So the economy only becomes a "crisis" when it hits the class of people who own stock?

[begin_within]

Sorry to be a pity-party pooper, but haven't a lot of people been in crisis long before this? A lot of people having a very tough time making ends meet? A lot of people facing foreclosure? A lot of people with insurmountable medical bills? A lot of people HOMELESS? None of those people were in crisis? So it only becomes a "crisis" when people with extra money to gamble - excuse me, invest - in the stock market are suddenly hurting? Why are collapsing banks more important than people wondering if they're going to even eat tonight?

[glowing]

1. exactly.. AND had they regulated, paid attention, and sent more than

$600.00 to mainstreet, increased min-wage, created Pro-Worker trade policies, perhaps Wallstreet wouldn't look so bad right now.

Personally, I think the entire thing needs to collapse.. I think we need a new way of counting wealth.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. Nope. It just becomes much more difficult to lie about how bad the crisis really is n/t

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. People like McCain and Bush just fleece everyone - remember the Saving and Loans scandal?

[WinkyDink]

18. You mean Silverado and the criminal Bush Brother? I remember.

[EstimatedProphet]

4. This is America. Only the rich matter.

Everyone else is a bunch of useless eaters who exist only to provide the rich with a sense of entitlement and arrogance.

[zeemike]

5. Like someone once said;

The rich are different than us, they have more money.
It's the money stupid.
(not you but stupid in the sense that one hits oneself on the head when he makes a discovery)

[islandmkl]

6. but...but...but....

"MY RETIREMENT is involved!!"

to quote Commander Cody: One man's meat is another man's poison.

it's all good having some salesman managing your 'portfolio'...until his bosses screw the pooch with YOUR MONEY...

read all the fine print you like...there is NO GUARANTEE this BET you have made will work out...

there is NO SUCH SITUATION where Everybody Wins and Nobody loses...

Vegas or corner bookie....or Wall Street...

[begin_within]

7. Yes, but who told these people that the stock market was a good place to put your nest egg?

[islandmkl]

8. i agree with you....and the answer to the question is:

Their 'Financial Advisor'...



who, should he/she be working at a car lot, would be identified as 'Salesperson'...

[GoesTo11]

9. Tax law is a pretty strong bribe to go into 401ks

Once you start in them, you receive literature and advisors from your plan, sometimes from your employer, always saying you've got to be in the market and showing you what your portfolio will look like after you get 8% returns. They do this after they take away the pension, and market it so you'll think you're doing better than you were with the pension. But then the stocks come up crapper and you are looking at a pretty lousy retirement. For a lot of middle class people, this is just going to push them closer to the edge. So it's bad for many, many people. It was already bad for the poor, and just going to get worse. I don't care about how the rich are doing - they're doing fine. But if you think someone who has a 401k and is going to have to work at McDonald's after they're laid off at 63 is rich, well, they're not rich. It's getting to be a crisis for the middle class, for people who are laid off and for those who aren't.

[Johonny]

10. It's funny

2 years ago my company offered a 1/4 pension for people and only half matching 401 K instead of a full one. Yet only a small percentage of employees took them up on it. So the power of those little 8 % portfolio's appears to be great. On the other hand I now have a small pension:)

[Raineyb]

11. The same people who think that a defined benefits retirement package (aka pension) is socialism n/t

Regards

[ej510]

13. Like Bush said. "The haves and have mores."

[Raineyb]

14. Exactly

However, despite their protestation to the contrary Bush and co do believe in socialism when it comes to business. Privatize the profits and socialize the risks. Take taxpayer money to build up and keep the profits in their own pockets when there's a payout.

Regards

[Gregorian]

12. Yes. Remember this-

Cramer had a meltdown over Bear Sterns. And we had this same discussion on the forum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOVXh4xM-Ww

Reality has hit home. Half of my friends are apathetic I've sadly just discovered. Which means they are no longer real friends. Just cardboard cutouts. The wealth has been redistributed while Americans drove around buying stuff. And Asia owns us.

I feel powerless. And to make things worse, I heard Cynthia McKinney talk, and the Green party sounds like where we should be heading. I think breaking out of the two party system is perhaps (and only off the top of my head) the way to start moving toward the needs of the people. But that's another discussion.

Yes, the rich will lose a bunch of money. Oh well. Only one house. Only one gardener. Only one boat.

[romulusnr]

15. yes

Only those who provide capital matter in a capitalist system.

(Sorry, prove me wrong)

I said it somewhere else today... Capitalism is like nuclear power, if you must have it, you need to treat it with utmost caution and regulation, or it can destroy major swaths of society and leave them unusable for prolonged periods of time.

Dems generally realize that capitalism needs to be oversought, and balanced with appropriate safety nets. As do the wide majority of other first world nations.

[cyndensco]

16. Never fear.

According to mccain today the fundamentals of our economy remain strong. :wtf:

[WinkyDink]

17. "Business news" is ALWAYS just about Wall Street. When are there EVER LABOR stories, other

than to show us "ungrateful greedy union members who want to drive up our costs"??

[applegrove]

19. That is very true.