our Economy, survey...

[sits in trees]

hey guy's how many of you have directly been effected by whats happening in our ecoonomy. are any of you unemployed or know of friends or relatives who might be? what types of jobs have you lost and will you be able to replace that job, what about small business people out there, how are you being effected?

just trying to get a feel of how bad NY is at this point, i do believe other states are far worse off than us.

[Mr VJP]

I'm in sales and work on commission.  This year is terrible.  I see more closed businesses than ever before.  Many malls have half of their stores up for rent and the ones that are still open have negotiated a lower lease.

Business owners are not buying anything unless they have to.  They aren't hiring new employees either because the public isn't spending money.  They are all in survival mode trying to stay in business and keep their costs down.

If Cuomo gets elected, many of them feel it's all over.

[fasteddie]

I retired from Xerox in 1998 . A few years later I started working part time for a guy that has a Real Estate Sign business . I would work a couple days a week installing Real Estate signs . I have hardly worked for the past few months as the market has slowed way down since they quit giving the home buyers rebates .

I didn't take the job to make a living . It got me out of the house and out in the public .

The Real Estate Market is hurting !

[Culvercreek hunt club]

We are seeing it in construction too. all along the east coast owners are holding on to what cash they have. They are not sure how the things like the health care bill, cap and trade etc. are going to effect them. Couple that with the down economy and most businesses are barely holding their own and definitely are not moving cash.

Where we have a problem with a down turn in the economy...the size of the projects we do (2-3 year projects) hold us through the initial downturn. People don't stop  30 million dollar projects once they are building. but on the back end we come out slower than a normal business. (We are down from this time last year over 400 employees). Once a company decised they are going to build the design and permit process take a while and theat slows us down coming out.

I also don't get so of this "stimuluis spending" roads, bridges...are you kidding me?. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand those are short term fixes. If you are going to spend the tax payers money at least put it in to jobs that will maintain themselves. (I am in no way in favor of stimulus spending by the way)

OK...I am off my soap box...lol

[WNYBuckHunter]

I am an IT consultant and things have been both good and bad for us. Our largest client (construction company that we have a separate group for) has cut back so we let someone go and scaled their stuff back a bit, but for those of us that work on the other clients, its been pretty good. Lots of small to medium sized companies are now outsourcing their IT needs to us rather than hire full time staff to do it. A company rarely goes back once they make that switch.

I do see the cuts in my construction clients though. One I deal with is down to a skeleton crew and most, if not all of their employees are down to part time hours.

The stimulus crap was a waste, it just staved off the inevitable and will end up making it worse when the real downturn happens. JMO

[Karpteach]

As a Special Ed teacher, the day job is going well. The after school jobs have dried up. Used to teach  adult ESL classes in the evenings and weekends. Haven't had a second job for approximately one year (and boy does it hurt).  

My hunting partner/best friend/brother-in-law, is in construction. Things are really bad. He had a work force of 11 a year and a half ago. Now, he has 3 guys and is letting them go. He will be working with his partner to get some money.

The sad part is, I feel no matter who is in office, they only worry about themselves. 

[bigd]

I have been unemployed since september of 2009 have had numerous interviews which were unsuccessful went back to school this august maybe there will be something soon whats next another depression we canot take care of our own but we offer public assistance to illegal immigrants

[outdoorstom]

I'm in Federal Law Enforcement, so the economy hasn't personally affected me. I do see signs of the downturn in our area though. The real estate market is terrible.....nobody is buying.

[HectorBuckBuster]

I have my own business. I deal in the collectibles market, and can tell you  it is very bad out there .I get calls everyday from people looking to sell  stuff. I also have picked up a nice side business with Lawyers that do  Bankruptcy, as hey have a huge amount of them, and I now do the appraisal of the  peoples collections for the bankruptcy courts.I was at a lawyers office a few weeks ago to drop a appraisal off and he showed me the stack of bankruptcies he had just filed, and another stack that he was waiting for people to pay, so they could be filed. He had over 100 cases alone. So image how bad this BK thing is going to be.Most of them where chapter 13, which people just reorganize their debits, and get to pay back there unsecured debt, over 5 years at like 15-30 percent on the dollar.They still have all their secured debt.I also do alot of outdoor shows during the summer, and still sold alot of items, but most of it was $10 or less items, anything over $30 was a tough and rare sale.

[sits in trees]

you guy's get the same feeling that i have, and that this might be the new normal, this is one of the first recessions i can remember where big corps are seeing gains and are doing well?? the recessions of the past were differant in that everyone seemed effected?

