America's Financial Meltdown: How has it affected your life?

(Before I go any further I apologize if this topic has already been done. I have used the search function and found nothing aside from this thread which is a bit different from the topic I'm going for here. Also, if this is in the wrong forum please move appropriately.)

I'd like to propose a couple different things I'd like to cover in this thread but first let me review the general topic at hand:

The current state of the American economy. It's no secret by now that us Americans aren't doing too hot. Unemployment is at an all time high, our financial institutions are failing and we're even considering bailing out our auto makers. The media says that we are currently going through a recession. With the Dow plummeting like a fat kid with no parachute it seems like a depression isn't too far off.

The questions I would like to ask go as follows:

• How has this affected your life? - Have your neighbors and/or lost their jobs, home and automobile? Have you lost your home, job or automobile because of all this mess? Have you cut back and started saving more?
• When do you think we will pull out of this? America is surely done as an economic superpower, at least for the next decade or so, but when do you think we will recover (if ever)? How can we recover?
• Your plans over the next ten years - What do YOU plan on doing? If you're not in a recession/depression proof industry, do you plan on aiming for a new career? If you're in college are you switching your major?

Personally, the company I've worked for for over a year now has gone under, I've been unable to drive due to my inability to pay my car insurance and retail stores around here simply aren't hiring. My neighborhood (once a busy suburb) now has "For Sale" signs posted at just about every other house. I was considering a career in Finance once I got into college but now I'm completely revamping my plan. I'm graduating next year and I need to plan quickly and decisively.

Conversely, I have no idea how we're going to fix this problem. And by we I mean whoever because to be quite frank, I don't really know what I'm talking about. I know what I've seen in the news and heard my teachers talk about but I'm well off from having a proper education on the inner-workings of our financial institutions. I would assume that stricter regulations and government intervention is essential for the next decade or so but again, I really don't know too much regarding the situation at hand.

What is going through your mind during these rough times? Are you worried for yourself, your family or friends?

I live around Boston and work for a SaaS company as an accountant. It's possible that there may be a massive lay-off in the near future as a cost-cutting measure but I haven't seen any indication of it yet. If it does happen though, I think the fact that I'm the guy that does most of the operational stuff means that I'm safer than say the analyst.

If I do get let go, it's Boston, there's a lot going on, I'm confident that I could find another accounting gig pretty quick. Worst worst case my father's on a government pension so as long as he's alive and inflation doesn't get out of control, there's always a house I can go back to.

The whole thing still seems like a spectacle to me. Like watching a house burn down. It's amazing, awe-inspiring and a little horrible, but it's not my house and I'm safe on the other side of the street.

The great thing about being an accountant is that when the rest of the economy goes to shit there's plenty of insolvency work to do (As an accountant in practice rather than industry of course).

As an outsider looking in, I'd suggest that America's fortunes won't improve any until people realise that their old way of life was unsustainable. America has been a very wasteful country resources-wise for a long time (Even more so than most European countries and we're hardly angels over here) and you have standards of living that exceed your current ability to sustain them. What's needed is a general shift in outlook and opinions. People need to realise that they can't just have whatever they want when they want it and companies need to modernise and adapt, rather than try to spend their way through troubled times without changing anything.

Take the auto industry for example. Rather than taking hand-outs from the government to stay in business, your car firms need to make themselves more attractive to a global market. American made cars aren't at all popular outside of America because, frankly, they're a bit rubbish. Although there are American owned companies operating outside of the USA, the design and manufacture work is done abroad too. The Fords we drive over here are designed and made in Britain and Europe for example. Now previously this hasn't been an issue, America was a big enough market for cars that it didn't matter that you couldn't build them to go round corners or do anything over 15 mpg because that's what people in America apparently want from a car. Now there's no money left and nobody's buying new cars, especially not ones that need filling up every 100 miles. Rather than pump money into the industry and hope it'll miraculously survive churning out the same old SUVs, your car companies need to start thinking about designing new cars that appeal to the current market (Cheaper, more efficient) or that can be sold abroad. Sadly, the rest of the world, in particular the Japanese are years ahead of you.

That's just one example obviously but I really believe that without a general shift of opinions you're going to struggle indefinitely. Unfortunately, being such a stupidly large country with so many levels of infrastructure to try to pass change through makes the proposition incredibly difficult. In England we can adapt a lot quicker becuase there's not that many of us and people are largely disillusioned with the political system and largely ingnorant of the wider effects of proposed legislation. Stuff gets forced through and nobody complains until it's too late. Provided we're being governed by people who know what they're doing it's a great system, sadly at the moment we have a bunch of think tanks and ad agencies running things so the country is pretty fucked...

Originally Posted by Shin

Rather than pump money into the industry and hope it'll miraculously survive churning out the same old SUVs, your car companies need to start thinking about designing new cars that appeal to the current market (Cheaper, more efficient) or that can be sold abroad. Sadly, the rest of the world, in particular the Japanese are years ahead of you.

GM and Ford have closed many of their manufacturing facilities that specialized in assembling their SUVs and other family cars, and their business strategy now is mostly to build smaller, more economic gas-friendly (which is sadly about 30 mpg by American standards) cars. Of course, this is a knee-jerk reaction to oil prices and our toilet economy more than anything, and definitely not the result of a long-term business strategy. You're right to think it's too little too late, and I hate the idea of Obama wanting to bail out US auto companies once he takes office. None of the international auto companies with operations here are asking for squat. They don't need to, because they know how to build a good car.

