Are you concerned with The state of our Economy?

[wvumaryjane]

As a single mom, I'm terrified!

[rainman]

last week the gas here went from 3.44 to 3.65 overnight

if only my ssi check could have such increases

[wvumaryjane]

And it isn't just gas prices.. Gas prices are trickling down to everything we buy, from a head of lettuce, to a box of Captain Crunch. Heck, they even just raised the cost of my Garbage bill by 8 bucks a month because of the cost of Gas..

[WVUMntneerJim]

As a student in college, YES I AM F*CKING WORRIED!!! Shit's expensive up here in Morgantown... from rent right down to bottled water.

[wvumaryjane]

And another thing.. Last August I got a 3 % raise because that's all the hospital can afford.. They cut our out patient services completely So we aren't making any money now.. We went from a thriving department in the hospital to coving basic in patient services.. So we're NOT making money any more. Our staff has dwindled down to two people, and we are mandated to clock out early if we don't have any patients.. The next step is to make us a full time person and a part time person.. and someone is gonna lose their benefits.

I actually made LESS money in 2007 than I did in 2006, and as a Single mom I still OWED 491 dollars in taxes for my taxes in 2007. Everything is going up except my paycheck and a woman bringing in less than 35,000 a year, I 'm still paying taxes come April 15 next year unless they adjust my taxes to take out 20 bucks a paycheck MORE just so I can break even with the IRS next year!!

Hell, 20 bucks equvocates to less than 5 gallons of gas a pay check these days.. Paying more, making less.

I'm down to bare bones as it is..

[WVUMntneerJim]

Something HAS to change...

[dehayes35]

The economy is in TERRIBLE shape right now. I don't see it getting better any time soon, either. The housing market has really been carrying the economy for the past few years, coupled with the cost of the war (and believe it or not, war actually helps our short-term economy - hell, WWII helped get our country out of the Great Depression). Well the housing market has fallen apart thanks to sub-prime mortgage brokers and the people who agreed to those types of variable loans. I heard on the news the other day that 1 in 7 homeowners fear they will miss a mortgage payment within the next 6-12 months. SCARY STUFF!!! There is going to be a FLOOD of available housing on the market, more so than what exists today, and prices are going to fall. This is going to hurt current homeowners in a major way! Retirement for a lot of the older generation is to sell their home at a certain age and start renting, using the extra money from the sale of their house to pay bills. If they are unable to sell their houses, or can't sell them at a decent price, that group of people is in big trouble!

For economic benefit purposes, the war in Iraq has dried up. There is much less need for new tanks, airplanes, bombs, weapons as opposed to the earlier stages of the war. The workers in America producing these goods (and while most of them are likely assembled/produced outside of the US, many of the corporate HQ's are based in the US) will see a dip in profits as a result.

Please keep in mind, though...we in American are lucky to be able to have the luxuries we have though, even in rough economic times. I often listen to NPR and hear about the stories of 3rd world countries. For example, the average househole income in Haiti is $2 per day and 1/2 cup of dry rice costs $1 at the store. The people of that country are literally starving to death!

While I'm not saying our government needs to step in and bail them out (I think America should look out for Americans first, and then deliver foreign aid, but I realize that's an unrealistic goal), but sometimes stepping back to realize how fortunate we are, even in bad times, helps change our attitudes about the situations we're in.

Sorry for rambling, but thanks for listening I feel very strongly about solid economic policies, and I don't approve of how our govt. allocates funding right now. We need to reverse the national debt (even if it means a few years of a mild recession) and focus more of our federal money back into this country and less leaving US soil.

[rainman]

yea...what doug said

[WVUfanPHILLY]

Def worried. Doing everything I can to save on the heat and soon to be cooling bills.

[smurph]

Don't worry. Dubya has a plan to solve everything. He is going to give billionaires and large corporations additional tax cuts. Then when it becomes impossible for most Americans to pay their bills, the large oil companies and military production companies will simply take their trillions of dollars and their many multimillion dollar homes and bail out all the working class people.

Obviously, that was an attempt to be facetious.