In my place of employment we manufacture forged axels and the machines that make them spit out 4 to 5 thousand in an 8 hour shift, these axels go on trucks and suv's, military,lots of things anyhow over the past five years we have had robotics added to the end of the lines instead of a man stacking these axels on a pallet a robot does, this has caused alot of men to lose there brutish but well paying union jobs, anyhow those of us left throgh senority were trained to run the robots and fix the minor mishaps. I would say that over half the workforce was eliminated in my dept. the saveings was not passed to the customers nor to the workers but to the owners. the two robotic engineers they have are not all that well paid themselves and grumble more than we union workers. It all sounds nice to be more efficient but my gut tells me that all this money being saved by all these companies due to atomation is simply being invested in China

Hey, life happens. A lady in one of my classes had to quit because she came home on January 3rd to see a u-haul driving away. Her husband had packed up his stuff and just left her and their children. Now she has to find a way to deal with the house, utilities, and take care of the kids on one income instead of two.

So is Dave saying that it is her fault that her husband decided to abandon the family because he can't take being a parent anymore and doesn't want to be tied down anymore? It's things like this that also cause financial troubles and make it hard for a person to hang on to a home. It isn't just because people were living beyond their means.

Or someone is in a job making great money, but the job is slowly killing him. He realizes that he can accept stress related highblood pressure and ulcers and live with the related health problems, or he can quite a job at which he has topped out the pay scale and have to start new at the bottom of the pay scale and can no longer afford everything.

What about an economic climate that has been telling people for a long time now that they only way to keep the economy healthy is for people to spend money. A financial climate that makes it easy to get credit. What about retail business that actually award prizes when cashiers get people to apply for the store card. What about companies that reward stores that get the most credit card conversions in that district.

We didn't get to be a credit society because people were stupid and didn't know what they were doing. We became a credit society because we were taught that it would be a good thing, because businesses stress and push their store cards. Because that emergency ALWAYS happens eventually. Because our own government tells us that the only way to keep afloat it to keep money circulating. Because the business concept that you have to spend money to make money has become such an often quoted concept that people have gotten it ingrained into their thinking out of context.

There are many reasons that people have trouble. There are many factors coming into play here. It isn't all the government's fault and it isn't all business' fault, and it isn't all the fault of the person who finds himself in a tough place financially.

But there is a point, stop this horrible governmental hemorrhaging of money in mismanaged war and start taking care of things at home. The government and the people are sometime a reflection. The government overspends as much as some people do. Is it any wonder that some people do see anything wrong with it when that's the way that even the government handles things?

Start looking at ways to make the economy work. Start looking at the fact that cost of living increases at a far faster rate than income. Deal with the issue that cost of living has gotten so high that so many average hard working people are below the poverty level. And not because they aren't trying. Deal with the issue that most food servers are still only getting just over 2$ an hour and the customers are required to pay their salary rather than the employers. Customers are already paying it in the cost of the meal, then paying it again in the tip they are guilted into having to pay, because the servers are given a joke of a wage. Deal with these issues at home for a change.

well who do you think created china? it wasnt chinese business men it was western money and companies that started this whole ball of crap rolling. we are competeing withourselves and the fortune 500 companies are the ones owneing jointly or alone the chinese companies that are exporting back to america. Consider China is a communist country, how did they become our biggest tradeing partner? did you vote on it or I ? no it was a government/business decission that has brought this country to its knees.

Yea it was Europe.

And China. seeing that they were the worlds largest economy since 1700 which was before the USA was established. We passed them up in 1875 but they remained second. So uhhh they were always our biggest competitor.

Sure buddy, economic History of China.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_China#Nationalist_Republic

after reading this thread, I am definitely confused. It appears to me that people think the gov't is to blame, and yet want the gov't to be more involved in the solution? I have never seen the gov't do anything except make whatever the situation is become worse. I watched gov't regulations nearly kill my town, and watched ppl with dreams come back and revive it. I have ppl working for me that have more in monthly payments for new cars, 4-wheelers, pickups, snowmobiles,big screen tv's, etc, and complain about being too poor to buy food(I pay $1077/mo for full health coverage, $100 deductible, for each employee and a min starting wage of $15/hr with a top of $31/hr with an average per employee of 9.5 hrs overtime per week). I drive a 1990 pickup, paid for, live in a two bedroom house, paid for, watch a 21" tv, bought in 1996, paid for, no 4 wheeler, no snowmobile,and I can afford to eat and pay my own health insurance, and don't want any gov't interference. I compete quite well with China and everyone else. I am not a victim, I just got off my butt and went to work. I average about 75 hours a week, which if you figure my income out hourly, with overtime at time and a half, I work for about $13/hr. Hmmmmm...maybe I should have the gov't give me some sort of bonus to get my standard of living up to my employees? Enough of my rant...feel free to ignore it all. "If you ain't happy with what you are doing or how you are living, just get motivated and change it, no one but you can do it"

I am managing on 9.50 an hour, I havn't bought any new clothes in at least 3 years except underwear & a 3.00 skirt on clearance sale. I eat a lot of oatmeal & salami sandwiches, have a 92 mercury wagon, I am buying a trailer & it's in a park until I can afford land.

I am not just complaining, my point is this I work full time, am very frugal, & I am just surviving. I am 45 how long can I do this? I see woman in there 60s still struggling like me, is this all we have to look forward to? What's going to happen to all the single people out here just getting by if things get worse? I will never be able to retire, I'll have to work until I can't & then shoot myself. I spend hours writing a budget, & then the car breaks down & the buget with it. At times I just wonder why I keep trying.