[xerces]

A majority of my college friends are either laid off, unemployed, or employed with their backs to the wall here in NYC.

I'm in PA expanding the size of my parents' garden right now. The situation is becoming ever more grim and it's getting to me. There are homeless people all over the place in NYC and it's just getting worse. I have set aside a small fund to help support my aging parents if one of them gets laid off, but if inflation goes up significantly, I just don't know what will happen.

I figure if I can just finish expanding the backyard garden and put in a drip irrigation system in time, my folks can be much more self-sufficient in food. But sometimes I just think what would happen if my investments tanks further or business gets worse, or I fall ill. There would be no one to take care of them.

Anyone else in my boat?

[gandolf]

Yes approx 4 billion people in Africa,Asia, the middle east, India and numerous other places, This however is nothing new for them it is the way it has always been.

Except most dont have the Irrigation system or the little nest egg. They do have kids though to support them. As long as they are not one of the 10,000 kids that die of starvation in Africa every day, god knows how many elsewhere

Bet that dosnt make the news in america aye.

[startswithearthquakes]

ULTRA MEGAR SUPER FOCKTACULAR DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0000000000MMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

[WyoDutch]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gandolf', 'Y')es approx 4 billion people in Africa,Asia, the middle east, India and numerous other places, This however is nothing new for them it is the way it has always been.

Except most dont have the Irrigation system or the little nest egg. They do have kids though to support them. As long as they are not one of the 10,000 kids that die of starvation in Africa every day, god knows how many elsewhere

Bet that dosnt make the news in america aye.

[Farknight]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')o can we safely assume that you send a generous portion of your annual salary to help those teeming masses? Or does your compassion express itself by criticizing we Americans?

According to Australian government press releases... you Australians dole out a paltry $3.7 billion in development aid... annually. We nasty Americans on the other hand, shell out $21.3 Billion.

Personally, I'd like to see that $21.3 Billion spent right here at home to benefit the people who work and pay taxes.

You save a million africans from starvation this year and what do you get next year?.... 2 million starving africans.

[turner]

You do realise Aust has a population around 20m v US 300m?

[sparky]

.

Mate.... think of Australia as an archipellago of towns in a sea of sand

90% of the land is death country , but the beaches are OK

the temporary comfort of the last 50 years in the western world was a very temporary , very precious moment

now learn the truth ... nothing has changed ,
we are still married to Misery and she is back and she is mad at us !!

.

[MattSavinar]

Being unemployed, marginally employed, or employed but with your back to the wall has been the norm for just about everybody in America for quite some now. The only exceptions were the hotshots on Wall Street and in the tech sector. But that's changed.

Welcome to the real world.

There's good reason to be scared. I've never been fond of the "fuck the poor they should just stop whining and start working harder like me and my friends in Manhattan" attitude you sported on LATOC but you've got an enviable garden, top notch gardening skills, have enough integrity not to be gamed by an old-flame (I remember that post, it was great stuff) and you definitely seem to recognize the importance of family so I think once you get past a certain psychological "event horizon" about this stuff, you'll be in about as good a position as one can hope to be as your investments tank. (Which they will because pretty much every investment vehicle outside of a very few are going to tank and unless you're in the top 1/10th of 1% of investors in terms of intel and connections, you're almost certainly not going to be in those vehicles.)

[gandolf]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WyoDutch', '
')So can we safely assume that you send a generous portion of your annual salary to help those teeming masses? Or is your compassion limited to on-line whines?

According to Australian government press releases... you Australians dole out a paltry $3.7 billion in development aid... annually. We nasty Americans on the other hand, shell out $21.3 Billion. So stuff that in your didgeridoo, mate.

Personally, I'd like to see that $21.3 Billion spent right here at home to benefit the people who work and pay taxes, instead of going to tribes that periodically grab the old machetes and butcher their neighbors by the hundreds of thousands.

You save a million africans from starvation this year and what do you get next year?.... 2 million starving africans.[/b][/i]

[nobodypanic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('turner', 'Y')ou do realise Aust has a population around 20m v US 300m?

[Dreamtwister]

I would be perfectly happy to spend $69 (or even $181) per year on foriegn aid, if even half of it went to buying condoms.

[turner]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('nobodypanic', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('turner', 'Y')ou do realise Aust has a population around 20m v US 300m?

[vilemerchant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WyoDutch', '
')According to Australian government press releases... you Australians dole out a paltry $3.7 billion in development aid... annually. We nasty Americans on the other hand, shell out $21.3 Billion. So stuff that in your didgeridoo, mate.
[/b][/i]

[mmasters]

Yup life here in this world is hell. I think hell actually has to be a better place than here, it's really bottom of the barrel.

[gandolf]

I don’t actually disagree with any of the above comments. I also believe that any aid given should only be to assist in making people self sufficient. No point in giving food as it only artificially increases population beyond what can be supported locally then when we get sick of giving they all die. Unfortunately the main reason that people have so many kids is due to the fact that their is no welfare system. People therefore need their kids to support them in their old age. With the high mortality rate they need to keep having them in the hope that some survive. It is a vicious circle.

What I was getting at above was more that this is happening but because the countries are poor and don’t have oil no one really gives a sh!t. Look at Zimbabwe as an example. If they had oil then the armies of the world would have been in there years ago and got rid of Mugabe. As they don’t then no one really cares what happens.

Also, I was watching a Doco on Uganda the other night. It showed farmers bringing food to the local market either on bike or by hand. If there is a total collapse as some predict these people who are currently amongst the worlds poorest would probably become the best off as nothing much would change for them.

[Jotapay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vilemerchant', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WyoDutch', '
')According to Australian government press releases... you Australians dole out a paltry $3.7 billion in development aid... annually. We nasty Americans on the other hand, shell out $21.3 Billion. So stuff that in your didgeridoo, mate.
[/b][/i]

[vilemerchant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jotapay', 'Y')ou sound like you might need a little more freedom over there. You got any oil under that ground there?

[sparky]

.

I can honestly say that after trawling the financial pages .....nobody has a clue as to the FUTURE , ie three days from now
except a sneaky suspicion things will get worst

Even in Australia the cold , icy voice of doom come from politicians mouths .......
" no need to panic .......the fundamentals are sound "
.

[DirtyHowi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MattSavinar', 'B')eing unemployed, marginally employed, or employed but with your back to the wall has been the norm for just about everybody in America for quite some now. The only exceptions were the hotshots on Wall Street and in the tech sector. But that's changed.

Welcome to the real world.

There's good reason to be scared. I've never been fond of the "Fark the poor they should just stop whining and start working harder like me and my friends in Manhattan" attitude you sported on LATOC but you've got an enviable garden, top notch gardening skills, have enough integrity not to be gamed by an old-flame (I remember that post, it was great stuff) and you definitely seem to recognize the importance of family so I think once you get past a certain psychological "event horizon" about this stuff, you'll be in about as good a position as one can hope to be as your investments tank. (Which they will because pretty much every investment vehicle outside of a very few are going to tank and unless you're in the top 1/10th of 1% of investors in terms of intel and connections, you're almost certainly not going to be in those vehicles.)

[xerces]

Hi guys, I can't believe it's been 3 years since I've last posted!