Depression 2.0

[BO]

Let's mark this day as the start of this century's great depression.

The bank bailout bill -- aka 'the septic bank bill -- has failed and the DOW dropped 778 points today. Undoubtably, not the big crash yet to happen. The credit markets are frozen. As Paul Krugman states...the gears on wallstreet are full of sand.

You might not have been affected yet. You will. Let's hear some personal stories on what folks are doing to prepare. Have you stocked the pantry yet? Do you have a contingency plan should you lose your job? Supposedly the run on banks has started. Have you moved your savings out of the bank? What are doing about about your investments--your 401k, pension, etc.

Maybe you'll say, 'I ain't got nothing, so I got nothing to lose'. Truth is, unless you're homeless, with everything you own in the shopping cart you're pushing, well, that ain't exactly true. Maybe the reality of the situation hasn't hit yet. It will soon.

Welcome to the next great depression. So, what's your contingency plan?

[Mark]

The homeless already have too much exposure. They're exposed to the sun, the wind, the rain, the snow, and to 24-hour public view.

You can either talk about exploitation and profits, or you can talk about people.

Are they going to have auditions like American Idol for which homeless people get to be exploited?

This is America. If somebody on a motorcycle gets run over by a truck and doesn't have medical insurance, maybe they can have a website called, "Pimp this Paraplegic" to help with the hospital bills. In other countries everybody is entitled to health care. If you're the person who made the poor choice to ride a bike in a country where there just happened to be a truckdriver who hadn't slept in 48 hours, which system would you prefer?

Paradigm shift.

[pan]

Oh boy! Go for that edgy tone and get clicks that show the advertisers how many eyeballs per hour their advertising dollar buys!

[pan]

Kind of reminds me of my early Catholic school days when we had competitions between grades to see how many pagan babies we could save by donating our allowances.

[BO]

I've been thinking...why not just put up a web page with the statement, "Give me some of your money, I deserve it" and a donate button and see if it works.

givemesomemoney.com

I won't sell you a product or service you don't really need. And I'll save you half the cost.

No product. No service. No sweat.

[Mark]

I thought of that when I was about five. I was born in Brooklyn, New York, and they had vending machines in the subways but they were always broken and never worked, so you always saw people who had lost their money kicking the machines.

I wanted to put "Nothing for a Nickel" machines in the subways. People would put their nickels in, they wouldn't get anything, there would be a "Kick Me!" plate at the bottom people could kick, and lights would flash and say, "Thanks for the nickel--you got nothing in return." Truth in advertising.

[hannah j]

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[pan]

The vultures swoop in to pick on the carcass of Detroit. New liege-lords to reign over former unionized assembly line workers. Houses sold for pennies on the dollar.

[hannah j]

wow, how could i have missed this thread? i think i was recuperating from falling of my father's horse....but still, i was here! this is just to bump it up!

[pan]

Ms. Medusa just heard from her Chair that the problem Visiting Lecturer has been given her job back by the Dean and all of the adjunct instructors are cut. The Visiting is mediocre, non-cooperative and the students hate her. The adjuncts are highly qualified and the backbone of the program. About 2/3 of the classes will be cut.

[Mouse]

There's a huge art college here that exudes poisonous gasses in stultifying clouds that silence interlopers and intoxicate the bottom lickers who abound.
Best kept away from.
The hard headed hard hats are busy remodelling reality over glasses of something for the afternoon dear.
If you let out a peep their glances shrivel the open hand extended
in ordinary human ways.

They kept me out, thank God. My friend was acceptable, lauded and given a nice job for years and years. Now she bears no place for art in her heart and gasped, don't go, never go near there again, it's pure evil. And ran away.

I only know I lost the ability to speak in the gallery there one day for some minutes of deep dismay speaking a wodge of sound blinded and dragging itself along.

So. Who's making masks now?

[BO]

Sorry to hear that, Pan. I know so many intelligent, creative people who have been sidelined by this depression at a time when we need them more than ever to stimulate ideas that would help us survive--physically and spiritually. Instead, our money goes into the big black hole that wall street created. Vaporized.

I hope Ms. M is secure in her job. Take heart, seems we're all in the same boat. One job away from disaster. One throw of the dice.

[waldopaper]

years ago at the uni where i am now banned... there was an attempt of adjuncts to "organize." i went to one meeting... with one question... "how many of you are willing to strike... walk out of your classes... mid-semester?" well- huff puff contracts yabba yabba we're "professionals."

no, i said, we are not "professionals." we are contract labor. no more- no less. and unless you are willing to strike, this is all so much paper-shuffling dipdunk blather. (see why i was banned?) the full-timers and "administration" think they run with the jackals... but they are rabbits just like us... rabbits who surrender their kindred to keep the jackals from getting too hungry. Rumkowski rabbits. Jackal desert.

we pay for electricity (until we can figure out a way to make our own)... keep the mortgage at bay. we probably wouldn't have a mortgage if i hadn't pissed away all that time and bux on "education." i'd do it again. the "education" came free with the "degree" that cost way more than it was worth. our garden plots are prototypes. we can't possibly feed ourselves yet. We are on the edge of the population center. That's the best we have done so far... and it may not be far enough.