[HectorBuckBuster]

I think there are alot of different ways to cook the books. I have noticed when I go to the store buy groceries some of the prices have gone through the roof. Bacon is going out of sight, Sugar has gone up. I also also have noticed that packages sizes are getting smaller and the price is the same or more. I got a bag of sugar at Walmart the other day, and it is only 4lbs now instead of 5 lbs and was like $2.29 a bag now. I love how they say inflation is in check. Maybe they are not seeing the same stuff as me.

[sits in trees]

I'm in Federal Law Enforcement, so the economy hasn't personally affected me. I do see signs of the downturn in our area though. The real estate market is terrible.....nobody is buying.

alot of finacial experts are predicting a major economic downturn that could rival or be worse than the great depression, when and if the proverbial poo poo hits the fan we are all going down.

[jimbodwb]

I got laid off in Feb 09 and haven't worked since. I went back to school in summer 09 and I will graduate with a Computer Information Systems degree in December. 2 more months and then I will see what the job market is like but from what I hear I am screwed. Hopefully I won't have to take a sales or retail job cause that is what I am trying to get out of.

[Doc]

I hope that nobody is surprised by all this. How did anyone ever expect that Americans could compete in the global job market with the Koreans, Chinese or Mexicans or any of the citizens of 3rd world nations. I talked of this decades ago, and the only surprise is how we have been able to continue to develop our own overseas competition against the American worker, and still be able to maintain our standard of living. It really is all smoke and mirrors, and has absolutely no reality or foundation to it. Perhaps this is the correction that has been delayed through some crazy accident of economy. At any rate, now we are at the state of not really being involved in the manufacturing anymore and for some reason we continue to think that this never-never land can continue to thrive. It's hard to understand how we ever thought that we could sit over here in our 1/2 million dollar homes and our two or three cars per family and compete with those who don't even own such things. How on earth did we ever think that was going to work out anyway?

Doc

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Doc,

I know this is going to sound cold and callous but here goes. We do it to ourselves. While we may not be able to compete in some industries we have others that are leading edge in the world. The problem we have is, as a country we feel this need to damn near give our stuff away to those outside our boarders. Some warped sense of equal opportunity to the world masses. For instance, our Colleges and Universities. We have most of the best institutions in the world yet we give freebees to any foreigners that want to attend. Student visa….give me a freaking break. It is our resource and if anything should be at a discounted rate it should be to OUR children not someone from outside our boarders. It is our commodity PAY for it!

Russia has a drought…too freaking bad….you pay market prices.

Mexico has a problem…pay

You get hit by a Tidal wave in India…our resources to assist in reconstruction…pay

Anchor babies---no more. If you are illegal and need health care…go home.

The cost of our CHARITY is staggering and from what I see is always accepted but seldom appreciated.

We also have to get our affairs in order. Entitlements in our country are nuts. Bail out??? Are you kidding me. What happened to the free market…if you can’t run you business and keep it profitable it goes under. If there is truly a market need for your service someone will find a way to provide that service for a price that the market will bare. The GM debacle made me want to puke. I am not going to get on the buy American kick either….Anyone know which pickup has the Highest AMERICAN made content????? Well if you guessed Toyota Tundra…you are right….Ford is Second and Nissan has higher American made content that GM or Dodge.

Want to talk about an entitlement that artificially inflates costs and, in my opinion,  has contributed to our inability to compete. Unions. They had their place, but not now. I was in one….didn’t work out for me. I got in trouble with them because my production was too high….yup you heard it right….”slow down, you won’t make it in this business….you are making others look bad” . Now this is a generalization but one that is backed up by personal observation. Most American workers’ work ethic sucks. Before you guys come down on me ask yourselves……Do I know anyone I work/worked with that never gave a full days work for the full days wages they got” I bet we all know quite a few. How about the guy on workers comp that hurt his back so he couldn’t work but brought the paperwork into me on his HARLEY….and pushed it around just fine on the stone parking lot as he was leaving.

One of my responsibilities is recruiting. I have been to Technical Trade High Schools trying to get kids into the trades. Formal apprentice programs. Kids (18) offer them a job starting at 16 and hour and raises every 6 months. At the end of the 4 year apprenticeship they are making 32 and are a licensed journeyman. We pay for school and books that they attend 2 nights a week (during school year). The ones that start think the work is too hard and most aren’t even interested in the program. That cold, unfeeling part of me thinks they should go hungry and a career opportunity like that might appeal to them then.

I guess my point is, as a whole, our country is soft. I certainly hope we make it out of this with out hitting the bottom that some are predicting. I think it is going to take a shift in attitude on everyone’s part to pull it off though. Everyone needs to take responsibility for their own future…work for it…be proud of it.

Ok I am officially off my soap box and done rambling….We can start to worry about all this on Monday. For now over the weekend let’s focus on something we can control right now…..enjoying a sport we love. Good luck to everyone…..I want to see lots of pics come Monday.

