Space Bags....

[WCGreen]

The canary in a coal mine signaling the downfall of American's capitalism.

Think about it. The average American Household has far too much stuff, In fact they have so much stuff that they can't squeeze it all into the jumbo sized closets that are now required in any home built after 1995...

When you think about it, the whole concept is to compact the stuff you all ready own in order to buy more stuff. Stuff everywhere. It sounds like a George Carlin routine in here. But he was right. It's all about accumulating as much stuff as possible. So much stuff that you have to shrink away the old stuff in order to find room for the new stuff.

What happens the minute a few people say wait a minute. If I'm gonna save anything it better be money so I can have something to tide me over until the next orgy of consumption, aka, An Economic Recovery comes about.

In fact because the average household is now saving something like 7% of their income, up from next to zero last year, the hopes for an economic recovery is even further dampened.


On a side note, the first house we bought when we were married in 1988 was a duplex built around 1920. The people back then accumulate such a minuscule amount of stuff that there wasn't enough closet space in the whole apartment for our clothes. The people who lived in these homes saved money so that their kids could have a better life. They sacrificed gratification in the here and now for perceived comfort in the later on. There were no student loans and college was expensive but not out of the price range of people who sacrificed for the future. I have a few friends who have learned that lesson and passed it on to their children. I also have a few friends who are approaching fifty and still have to make student loan payments.

I don't know. I was as guilty of the next guy. We were caught up in the whole seeking of creature comforts at any cost just like most of my friends.

I knew this guy back in high school who, instead of fucking around his first summer out of high school, went out on the oar boats from May 1st to December 15th. He made enough money to start his life long love affair with real estate. He is now part of a consortium that is building the largest solar based community somewhere in Texas or New Mexico.

This guy loved his comforts. He also knew when to hunker down and sacrifice for a dream. But he always had something somewhere to fall back on.

It's curious that the first thing out of Bush's pie hole when he got over his bad ass kill 'em all posture was to go out and spend. Well, look where it got us. Maybe the terrorists have won after all...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Your friend had vision...

Something most of us lack at that tender age...

Space bags? Never needed any...

I donate things when they are no longer useful to me...

And I buy new things when I get restless...

K&R

[Hugabear]

2. Americans are in love with their material goods and popular entertainment

Gotta have our giant plasma TVs, our Xboxes and Playstations, our ceramic top ovens, our fancy watches, our American Idol, Survivor, 24, Lost, etc. Corporate America has most of us so taken with fancy shiny things that we've been satisfied as long as we were getting our meager paychecks. Give the masses just enough so they can purchase more shiny objects, but not enough so they can be independent.

[MercutioATC]

3. Which is why "recovery" is a relative term.

Our economy isn't going to "recover", in that it was fueled by unsustainable consumerism.

Things may eventually get better for most people, but not until we create a new economic framework.

[WCGreen]

4. completely argee...

[uponit7771]

5. We're in a structural recession\depression right now, I think Bernanke is missing that point...

...cause the last couple of recessions have been inventory based and nothing wrong with part of our GDP.

Now M1 is gone and so is M2 leaving only the federal government to make up the difference in GDP which it can't do cause unlike 1930's Bush spent like a drunken sailor on stupid shit.

Tank a bank, take the money and give it to homeowners to pay down principle that was over-inflated by the banks to resolve the recessionary inventory issue then start focused massive energy projects like huge solar arrays or oceanic wind farms along with smart grids.

We