I just thought things were bad here.!!!!!!!

[DalesCarpentry]

I just thought things were bad here. I discovered Craigslist ( it is world wide ) a little while back. I was pretty bored tonight and started looking at the adds from other countries. I have to say we are still better off than the rest of the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! These people are so poor they don't even have anything to sale. If you were to compare their adds to the US adds you really would be shocked. Here is a link to the Pittsburgh adds. From there you can check out the rest of the world. Dale

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/

[Brett]

Oh no, as far as privately owned possessions are concerned we are still the wealthiest country in the world.  That's not to say that our average standard of living has not fallen greatly in the past decade and is probably far from hitting rock bottom.

However, our economy is strongly linked to that of the rest of the wold's, If our economy suffers everybody's economy suffers.  Think about it, where does most of the goods we purchase come from?   China, India, Tiwain, Pakistan, Germany, Russia, etc.  It's difficult to find anything made entirely in the USA any more.  If we don't have the dollars to spend on stuff it's not just our economy that is effected.   

[scootrd]

China will overtake the United States as the world’s largest trade economy in a few years.
and as the world’s largest economy within the next two decades. In this context, China’s
rise is viewed as America’s relative decline.

U.S. trade deficits with China, rose $23.7 billion (or 10.2%) to $256.3 billion, offsetting
improvements in the trade deficit with other countries such as Canada, Germany, the U.K.
and other EU countries, Taiwan, Brazil, and Chile.

Many warn that this situation will get worse as China increasingly moves toward production
and export of more high-value products, such as cars and computers. A more recent concern
has been efforts by Chinese state-owned firms to acquire U.S. companies and China’s accumulation
 of U.S. Treasury securities.

If China ever cashed in the US Treasury securities our whole economy would tank.

[Brett]

If China ever cashed in the US Treasury securities our whole economy would tank.

Not much chance of them doing that.  What would they do with all the cheap crap they sell to Wally-World, K-Mart, Target...?   

[rockbilly]

Dale....you ain't been looking for one of them escorts on there have you?

[SHOOTALL]

services or cars ?

[DalesCarpentry]

Dale....you ain't been looking for one of them escorts on there have you?

Nope. Never did use them. Dale

[Dixie Dude]

Right now, China needs us.  45% of everything they make comes to the US but it only amounts to a little over 10% of our total imports.  Most of the value of our imports is in oil which is about 50% of our total trade deficit.  So, they buy our T bills to finance our deficit spending.  So, if we solve our energy problem, we cut half our trade deficits and probably increase home grown energy which would help our economy.  However, the cap and trade bill is going to make our energy costs higher and not solve our energy problems.  Wind and solar cannot and will never solve all our energy problems.  We are going to have vehicles using a liquid fuel for the next 30-50 years.  Obama doesn't want nuclear power, nor coal, nor oil.  Even though we have about 200 year supply of oil on government land, and an 800 year supply of coal, and we can build breeder reactors for unlimited electrical production.  Nuclear is dangerous, even though we have over 100 nuclear power plants and 200-300 nuclear ships and submarines and have never had any major problems.  3-mile island was contained and shut down, so the safety equipment worked unlike Russia at Chernoble.