How difficult is life in the US?

“LOL, jimahl…you got to get out of the telescope, buddy…not everything is Republican and Democrat…Banks are non-partison…they’re in ‘it’ just for the money…this ‘downward trend’ you’re speaking of, is all about banks, mortgage lenders and the housing boom…the foundation being GREED. “

This downward trend can be traced right back to deregulation of the banking industry that allowed sub-prime lenders to even operate. And the deregulation was done by the GOP. Not the Dems.

“Of course, if you want to keep it between parties…The Democratic Congress was busy passing bills on what light bulbs we can use in the future (and their disposal), when they should have been paying attention FreddieMac and GinnieMae…and the bankers who were making all those sub-prime loans. “

The Democratic Congress has only been in control for 20 months. This problem started long before that.

So I take it energy independence isn’t important to you?

“This country does not offer less than it did 8 years ago. All my friends, including myself are doing better than we have ever done. A lot of that is maturity and personal growth. I do not know where this ‘the government owes me a big fat living’ stuff came from, but it has got to go.”

rickd, I am glad you and your friends are doing so well. I personally am doing ok, but not better. But August unemployment just hit a five year high. So things are not going so great for a lot of other people. No one is suggesting the the government owes anyone a job. What the government does owe the people, is to make sure it protects the interests of the people. And allowing oil lobbyiest to write the energy policy, or allowing credit card companies to write the bankruptcy bill, is not protecting the interests of the american people. It is protecting the interests of the CEOs and the stockholders of huge multinational corporations.

“And gas is horrible!”

Sorry, but it’s funny to me that you’re telling someone from another part of the world that US gas prices are horrible. In Germany, I pay around $8 per gallon. In Singapore, from what I’ve seen, it’s not much better.

If you’re not living in America, yet… then your first impression will probably be “What a bunch of whiners”…

And you’ll be right…We have it better than ANYWHERE in the world…and therefore much more time to complain.

phrannie

Living in california is expensive, and finances are always hard. My Fiance and I are looking to buy a house out of state, where things are much cheaper, although not by much. And gas is horrible!

LOL, jimahl…you got to get out of the telescope, buddy…not everything is Republican and Democrat…Banks are non-partison…they’re in “it’ just for the money…this “downward trend” you’re speaking of, is all about banks, mortgage lenders and the housing boom…the foundation being GREED.

Of course, if you want to keep it between parties…The Democratic Congress was busy passing bills on what light bulbs we can use in the future (and their disposal), when they should have been paying attention FreddieMac and GinnieMae…and the bankers who were making all those sub-prime loans.

p

This country does offer more than most. But it offers less now than it did 8 years ago. The camparison to other countries is apples and oranges. You must compare today against past trends. And in that comparison, we are definately in a downward trend, and the causes for that can easily be traced back to republican policies.

NZ has the average person under more financial stress than the you S of A.

No offense to anyone, but I do believe American’s do have it fairly easy. Not to mention the petrol prices. Here they got up to something like $2.20 or $2.30 per LITRE. Thats about $9 per gallon if my units of measurements are right. Americans do have RELATIVELY cheap gas compared to Europe, Australia etc

I think they need to focus less on the economy and more on issues like gangs and violence.