A few (random) thoughts on the current economy...

I remember reading and hearing many times about the state of
affairs during The Great Depression. Mostly what comes to mind is
that people frequently comment that in regards to money it's that it
would buy a lot but that practically no one had any.

I look at our current situation and have to admit that people were
actually in a better position generally than their descendants are
now. Back then, a relatively small amount of money would buy quite
a lot. There was once an older gentleman I spoke to while working
a job at a little park. He told me that he was one of the lucky ones
as he managed to find a job that paid five dollars a week, with the
added bonus of a pint jar of homebrew on Fridays. lol And I realize
just how much the nature of our money has changed since he had that
job. Now though, a little money won't buy much and no one seems to
have any and the few that do have any are hanging onto it for the
most part.

Our situation has been made worse by large corporations that allowed
their greed to cloud their judgment when it came to the concept of
outsourcing work. It is my belief that if there had been few or no
jobs sent overseas many of our current problems would not exist.
Some people may remember TV commercials from the eighties featuring
Bob Hope in the "Made in the U.S.A." campaign they had for several
years. This was back when seeing Chinese and other foreign made
goods was just becoming an all too common thing.



Now though it is hard to actually find US made goods and if you do
find them, you tend to pay dearly for them.

I am not going to lay blame on any one company or individual. It
seems to have become the general mindset of too many people that
excess greed is a good thing. Look at the record profits the big
oil companies have reported the last few years as a prime example.
The fact one of their executives sat in front of a TV camera and
claimed that 80 billion dollars wasn't really that much money
should give us all pause.