[I_Like_Plants]

I'm trying to get the last of my Ebay orders out and deadbeats (nonpaying winners) are at an all-time high, due to everybody being broke. I'm getting lots of orders sent back to me, because people going broke are getting evicted and leaving no forwarding address. Bad checks are at a high.

Enough bitching about Ebay though, in general things just seem to be decaying surprisingly fast. Downtown crowds are much lower at lunchtime because everyone's broke and not buying lunch - stores going out of biz. Ferarri Foods open until 9 now, not to be nice but to try to stay in business. Internet except for select sites now seems to run at a 2400 baud pace. Places I was buying stuff for resale used to have a ton of good stuff if I stopped going for a week then shopped there, now I play hookey for a week and there's nothing much new. And the people working there are surlier than ever - in the past they were happy to see me again if I didn't show up for a while. Police sirens and even gunshots all through the day and night, yeah this is Sunnyvale, a fuckin slum, but it's worse than it was 6 months ago. Just a lot of little things that add up to one big picture.

[Madpaddy]

Give it another week and you'll have Orc warbands and Nazgul there as well.

[I_Like_Plants]

Considering this neighborhood, I'd not be surprised.

[Madpaddy]

I have to say, over here there is no sign of any impending meltdown. The housing market is slowing down and a couple of the multinationals are laying of small numbers of workers but that's just seasonal adjustments really.

The sh.t is being suprisingly meandering on its way to the fan.

[I_Like_Plants]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Madpaddy', 'I') have to say, over here there is no sign of any impending meltdown. The housing market is slowing down and a couple of the multinationals are laying of small numbers of workers but that's just seasonal adjustments really.

The sh.t is being suprisingly meandering on its way to the fan.

[Madpaddy]

I don't but sometimes you'ld hardly know the difference.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/motors ... 47011.html

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')ndeed commercial Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV) and Pick-Ups account for about a third of all sales in this market segment, far more than in any of our European neighbours.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', '
')You don't live in the USA.

[strider3700]

I agree very little visible here that would make me think slowdown. My boss just bought a Brandnew loaded Toyota super cab 4x4. A house a few houses down from mine just listed at $700,000 $200,000 more then anything else in the neighbourhood and $575,000 more then my house although it is 4 times the size of my house. maybe 5 times now that I think about it.

Really it's only subtle things that indicate things are getting bad. The realtor ad on the radio today described how the market is good and if you see that one house that has been for sale forever it's probably overpriced and needs a change to sell at this point. I'm not sure if they where trying to reassure the buyers that the market isn't tanking or is they are trying to convince the sellers to be realistic and the boom is over. Home depot seems less busy but that could just be summer vacations that I'm seeing. Work is slowing down but we have a potential strike hanging over our heads that most feel is inevitable and will be long so it makes sense that we're winding down.

[Lore]

Things are doing well here in the SE where I live. Housing in my market is still appreciating and selling well. The average selling time for a home in my neighborhood is 23 days.

I heard today that the top 5 foreclosure markets leads with CA, and that it is extending beyond the subprime market..

Overall though I believe that the divide is widening between the haves and the have nots. Although Wal-Mart’s report today for same store sales shows an increase of 2.4% month over month. I suspect that it isn’t their usual base spending more, but more customers falling into that base.

[Armageddon]

An increase in walmarts sales may not be good news. People may be too low on money to shop anywhere else.

[DarkDawg]

We had some rolling blackouts after some storms up here the last few days and one local city mayor griped about it in the news. You know, same story...big evil utility monopoly causing pain and suffering, blah, blah, blah.

I like the blackouts. They are necessary reality checks for society and confirmation of the reasons for why I return to this site.

The good news is my veggie garden is looking excellent!

[I_Like_Plants]

OMS I have heard SD is nice, as long as one is not in one of the really scary ghetto areas lol. I have a book on caraciture drawing by a mr Hamernik, who draws and teaches around SD. If my biz were still a going concern, I'd consider moving down there since because of all the military activity, electronic surplus there is plentiful while it's drying up here.

I think the best posts on the long, slow, sqeeze lately have been by Revi.

[The_Toecutter]

I'm not seeing a meltdown locally, but that's because where I live, things have already been dead for at least 5 years. There is reason that science fiction film makers love using St. Louis as a post apocalyptic backdrop. Some areas of it resemble the worst parts of Detroit.

While in college, I tried finding a job the whole time through without much luck. Now I have a degree, and I have offers all over the fucking place.

Can't wait to find that engineering job and get the fuck out of the city. That'll happen in a matter of months, if not sooner. Hell, I may even move out to gg3's area. I cannot stand cities; too many people, too much surveillance, and the police here are pricks.

Whatever the case may be, at least there is a demand for people in my field and will continue to be one, even in a depression. There will likely even be increased demand for people in my field in the near future, due to the energy crisis that is unfolding.



Want a good future during the PO crash? Get into alternative energy, and get the hell out of any area in or near the ghetto.


Other areas that will remain in very high demand are oil, defense, aerospace, and electricity distribution.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'O')MS I have heard SD is nice.

[I_Like_Plants]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'O')MS I have heard SD is nice.