were putting up a much larger share of their profits in corporate taxes, and our economy was doing great.  now, they utilize tax loop-holes to hide profits overseas:

http://www.smartmoney.com/invisiblehand/index.cfm?story=20080125-corporate-tax-rate

in short, the screaming over the 39% fed/state tax rate on corporations is nonsense.  no matter what the tax rate is, corporations would find a way to dodge as much of it as possible.  why?  because the law allows them to.  it doesn't help that this Administration has helped businesses fleece Americans with de-regulatory measures, along with Supreme Court nomineees that have pushed the court to the right, undercutting worker's rights alongside a decidedly pro-business government.

When will we learn the lessons of history?  when the disparity of wealth between the poor and the wealthy increases, economies suffer.  we learned this during the industrial revolution, an era of pro-business, non-regulatory expansion that culminated in the Great Depression in 1929.  you cannot have perpetual, unlimited growth in any system.  it is illogical.  yet we as americans strive to continue to "fix" our economy so that it continues to expand.  when we reached our peak in the late 90's, NAFTA was created, allowing it to expand beyond its natural size.  now our manufacturing base has been sent overseas, and good-paying factory jobs have been replaced by low-paying service jobs.  college students are having a hell of a time finding employment, with many taking work outside their chosen field.  tuition rates have grown past the rate of inflation in the past decade.  de-regulation has allowed savings, loan and investment firms to literally ruin themselves by doling out sub-prime mortgages with flexible rates.  once again, we have completely forgotten the lessons of history:  government regulation of business is required in certain areas to keep the economy stable, specifically when it comes to corporate profits and banking institutions.  look what has happened when we stray from this path.  the same mistakes that led to the crash of 1929 are being made now.  why?  because people forget.

we currently live in a system that rewards wealth, not work.  it's time to put the emphasis back on working families, not Wall Street.  we need to recover our manufacturing base, and force our wealthiest citizens to give back to the economy that has made them prosperous.  we do this by:

a) repealing the bush tax cuts
b) cutting taxes on the working poor and middle class
c) increasing the SILLY capital gains tax of 15%
d) closing loopholes in the corporate tax code that allow corporations to hide their profits in off-shore tax shelters.
e) raising the social security payroll tax cap.

guess who has proposed all of these things?  

Obama in '08

Employee pay has gone down in several areas like manufacturing and IT and I am sure there are more. People are cutting back or in a lot of cases just cutting out non-essential spending.

It is time for businesses to cut all but essential spending. The trouble is, they will cut employees and not focus on the real problem, C-level/executive pay. The airlines want pilots to take a 10 million or so dollar collective pay cut in order to keep their jobs. I propose that the C-level folks take a 10 million dollar pay cut to save their jobs and leave the pilots and other staff alone. This industry is already in shambles and I truly believe a person who took an Economics for Dummies class and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express could run the airline industry better.

What people don't understand is that in a services based economy, a company's best and most valuable assests are the employees who directly interact with the customers. If you have good customer service and can provide value, you do ok during bad times and great during good times. If your customer facing employees are bad, your customers walk to better service or even worse, put away their money and do without.

When times are hard and you have to think about every cent you spend, you will go to a place that gives the best overall value and provides hassle free transactions.

Momoney, you are so on the money with your comment.  Just read the Ford and Toyota have a HUGE drop in sales from last month.  Who in their right mind has the gumption to buy any new vehicle now with fuel rocketing out of sight with no end in sight, jobs disappearing all around us, and people we all know unable to pay their mortgages due to resetting ARM’s and funky exotic loans crushing them.  Financing a vehicle is 4 or 5 years (where will gas be then?)  Our populace walked in to a quagmire of the worst sort.  There is a disconnect with the mainstream media and with the presidential candidates on what’s going on.  Those of us in middle or lower tax brackets can look around and see the fear in peoples eyes and hear the sound of the toilet starting to swirl in the toilet bowl.  

Work smart rather than hard, pick your opportunities, and your financial picture can improve even in these tough times. My wife and my household income has increased from $100K to more than $400K in the past four years. Not from investment earnings and not from luck, but by being smart.

What "mainstream media" are some of you people following that you feel is being positive??