[Doc]

The most damaging thing that we have given away over the past decades is our technology. In the later years of my career, I saw it happening first hand as more and more of our equipment was being designed and built overseas. We actually exported our design work by training foreign professionals to do our job and supplying them with whatever design info they needed to quickly get them up to speed. I was asked to go over to Taiwan to assist with this nonsense and I flat out refused. That was back in the 80's, so we've been doing it for a long time. We had foriegn outsourced companies come over here and steal our designs and patents. No that is the wrong term. We gave it to them so they could do our jobs (much cheaper) that we would have otherwise done.

I had to laugh when NAFTA was being discussed and the proponents were telling everyone that the Mexicans would simply be doing the jobs that Americans refused to do. That was a pile of crap back then and it's a pile of crap now. And it gets even worse when you're dealing with european and asian nations. What they can't currently do, we will train them to do.

Yes, there are a whole bunch of reasons for all this, many of which you have pointed out. But when we started to export designs and technology, that was the beginning of the end. That was our last bastion of excellence, and our companies gave it away. So today we not only don't make anything here anymore but we don't even invent or design anything here anymore (other than worthless trinkets). What's left? We can sell services back and forth to each other until the actual wealth eventually vacates the country.

Doc

[Culvercreek hunt club]

I agree...that was the problem I eluded to with the free college rant...we have bent over backwards to "even" folks up with us...we gave our advantages away for a pot a knife and a box full of glass beads.

[hang fyre]

I agree with doc and culver.  Lets stop giving everything away.  We have people starving in our own country, but any tragedy/earthquake/mudslide/tsunami etc in any other part of the world we bend over backwards.  Celebrities come out of the woodwork to raise money to help.  They start foundations and donate their time/efforts to help these people which is good I guess.  But What about the AMERICANS that are in need?  Our Military Jumps into huminatarian mode for these other countries in their time of need delivering food/supplies/ etc.  We pay for this and yet most of the world hates us anyway.  Why cant we just take care of our own?

[sits in trees]

I hope that nobody is surprised by all this. How did anyone ever expect that Americans could compete in the global job market with the Koreans, Chinese or Mexicans or any of the citizens of 3rd world nations. I talked of this decades ago, and the only surprise is how we have been able to continue to develop our own overseas competition against the American worker, and still be able to maintain our standard of living. It really is all smoke and mirrors, and has absolutely no reality or foundation to it. Perhaps this is the correction that has been delayed through some crazy accident of economy. At any rate, now we are at the state of not really being involved in the manufacturing anymore and for some reason we continue to think that this never-never land can continue to thrive. It's hard to understand how we ever thought that we could sit over here in our 1/2 million dollar homes and our two or three cars per family and compete with those who don't even own such things. How on earth did we ever think that was going to work out anyway?

Doc

makes you wonder and i really don't wanna sound like a defeatist but it seems our time at the top was so short, can this really be it???, i mean we were number 1 only since like the 50s. other empires/societies in history have lasted hundreds even thousands of years, the Romans and Ottoman empires lasted 1/2 century each, not to mention the Greeks , Where the hell did we go wrong! could it be our leadership wins first prize in corruption, or do things just happen faster in the 21st century. will the Chinese be down and out in 30 or 40 years, most experts say thier very far from even having reached their full potential? could it be we are just a flash in the pan, i'll be first to admit i'm no genius but i really don't see anyway out of this one.

our politicians are doing nothing but using our current situation to make gains for themselves, and they all stand there promising us things we all know they will never be able to deliver, it's like you vote on idealism today, yea i like him because i like his/her ideas???

[Mr VJP]

The question of where did we go wrong can be easily answered.  Americans were forced to feel guilty for the rest of the world's people.  All of the elected officials and all of the bleeding hearts forced us to believe we had to help the rest of the world no matter what the cost.

We helped the rest of the world until there was nothing left for us to give.  We gave it all away.  We didn't know we were doing that though, because our so called "leaders" weren't telling us we were bankrupting our economy and treasury, while they lined their own pockets with their "I got mine!" mentality.

A country gets the kind of government it deserves though.  America elected politicians who did this to us, therefore we did it to ourselves.

American's can save this country from total devastation if they start educating themselves about who they vote for and start caring about America sticking to it's core principles and the US Constitution.

The biggest problem with doing that is, America has changed so much, at least half of all Americans don't want to do that.  They are so brainwashed already, they will never be able to see the solution to this country's  problems.  I fear because of that, civil war is probably coming in our future.

[sits in trees]

boy civil war? who's it's going to be, rich vs poor, black vs white, replicans vs democrats,  latino vs whomever. makes you wonder, and it shows how well they have us divided, choosing a side would be tough.