So, how has this economy affected me? Well, a few ways. The biggest (and most annoying) thing is the amount of work I do at my job now. I work in a warehouse, and I used to work all day at a good pace because we always had a huge backlog of orders we had to pick and pack. We also got to work Saturdays whenever we wanted for overtime. The past two months, we haven't had a single Saturday to work, and I'm lucky if I'm able to actually do my job four hours out of the day. The rest of the time, we just drive around in our forklifts with our thumbs up our asses, or we ask the foremen for odd jobs (which basically equates to standing around with a bucket of sand). The economy also makes it hard to switch shifts. I work graveyard, and I want to switch to afternoons because of school. I guess I should be thankful that they have no plans to lay off anyone, but they are offering voluntary leave now, and I'm sure that's never a good sign.

The economy is affecting me in some other ways too, but because I'm young and don't own a house it's not affecting me as much as others. Actually, at my age, driving and buying groceries are my biggest concerns, and with oil prices plummeting, it's cheaper to drive, and hopefully that will translate to cheaper groceries sometime in the future too. I guess you can say my 401k is suffering, but this whole mess with our banks started about the same time I opened it, so it's not so bad. Actually, I'm still confident enough that I'm throwing a fifth of my salary in there.

You could easily change that title to "The Global Financial Meltdown".

In the UK, the banks are owned by the government now, meaning that their entire stock has turned worthless and interest rates have plummetted - and, of course, like elsewhere, it's impossible to get a credit, impossible for people to buy houses.

But since I am in Canada at the moment, I guess I've been pretty lucky. The few combination stock things I own in Germany have dropped drastically in value, but I have not been forced to leave my home (I live in university accomodation), or lost any other goods that I don't own yet. I had no intention of buying a house or a car, or setting up a gigantic business, so really, I have only been minimally affected by it.

Of course, I'll have to see how to build up some savings again. With the current interest? While I'm in uni, spending more money than I'm earning? Can't see it happening. That's teh thing that worries me, the savings part. I do, however, still have quite a few years of university ahead of me, if I do want to go for my Masters. I am not switching my major away from psychology, aside from the fact that it's too late for that, anyway. I might try to find a job first, though, after I graduate and then go back to do my Master's later.

I've seen a lot of changes, starting about in October.

I recently have had trouble with my car (a 90 Toyota Camry) and had to scrap it. When I went to go find out how much money I could get to even start looking at cars with, I found...well, not many places with give a 19 year old (even with a steady loyal job, etc) a car loan. Now I'm stuck with the bus.

Where I work...I'd say we are a luxury store. It's an organic food co-op, a lot of which is pretty expensive and such. We've obviously dropped in sales, and because of it we have been cutting back hours. I think my last paycheck had about 56 hours on it (out of the full time 80). I know we even had the first Thanksgiving where we actually made less than the previous year at the store.
Also me being a supervisor and a pretty good worker, I'm not that worried about my job. There probably will not be a time where the Co-op ls laying off people. Ever.

Considering I'm only a 19 year old who is a fulltime worker, lives with her boyfriend, etc...there isn't much for me to worry about right now. I only have 400 dollars in my savings account at the moment, no stocks, and don't plan on going to college.

Quote:

Unemployment is at an all time high

Chill with the hyperbole. An all-time high would be something like a full quarter of the American workforce out of work, which simply isn't true. The reported rate is 6.8 percent, which actual figures probably around 9-12 percent. Certainly higher than we would like, but not even close to 'all-time highs' as you state.

With that said - my job is largely unaffected. People rely heavily on their computers and they'll always need someone to fix them. Luckily, being young, black, and with a massively varied skillset, I've never been out of a job more than 3 months in my entire life.

As far as us recovering from this shit? I say we honestly have to let shit crash and burn, because things only change in times of great catastrophe.

And you know what? The system is gonna collapse as we know it within the next decade and we'll get that change. Of course, it won't be the kind of change I'd prefer, because the government is gonna step in and fill that power vacuum and the era of American capitalism will largely dissapear. Socialism ftw.

Originally Posted by Night Phoenix

With that said - my job is largely unaffected. People rely heavily on their computers and they'll always need someone to fix them. Luckily, being young, black, and with a massively varied skillset, I've never been out of a job more than 3 months in my entire life.

Weren't you out of a job just long enough to have to shell out for extremely expensive health care needs brought on by your doctor saying you were headed for a heart attack?

Yeah, I seem to remember something like that.

You tell us a version of reality that is inconsistent with even the most casual of surveys, and that is why no one will ever listen to you in any manner approaching seriousness.

But, enjoy your computer technician job while you still have it. If the system is going to collapse, don't think your job is safe. "They'll always need someone to fix them / make them" is something I've heard from a lot of people in my life, growing up near Detroit. You know, where the entire economy is dependant on the car industry. You know.

I work for a company whose policy has been never to lay anyone off. (Their policy is also to focus on community efforts so they don't spread their operation too thin) They fire people, certainly, and it may in fact be a technicality in the manager's office when they ax them, but I've always felt relatively secure here, which was my problem for the past few years. Up until I got out of college, I had an excuse for staying with this company, but now that I have an English degree, I need to bump up my efforts to find something to do (preferably that isn't a teaching job.)

I plan on going into the video game industry one way or another, so I may end up being a QA person simply to get my foot in the door and then try to work my way over to the design side of things. If I manage it, the video game industry is burgeoning, recording record sales even during the middle of a financial crisis, so I feel good about future prospects.

As of right now, though, I'm making enough for rent, groceries, and a little bit left over for personal use. I've never been an extravagant spender, so I don't see any problems on that end, either.