You're out of your minds.  The "mainstream media" is in a FEEDING FRENZY of hyperbolic negativity which is feeding the doomsayers.  EVERY freaking story is "Great Depression 2.0" along with a CHORUS of comments from the internet equivalent of the idiot on the corner with the "end is nigh" sign weighing in to say how "AMERICA IS ASLEEP!!!"

Yes, the economy is going to go through a tough period of contraction, yes there will be casualties, but the reality is that they hystrionics you see from idiots on the net and from the vultures in the media arent even remotely connected to what is happening day to day.

What a spoiled and petulant society we are.  ALL of this BS complaining is 100% caused by GAS PRICES.  If gas were suddenly to drop back to $2/gallon all of the complaining would fade away and the media would go back to ghoulishly looking for the next DOOMSDAY story to capitalize on.

Call it what it is... People are spoiled and addicted to oil and irresponsible in their lifestyle and now they are in a panic EQUALLY as irrational as their unrestrained jubilation was 3 years ago.

I just bought a new mattress, btw.  PLENTY of people are still employed in the SAME damn job they were employed in last year and there are NO massive changes on the horizon.  I understand full well the realities of the current economic situation, but the pasasites who feed on misery and cant stop gleefully crowing about how we are in the Great Depression are infuriating.  And of course this being the internet (lunatic asylum), they get a MASS of eager supporters

Craig,  Please read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - you (and Obama) cannot tax your way to prosperity.  The blog author is spot on - you have to give people an incentive to be successful.  Higher taxes are not an incentive, and poor and middle class people do not give other people jobs.

paychecks are not keeping up with the high cost of living.  It is expensive even going to work anymore.  I switched to 10 hour days to save gas.  It is crazy.  80.00 used to feed the 2 of us from paycheck to paycheck comfortably and now it does not.

My company is offering bonuses too to their sales staff for new business and it is definitely working for me! I'm making more money than ever. Love being in sales, it's the only career where a Bachelor's degree can make you as much as a doctor.

I had a great paying job and a vast amount of money. I used to bring in a multi-million dollar salary every month. However, with the cost of living expenses increasing, and foolish spending, I find myself facing foreclosure with nobody to turn to....what were we talking about...oh yes, commission ...

It is apparent, unemployment is rapidly growing, thus, more and more laid-off or terminated workers are tightening their spending belt. Likewise, it is understood, business' are doing what they deem necessary, to cut costs.  One practice that is becoming more and more common in the workplace now, are employers that handle the workload with LESS employees, but increasing mandatory amounts of overtime worked by the employees that are still fortunate enough to continue working.  Management claims it is more 'cost effective' to pay the overtime premium, rather than use a greater number of employees at straight time, due to the increased cost of benefits that would be given to additional employees.  What they don't realize, as this practice continues, more and more employees are suffering severe bouts of 'burnout', thus, quality is slipping, absenteeism is going up... It's as if corporate greed is punishing the good workers, by running them into the ground, disrupting weekends and holidays for their employees, by mandating ungodly amounts of mandatory overtime.  Eventually, they'll see the folly of their policies, but by that time, it will be too late.

Shane, you are a racist.  Admit it.

Between age discrimination, yes, it is there, and can't be fought! and illegals working for less than what we should earn, there is no way I can find work that will support my family. I refuse to work in any commission based job, as you have to lie, and b.s. your customers to make a sale. Seal the border, enforce age discrimination laws (how, I don't know, because employers don't have to hire you anyway, and can say anything to avoid hiring someone over 40.) A poor economy makes these issues stand out more, and hurt those of us just trying to get by.

I am a young person and I have never really followed politics but I am not an idiot. Quantum Flux the things oyu say are quite disturbing especially since gas is not the only thing that hasn't gone up and people are so damned selfish and stubborn these days. I was working making roughly 1400 a month, i have three kids and a wife who wasn't working due to injury at the time. Four years ago we lived comfortably and every once in a while we got to splurge. Now I make about 1600 a month and my wife makes about 1400 a month and not only are we not able to splurge but more than once we have had to go into overdraft on our bank accounts just to make it to work. It is time for the extremely wealthy people in this country to start giving back and the middle and poor working class to quit working so damned hard just to "barely make it." As groceries, gas, paper goods, and extremely wealthy people's bank statements increase, the middle and poor class are stillmaking the same amount of money if they don't get laid off. Just remember as our economie draws closer to that of the third world all the extremely wealthy (and there is enough of you out there) could have done something about it.

