I feel bad....hell, the whole forum's constituency should feel bad..... that posters such as above, 'struth' & 'Duke'.....have failed to create an American life that insulates them and their family from the vicissitudes of a complicated many-faceted economy stretched across a huge American landscape. Gas at $3.85 has evidently wiped out their budgets. It is sad.
On the other hand, if they would get off their computers and chatroom-hobby and go look for honest work....well, life could get better.
Last week I drove to one of our properties.....a 40 mile trip on a state highway. I counted, at minimum, 14 "Hiring" signs. Two of them big roadside billboards offering $18.00 p.h. starting pay. Many others the sign-on-a-post of retailers. And that didn't count the several semi-trucks that had ..."We are hiring" messages displayed on the rear cargo doors.
I've lived through half a dozen 'recessions' in my long life. None of the previous ones had plentiful job openings with increasing wages; none of them had robust new housing starts or increasing values of existing residential housing. Interest rates on residential properties are below 6% for a 30yr mortgage; below 5% on a 15-year.
For context, when the bride and I moved from California to Chicago in the '80's we paid about 14.5% on a 30yr.
Also for context: Year over year inflation was 13.3% in 1979; 12.5% in 1980; 8.9% in 1981.
Fed Funds rate in 1980 = 18%. 2021 = .25%.
With no intention to be dismissive, I kinda sorta suspect we are hearing self-centered whining from snowflake boo-birds. The grievance-ridden ne'er-do-wells that are always out there on the fringes of America's productive local economies; and always complaining they ain't successful.
IMHO
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Citygator makes the point more succinctly than I could.
A hat-tip!
