ThatDamnedPanda
Posts: 6060
Joined: 1/26/2009 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: rexrgisformidoni I can't do anything about things, so no reason to stress about it too much. Yeah it makes me angry, but I have a job, and I have money and food on my table. I know I will have to cut back and already have, but its like another poster said, most of us will make it through just fine. I was the one who said that, but at the same time I have to admit it's probably not quite that simple. The problem is, in order for people to benefit from that realization, most of them are going to need to redefine their concept of "just fine." For too many Americans, any existence that does not allow them to spend 110% of their yearly income on vacations and the latest technological toys is not only far from just fine, it's not even tolerable. The new economic reality is going to be very, very different from the one that is even now collapsing all around us, and I think very few people have even begun to comprehend that. When I (and, I think, you) talk about things being just fine in the end, what we mean is we'll have food on the table and a roof over our heads. We won't have to worry about our basic necessities. We'll get by, and we'll still have very good lives, but the luxuries to which we have become accustomed are for the most part a thing of the past, or at best, just that - luxuries, things we treat ourselves to every now and then instead of taking for granted that we can have them anytime we want just by applying for another credit card. One of the things that disgusts me the most about so many of my fellow Americans is the sense of entitlement, the conviction that they deserve anything they want simply because they want it. The fun's over, at least for the foreseeable future. If we're very lucky, and we get very, very good leadership from the Obama Administration, we may (in a few years) get back to a way of life that's somewhat similar to the one that just blew up in our faces, but I'm sure not counting on it. Because you can't count on luck, and based on what I've seen of the Democratic leadership over the last couple of weeks as they've butchered this so-called "economic stimulus package" and failed to respond to the continuing and deepening crisis in the banking industry, I don't think we can count on much useful help from them, either. I think we've got some very tough times ahead of us, much tougher than a lot of people dare to imagine right now. But. Like I said, most of us will still be fine. Just not the same kind of fine we've allowed ourselves to become accustomed to. It remains to be seen how well the average American grasps that and adjusts to it.
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Panda, panda, burning bright In the forest of the night What immortal hand or eye Made you all black and white and roly-poly like that?
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