Whats one way to make inflation worse? Increased wages. Anyone remember the 70's?

My wife and I learned years ago that the only way to go is to live credit and debt free. We own our home and our vehicles outright and have no credit card debt. We focus on OUR economy and not THE economy. Good times or bad my wife and I are in control of our financial lives. We never look to Washington to fix our lives - never have and never will. Don't get into debt for any reason. If you can't pay cash then you can't afford it. Remember bad news sells...

My dad gave me a couple of good bits of advice in my life:  He said, "Don't spend more money than you make, and always buy toilet paper in bulk because you can run out of a lot of things, but you sure hate it when you run out of toilet paper."   -- He was right about both of those things.  It's time to take responsibility for what we've created and prepare to live in a different way.  No empire lasts forever.  

Shane,
Atlas Shrugged is an novel. It's FICTION, get it?
If our world's John Gauts had their way we'd still have child labor & 14-hour workdays. We WOULDN'T have OSHA, Social Security, or universal education. You should read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. That will give you some idea of what the OTHER 99.9% of us would have to go through to support one of your John Galt fat cats.
I don't have a problem with someone making a good living from hard work but there needs to be a balance to things. But I really don't think Atlas is going to shrug & bring the world crashing in ruin because our society's plutocrats may now be asked to give back some of the obscene financial gains they've made under Bush in order that the rest of us have a little more security in our lives.

It was always said that the only thing inevitible is death and taxes, but what it all comes down to the only REALLY inevitable thing is CHANGE. One can accept that the economy is changing, or one can moan about it, and it will still change. What Washington does or doesn't do will not affect us much right now, but it will in the future. The Middle Class  has been carrying the burden of taxation for a long time. Taxation must be more fairly distributed, and credit must be used more responsibly. Simple, huh?

Right on Shane and Nicole.  I couldn't agree with you more.  I am familiar with Atlas Shrugged. People like to blame others for their situations.  They have no accountability anymore.  My husband and I started with nothing 48 years ago.  Today we have no debts whatsoever and are well off financially through hard work and being thrifty.  I see no reason to support those who don't take advantage of the opportunities available today.  If Obama or any of the other Democrats start taxing me more than now, I will simply lower my income.  We live simply and could afford to do that.  It has been proven that the more tax burdens people have the less they contribute to society be it with jobs or productivity.  High taxes never really help anyone.  Think of what happened to the economy after President Reagan dropped the tax rate in the early 80's.  Even John Kennedy reduced taxes. Cut up those credit cards, and you'll be far better off.

Barton D. from Arlington, Texas -

Can you provide supporting arguements why Shane is racist? Or is that the only card you play when you disagree with someone?

You shouldn't depend on the government to give you handouts. You can't expect the government to constantly bail you out of your financial problems (part of the problem of the housing crisis). Go to college, get a degree, and constantly work to improve your skills and performance to be above mediocracy. Yes gas prices have gone up, but they were artificially low. And live beneath your means (ie. don't spend all the money you have every month), then in case of emergencies or real needs, you have  extra money.

I was volunteering at the local soup kitchen about a month ago and one of the ladies I served breakfast had the artificial acrylic nails. It really frustrated me, here were people really hungry and she was spending upwards of 40-50 dollars a month on nails. I don't even get my nails done and I make 30k a year!!!

Good post Craig in Schenectady.  GO UNION DUTCHMEN!!

RE:Hardworker Somewhere US: PLS enlighten us old wise one. Like CF spouting so-called, alleged facts, tell us how you increased income 300% (100K-400K) in only 4yrs with only lifestyle changes and NO investment income? You must have sold several expensive homes and cars to generate a 400K/Yr revenue stream. NOT-maybe you own a profitable biz:PLS tell us the name/consider franchising

RE: Rel, your post is on the money.How does Barton D
that stand for Mr. D-Bag know that Shane is racist? The real racist is you Barton D-Bag when you encounter one with a disparate viewpoint. Like ALL those juvenile idiots on Youtube who constantly resort to Ad-Hominem attacks using profanity or calling everyone a racist who disagrees with their views. Well- Americans are fortunate to enjoy 1st Amendment rights to even use profanity or false accusations. However, this contributes nothing at all to any intelligent discussion/blog! In fact, such conduct demeans such debate. At least MSNBC does support moderated blogs. Youtube is a trash website only good for watching videos-forget their worthless blog entries. Barton D-PLS specify before you accuse!

