Auckerman, you know we love you, but IMHO, your outlook is insulting to the workers at the bottom the ladder, and the equivalent of “let them eat cake.”

Funny that it’s also quite akin to how The NY Times just wrote a piece blaming workers for the unemployment situation, advocating “American manufacturing workers should take average real wage cuts of as much as 20 percent to get into global balance.”

Why should WE, Joe and Jane Average, continue tightening our belts (we are out of room for new holes, by the way) as the fat cat bastards running Wall Street continue to get rich off our backs through tax bailouts, rock bottom stock prices, etc., etc.?

Completely ludicrous.

I think one should look to the hyper salaried individuals charged with operating, maintaining and regulating the global (or at least national) monetary systems who point blank failed to see and prevent the obviously impending storm. What’s more they have the good fortune it would seem to maintain their wonderful lifestyle and burgeoning consumerism throughout the entire episode. Indeed they are flourishing like never before since the value of assets has tumbled allowing them to turn their generously maintained liquidity (courtesy of the tax payer) into assets at rock bottom prices guaranteeing high returns in a short span of time as the financial outlook slowly improves. All at the expense of Mr & Mrs average who have seen their heavily mortgaged assets plummet in value, their jobs threatened or disappear all together and their tax burden in the coming years and generations ride off the scale for the foreseeable future.

You are correct, everyone has to face the realities of managing money regardless of income though if your basic needs (food, clothing, shelter etc) are exceeding your income and your working two or three jobs to make ends meet then better money management skills becomes a mute point really. You can’t get blood from a stone.

No, we haven’t over spent or lived the good life for too long, we are all tightening our belts because we have been let down by those who should know better, were and still are paid handsomely to know better and were too busy moving truck loads of cash into their accounts without any thought of the long term consequences to the financial system. That is why the good people Renee described are having to work long and unedifying hours, drive hundreds of miles a week and accept lousy conditions.

Hear the sizzle??? Hell, they can’t afford to drive to the restaurant to listen.

Yes, the times are the toughest they’ve been in years, but that just means we have to toughen up with them. Sacrifices will have to be made such as long commutes, long work days, and the scramble to keep up with the cost of living. What’s the old saying, “The good old days have never been and probably never were.” Think back to those prosperous days of Dot Com mania when the money flowed like the steady tinkle of that cherub in Bruge (Belgium), but with that easy money came inflated costs for housing, cars, and arugula – you just can’t win it seems.

I bring up Europe as I’m writing from a tradeshow in Berlin where the unemployment level in Germany is around 10%, but things are getting better here I hear as domestic production is up. In speaking with German friends we all concluded that what works for and works against the US economy are the extreme highs and lows whereas in Germany the extremes are not has high or as often.

I’m not saying they have it better here but on the surface folks seem a lot less nervous about healthcare, jobs, education, and so on than Americans. Are they happier? I’m not sure. Is America less of a country for extreme fits of poverty and wealth? I’m not sure either. What I do know is we Americans need to personally smarten up when recognizing what we need over what we desire.

In Germany folks have smaller houses, cars, appliances, kitchens, they just don’t have the free range space like us Americans. Some of us in US have made it no secret that consumerism can become really tiresome and taxing on our psyches, no doubt. Ever visit a 2.5 family and bear witness to all of the baubles and stuff their kids get sticky and then tire of? Germans, like everyone else, buy eDistractions for their progeny just like Americans, but many live in apartments with limited space, therefore each purchase has to be a considered one because storage is always at a premium. Maybe we need more acquisition cools downs in the country, but then what would our friends who work at Amazon do all day, learn Ikebana?

No, this is not a diatribe how the US is wanting, but rather acknowledgment that life is not easy for just about everyone nor should it be. Even if you inherit millions you’ve still got to manage that money and that takes some understanding of how money works and what it takes to preserve it. The same rules apply to those of us who are not millionaires, actually, the art of managing money applies even more so to those who have little of it to waste.

Hang in there America cause someone somewhere eats steak, others Spam, the rest? They hear the sizzle.

Enrico strikes again!

I’m looking forward to hearing more about your experiences.

Your work sounds really cool. Congrats on staying afloat (hahaha, pun intended!). Being self-employed is the way to go, you just can’t count on that paycheck, ever.

OK so if it’s the teenagers, where are theygetting their money? Hmmm…

Oh, and I think it is teenagers buying most of that stuff–they are the only ones with money in their pockets these days.