by Fiddlerdave » Thu 17 Apr 2008, 15:32:50
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('chakra', 'I') seem to be in the opposite boat. I feel like I went through all the stages and I'm back at denial again. I've been reading this site for years now, and things seemed pretty hopeless even 3 years ago, but here we are, business as usual.
You think things are falling apart and then the markets rally and everyone is smiling again for a few weeks or months. It seems no matter how many bad things are happening people make adjustments and continue on the same coarse. It seems like in the media there isn't any crisis but just small problems that just require some policy changes and everything will be fine.
The local economy where I am is better then it's been in 25 years, and the housing market here is on fire and still rising.
I'm pessimistic still, and would be a doomer in many peoples eyes, but I'm more optimistic about the future then I've been in years even with the historically high commodity prices.
SOME "People make adjustments and continue on the same course". Others run out of all options with each uptick in costs, and lose their medical, end up homeless, and all the other fun things that mean the American Dream in the New Economy is over for them permanently. The shadow hasn't reached your neighborhood yet, and maybe it never will, although you may want to keep in mind your own distance to fall will be much farther if whatever holds you there cracks under the strain of $115/bbl oil. Companies are doing what I call "Evaporate", simply gone overnight from a position of apparent strength to nothing, at an ever increasing rate. The stunned look in these people's eyes should be a reminder for everyone of the unpredictability of the economic collapse we are living. Soon, municipalities and states will be joining that parade, and the terror will be palpable.
I want to throw up at the MSM articles about couples who are losing their "dream of retiring at 55" as examples of our bad economy. Really, it seems a person has to earn at least $80,000 a year to even exist as far as public perception goes. Looking at single parents with 3 kids living on $45 k is just verboten.
Jedinvest is right with this analogy, except the attendants are turning up the music, and handing out blindfolds and "good news" pamplets to the rear cars. We are herd animals, and it is difficult to be truly concerned if your nearest leader is calm. $this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')y metaphor is that we are on a very long train (industrial society) that has been picking up speed until now that the front of this train is colliding with ecological and systemic reality.