I am an american living overseas and most of the main economies around here are starting to or getting into the same problems. I suppose that running three wars at this moment doesnt help at all. That might be the whole difference between them and us. I dont blame our foreign policy. Terrorists threat are real so we have to be always ready for any eventuality.

People overseas have a more predictable existence. Companies shouldnt lay off people so easy. They could reduce a bit our salaries but no one should be left without their jobs. We have, obviously, abused of credits. We got our cheap money from Asia. It is time for America to re-build itself on more solid grounds. We have to practice frugality, pragmatism and hard work. We have to get back to earn real money. No one should spend more than they make. Its that simple. People is pushed around to spend more than they make. It is time to save real money. Companies should respect workers. Now that the system is out of money, companies might learn that the money comes from the consumer. No way to borrow more money. We want real jobs. We just need one real job and not a zillion of bad jobs. The more real jobs we have the more solid will be our economy. We will have money to spend and no credits need. Do not spend anything till you get a real job that pays real money.

We should get back our companies from overseas. US needs those jobs.

There is no doubt in my mind that we will learn a valuable lesson on this one. I hope everything is for the better. We just need to get back to our good old american lifestyle fundamentals. Lets keep it simple and with common sense.

United States is a great country. Lets think like americans not like a mad crowd.

You know what's unAmerican?  Socialism.  Thinking that it'd be fair to take money from rich people who earned it, to help out poor people who aren't making wise financial decisions.  If you can't make ends meet, get rid of cable TV, magazine subscriptions, cell phones, eating out, or maybe even your car.  

I bike to work, I grow my own food, I have excellent quality time with my wife and son because we don't have TV, and with all the money we save I bought a house in California.  I love life, and so can you.

I'm so sick of people who think other people should solve their own problems and whine like babies when they don't get it their way. All businessesmen aren't rich, all business owners aren't wealthy, yet people who pay less than 15% tax (only on their income) think that those who make more should pay more than 35% in taxes and higher wages for their employees. Corporations are taxed at a 35% rate on profits and then those profits which go to the owners of the corporations pay taxes again on the same money in the form of income tax. I personally write checks to cover city and county gross reciepts taxes, so that if our business doesn't make a profit, we are still taxed on the fact that we charge for the services we render our customers. I pay payroll taxes equal to the amounts witheld from my employees paychecks, I pay a personalty tax on the items my business owns, rents or has on premises down to the cable modem. And I live in a predominantly republican state. I value my employees, pay them as well as I can, even better than myself, not one employee makes less than I do for time spent on the job. But if taxes are raised on our business by some do-gooder liberal democrat who thinks they know better how to run my business, it'll have to come out of the paychecks of my employees. So think about that, Obama supporters. You should want businesses to be successful because they pay more taxes than anyone, employee more people than the federal or state governments, and actually produce some of the things we Americans enjoy-even this news site.

In 1980:  The top 1% had 8.9% of the nations income.

In 2006:  The top 1% took 21.4% of the nations income.

Based on our current $14 Trillion GDP:

This is a shift of $1.75 Trillion annually.

This is much more than our Military, Social Security and Medicare spending... COMBINED.

This 12.5 % of the nations income.. stripped out of the hands of the other 99% of income earners...

Makes the entire economy less stable.

The Wealth distribution change has been even worse during this period.

Under these distribution methods... Income and Wealth generation are factors of unequal opportunity.. based on generational accumulations of wealth..

This philosophy creates a stratified CLASS, or Caste, system...

Opportunity, when the wealthy are given such an advantage, is NOT based on the MERIT and hard work. Instead, it has become dependent on the creation of a caste system of pre-existing wealth and income.

This unequal distribution is not simply about TAXES..or tax rates.  It is a systemic approach that favors wealth and disfavors labor and upward mobility without pre-existing wealth.

"Atlas Shrugged" is a disgusting example of predatory "Alpha-Dog" mentality better fitted to a Fascist system that assumes inherent superiority within a certain class.
Social harmony and social justice have real human value and are a pivotal point in morality.

This nation has the highest rates of income and wealth inequality of all first world countries.

It is not a by chance this has occurred as our relative world economic standing has fallen.  

This inequality, and lack of social investment, are the prime failures of "Supply-Side" Voodoo economic policy.

