US Economy

J

Jas667

Member
Hey all.
With our own Economy starting to take a wobble now, house prices coming down and mortgages becoming very hard to get I was just wondering how the US is doing as we dont see much of it on our news.
My sis is just back from Florida and she said the change is incredible(we used to go a lot when younger to visit family). Malls filled with shops offering massive sales, homes advertised for sale on lamposts etc.
Maybe a bit on the serious side for the forum but I was just wondering how you are finding it if you live there and more than likely Britain will be following soon enough
 
It is very difficult to paint even with a very broad brush a summary of the state of the US economy. The left will tell you one thing the right another.
They look through opposite sides of the telescope.

What we have is a resilient US economy that has a major hurdles to get over: oil prices and the sub-prime lenders.

This is very complex question with answers even more complex.

Peeps that live in Vegas, Monteray, Detroit, Darien CT, Shawnee, KS will all have different answers.
 
a lot of people do not have jobs in florida. unemployment is high and the wages that companies pay their employees are bottom of the barrel. we have people that are selling newspapers and fruits on almost every corner of some cities in southern florida (even in the nice areas).

when i was living in california about 6 months ago, the only noticable difference were the gas prices. other than that.. maybe a bit less driving. but.. it seemed unnoticable.

ducks is right though. one side says one thing.. the other says something else.
 
Florida, California and Texas have a very high rate of illegal aliens residing them. What would be your wild ass guess as to the percentage of those you noticed in Florida that are unemployed being illegally in the US?
 
20ducks said:
Florida, California and Texas have a very high rate of illegal aliens residing them. What would be your wild ass guess as to the percentage of those you noticed in Florida that are unemployed being illegally in the US?
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my guess?? a good 35 percent are illegal. it's a haven for illegals over here (s. florida). the company i work for.. in the warehouse side of the building... i see nothing but undocument workers packing high-end products into boxes. not to mention that my boss (the CEO), has several undocument "servants" working for him that do his biding all day long. all from taking care of his children to running errands for him. and they also bring him and his family (family owned company) breakfast, lunch & dinner all day, every day.

and all these people don't have papers. and they get treated like dirt.
 
I haven't really noticed a difference yet. The concerts and movies around here are always sold out, restaurants are packed, beach is overcrowded, lines at the grocery store are the same, and there were so many people on the road this past weekend it took me twice the time it usually does to get out to WLH's neck of the woods on the other side of Philly - AHHHHHH!! I HATE TRAFFIC!!!!

Also, my investments are doing just fine - especially Johnson & Johnson :thumbsup:
Plus, with the price of Corn going up, my best friend Steve should have a great year and I won't have to buy his drinks the next time we vacation together :lol:
...And my cleaning lady doesn't seem to be hatin' life, I noticed she had a new vaccum this week :D
Even my realtor buddy has found an alternative source of income :o

As for a lot of people not having jobs in Flordia - that's because 50% of the population is RETIRED!!! DUH! Also, there are a TON of people in FL. At a healthy 5% unemployment rate... 5% of a TON is a LOT! So that's not unusual.

What's really happening is a combination of the hugely overinflated real estate market starting to balance itself out while simultaneously oil prices are hugely overinflating. Only those folks who jumped on the Real Estate boom are really struggling right now, most of the rest of the population are just being inconvenienced by the higher oil prices.

Another influence is the upcoming overpopulation and extreme suburban sprawl. Hopefully the communities will realize that it soon will be time to build up some more cities in America. There is a generation upcoming that is going to need some more building UP instead of OUT to sustain itself more efficiently. I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately and hope to be a part of building a NEW city someday.
 
flyboyaj said:
I haven't really noticed a difference yet. The concerts and movies around here are always sold out, restaurants are packed, beach is overcrowded, lines at the grocery store are the same, and there were so many people on the road this past weekend it took me twice the time it usually does to get out to WLH's neck of the woods on the other side of Philly - AHHHHHH!! I HATE TRAFFIC!!!!

Also, my investments are doing just fine - especially Johnson & Johnson :thumbsup:
Plus, with the price of Corn going up, my best friend Steve should have a great year and I won't have to buy his drinks the next time we vacation together :lol:
...And my cleaning lady doesn't seem to be hatin' life, I noticed she had a new vaccum this week :D
Even my realtor buddy has found an alternative source of income :o

As for a lot of people not having jobs in Flordia - that's because 50% of the population is RETIRED!!! DUH! Also, there are a TON of people in FL. At a healthy 5% unemployment rate... 5% of a TON is a LOT! So that's not unusual.

What's really happening is a combination of the hugely overinflated real estate market starting to balance itself out while simultaneously oil prices are hugely overinflating. Only those folks who jumped on the Real Estate boom are really struggling right now, most of the rest of the population are just being inconvenienced by the higher oil prices.

Another influence is the upcoming overpopulation and extreme suburban sprawl. Hopefully the communities will realize that it soon will be time to build up some more cities in America. There is a generation upcoming that is going to need some more building UP instead of OUT to sustain itself more efficiently. I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately and hope to be a part of building a NEW city someday.
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good train of thought :thumbsup:
 
mystik said:
...my guess?? a good 35 percent are illegal. it's a haven for illegals over here (s. florida)...
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Where do they come from?

flyboyaj said:
I haven't really noticed a difference yet. The concerts and movies around here are always sold out, restaurants are packed, beach is overcrowded, lines at the grocery store are the same, and there were so many people on the road this past weekend it took me twice the time it usually does to get out to WLH's neck of the woods on the other side of Philly - AHHHHHH!! I HATE TRAFFIC!!!!
Click to expand...
Same here really. Everyone has two cars, everyone has a large plasma/LCD TV, nice clothes, etc etc.

flyboyaj said:
...And my cleaning lady doesn't seem to be hatin' life, I noticed she had a new vaccum this week :D
Click to expand...
Life must be good, the cleaners at our place would need to win the lottery before they invested in a new one :lol:
 
Things are pretty bad... i don't need a politician to tell me that gas is higher then ever, $4.80 a gallon here in chicago, food prices are much higher, I never remember a box of corn flakes cereal being $5 a box?? Though i am lucky enough to have paid off my mortgate, i know that the value of the house has dropped quite a bit. I know a few people that have lost their homes.

Chicago just upped the sales tax to either 9.75% or 10.25%, i can't remember. Every single thing, even the basics are getting more expensive to keep... I know that my yearly raises haven't had the same kind of impact over the last couple of years, but i'm lucky enough to still be doing much better then probably the average person, but i'm not lighting up cigars with $100 bills any time soon. Nor can i see that happening any time soon. But i bet there if this is asked to someone else, they might not even notice a difference. Or someone else might just be getting by.

All i know it wasn't like this 10 years ago or even 3 years ago from what i remember.

Hopefully there will be a turn around soon before the hole is too big to get out of as a country
 
I have a friend who’s company sells control devices, and switches for typical assembly line automation and robotics. He travels all over the US and reports to me that other than the Detroit auto firms other factories are going full scale with many working around the clock 7 days a week and still can not keep up with demand. :)

I think a lot of what we are seeing is a result of oil speculation and the inflation that causes coupled with a wild “Chicken Little the Sky is Falling” complex by the press. Some of it driven by political agendas. :(
 
Hey that sales tax pays for the Meigs Field demolition.

I'm originally from the SoutSide..GagePark/MarquettePark 'hood.
 
fflores said:
...All i know it wasn't like this 10 years ago or even 3 years ago from what i remember.
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Do you mean that you thought your money went further back then, you had more spare cash at the end of the month?
 
20ducks said:
Many of the illegal immigrants are coming from Mexico and Central American countries.
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Cheers. Can't the govt hunt them down and kick them out, or do they like them to be there doing the jobs US citizens wouldn't do?
 
fflores said:
Things are pretty bad... i don't need a politician to tell me that gas is higher then ever, $4.80 a gallon here in chicago, food prices are much higher, I never remember a box of corn flakes cereal being $5 a box?? Though i am lucky enough to have paid off my mortgate, i know that the value of the house has dropped quite a bit. I know a few people that have lost their homes.

Chicago just upped the sales tax to either 9.75% or 10.25%, i can't remember. Every single thing, even the basics are getting more expensive to keep... I know that my yearly raises haven't had the same kind of impact over the last couple of years, but i'm lucky enough to still be doing much better then probably the average person, but i'm not lighting up cigars with $100 bills any time soon. Nor can i see that happening any time soon. But i bet there if this is asked to someone else, they might not even notice a difference. Or someone else might just be getting by.

All i know it wasn't like this 10 years ago or even 3 years ago from what i remember.

Hopefully there will be a turn around soon before the hole is too big to get out of as a country
Click to expand...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: Sorry, I hate to turn this political, but Phil started it!!! Ahh, my thought, fflores, is, "Who runs your state? Cause that doesn't sound like someone I want as president!!!" LMAO
 
Richard J. Daley, father and mayor of Chicago
Richard M. Daley, son and current mayor of Chicago

Sons of the SoutSide.
 
Detroit (metropolitan area) is STUGGLING! The automotive industry is STUGGLING! Too many foreclosures to count. Too many homes on the market, even in the affluent areas. Automobiles are the main industry and the American companies are hurting big time. GM is closing plants and laying off blue & white collar workers now. Unemployment is at a 20 year high. unfortunately, there isn't much tourism in the area. It is a bleak picture. :(
 
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