To Shane, in Raleigh, NC: I have no clue if you are racist or not, but I do know this; middle class people most definitely DO contribute massive amounts of cash to this econonomy. I'm not just considering gas and staple foods; consider going out to eat at restaurants, going to movies, buying books, taking vacations (yes, even middle class people like to do this). Perhaps they don't necessarily shop at Neiman Marcus or fly to Monte Carlo, but they do vacation. Sadly,with having to parcel out our wages for ridiculously outrageous gas prices, paying insurance company and hospital CEO's massive salaries and compensation packages whilst receiving less medical coverage each year, houses that have depreceiated below their actual worth, et. al., this once-thriving sector of the American economy is being squeezed dangerously dry. I, too, encourage one and all to look at both American and world history; without a strong middle class, societies devolve into stagnant economic dictatorships, at best, or downright feudalism, at worst.

 Who believes that any Corporation even pays a fraction of their stated tax load. Most of us aren't really that stupid.
   Rich people earned it???? Sure, when you can buy tax laws so ridden with loopholes your effective tax rate is more like 10%, MAYBE!  Money guys on WALL STREET, who HAVE BEEN A GREAT National RESOURCE!!!(ask ARABS or CHinese) now have special tax rates, income is charged at Cap Gains rates, approx 15% How are poor jerks who do your scut work, pay  out 30% of their income to finance Redistribution of Wealth UPWARDS, how  long are you blood suckers gonna keep the herd alive??
    Look, if the Government doesn't play fair with the people, why should the "preople" (chumps) play fair in the future. All you bootlickers for the thieves get more transparent every year.
    With our GIGANTIC FOREIGN DEBT, maybe the Chinese will buy us up and at least fire some of the DEAD WOOD. Not only are we going broke, we're now a joke!!!

Now I find it funny, that a lot of the people here that are saying they are "well off" are telling people to not buy this or not buy that.  If money is tight get rid of cable TV, don’t go out to eat don’t spend money you don’t have.  Let’s think about something logical, now I am only basing this on the past 16 months, as I just bought my house in 2007,all the appliance in my house were from the 80s.  Now I know that in the past 20 years technology has advanced enough that if you use a dishwasher/washer/dryer or refrigerator from the 1988 compared to any of those same appliances in 2008 you see that the appliance in 2008 utilizes better energy efficiently.  Well if the economy continues to go the way it has been over the last year then using this older appliance will end up costing you more money in the long run, this boasts for everything cars, homes, the computer you using to read this blog site. It's like someone already said in late 2005 early 2006 gas prices hit $3.25 in Texas and people were feeling the crunch, by mid 2006 gas prices were back down to below 2.50, whether you prepared for this or not, you didn’t have any way to know that gas prices would be so high.  I am willing to bet EVERY AVERAGE AMERICAN thought when gas hit $3 a gallon it would go down in a few months, the same when it hit $3.25, as the cost of gas rose to above $4 the average American began to realize that this is really happening and that maybe it isn’t going to go down for sometime.  So what are people thinking? They need ways to figure out how to save money. Now I am not saying go out and spend $1000s of dollars are state of the art appliances, but more that even though credit isn’t the best thing to use to purchase that new frig but it is something to think about cause people need to think more proactively now, yea you can think about what can I cut to help me save money to get to work, cancel my cable service? sure, get rid of my cell phone?  (if you feel wasting $250-300 for cancelling a cell phone contract is worth it do it), don't eat out, that is easy enough the dollar menu @ McDonalds is there for you, but that will only get you so far.

Now I just turned 30 yrs old and I never really cared about politics or who the president was or what the candidates were going to do, what is going to happen will happen regardless of what you do or say. All you can do is do the best you can.  Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, you might not have the money to do it, but we are human.  The only way to learn is to do, if we do it right great if we do it wrong, let’s hope we have enough to not give up and try something else.  It's simple math if 1 item can do the job more efficiently and just as effectively as 2 items, but the cost of that 1 item is more than the cost of 2, but you can see the savings over the course of a few years it might just be something to try.  Perfect example over the last 6 months I have see more people of all ages riding motorcycles or scooters, yeah you got to pay a few $1000 dollars to get that bike, but the ratio of gas used compared to most cars seems like a logical thing to do. I don’t know about you but I live 20 miles from my job and that is close in my eyes.  My mom on the other had drives 40 miles to work one way, in Chicago  regardless of what tax cuts you give or who pays more in taxes doesn’t mean anything.  The fact of the matter is Americans have to get to work, and the underlying issue isn’t that the government needs to tax the rich and make the rich pay more, it’s the American people that need to learn to survive with higher gas prices, sadly enough there is no answer that any of can say or give is a sure fire way to work for everyone out there. I may be completely off and rambling but really isn’t that really what we all are doing?  Is just rambling on trying to be heard?

I was laid off twice in a row, was out of work for 2 yrs. I finally got employment but at 30% less pay than at my peak . I have been on my job for 3 yrs with no pay increases & every living expense has gone up. This is pathetic, you can't just quit a job because jobs are so hard to get!

I work for a financial company and my husband is in retail. Our income/raises each year are not enough to keep up with the economy. We have seen our coworkers lose jobs due to the crisis this country is in.

What I find very interesting, is my BIL and SIL both work for the government. There are rarely any job cuts and in the past 2 years they have recieved 2 sustantial promotions (neither are college educated). SIL new job was a job they just created for her so she can get more money.

I guess I am having a hard time understandin how the Governmnet jobs are not affected by the economy and all other jobs and trades are!!

Shane, you and anybody who thinks like you are blind to basic economics. I.E. If 1,000 lower, working class folks buy a $1,000.00 dollar item, than $1,000,000 flows into the economy. On the other hand, if 10 ultra wealthy folk buy 10 $10,000.00 items, than a mere $100,000.00 flows into the economy. That's 10 times more money flowing into the economy due to the working class. Now tell me again how the "poor, lower class" do not supply jobs.

I guess I don't understand the logic behind raising taxes on the wealthy to redistibute wealth?  By increasing taxes you just give more money to the government, which will redistribute wealth to foreign countries, pork barrel projects, government waste.  How much of the wealthy taxes do you really think the lower and middle class are going to see.  

Come on, none of the American Sheeple (bahh,bahh) saw this coming? Economists have been warning us for decades about the redistribution of wealth in this country.  I hope the flock likes their new corporate over-lords, perhaps they will be kindly masters, bahh, bahh...Welcome to third-world status America! Really? You didn't see this coming? Maybe you were too busy watching TeeVee to vote? Or maybe you were too concerned about gay marriage or abortion to realize your democracy was crumbling away? BTW, the telecommunications companies are going to get away with spying on you. Pretty soon your TeeVee will be looking right back at you, keeping tabs on you and making sure you stay in line, bah, bah.....

Sure, debt free is the way to go, but if you're already in debt up to your eyeballs, that advice doesn't help much.

Fair tax is the only solution, but what will all those CPAs do for a living then? And what about the fourth branch of government, the IRS? Can't put all those people out of work. Better to keep the lousy system that creates thousands of seasonal jobs, requires a degree to understand and lawyers to enforce, right?

Pay as you go government and EQUAL taxes on EVERYONE, (yes, even the undocumented workers and the working poor) is exactly that, fair.  Paying taxes on what you spend puts the burden where it belongs, on everyone. Those who choose to save more would naturally pay less taxes and get ahead by hard work and frugal living.  

Of course, our disposable society doesn't want that. How would the elite keep their status then? Well, they can always run up the cost of education so that only the upper classes can afford them. Oh, yeah, they're already doing that.

The wealth gap is a troubling systemic problem.  Throughout history, such economic imbalances usually led to social unrest and revolutions.  Examples being peasant revolts and, more notably, the french revolution.  As for "Atlas shrugged", uhm...okay, How many of the wealthier people in this country actually produce something? Something tangible, not an ill defined service.  This is the problem, our country has switched from a manufacturing oriented economy to a service based economy out of necessity since we basically outsourced our manufacturing base for short term profit.  So, what we have are "producers" squealing about paying taxes for things that they themselves don't directly use while the system their tax money supports indirectly adds to their wealth.  I have the utmost respect for people like Gates( don't like his way of doing business, though)...okay, he's like the only guy I can think of that actually produces something, but I damn sure don't have any respect for the money managers, hedgefund owners, lawyers, and CEOs of such companies as United Health who engorge themselves at the expense of others.  I am aware the role of capital has in setting up new businesses, but there have been precious few of those over the years, mostly its people manipulating the system to steal a bigger piece of the pie.

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