Made To Shopsmith Quality Standards In Taiwan

[algale]

It sounds as though you are saying that the 50s, 60s and early 70s could not have happen.

Boy are we ever off topic. I'm sorry, Ed. The devil made me do it.

Late 60-mid 70s 30 year mortgages where over 10%, savings was running about 6-7% depending on CD or not. Car loans were running about the same as mortgages.
Then we hit the hyper inflation from the later 70s- early 80s, with rates in the mid to high teens.

Okay tell me one CEO that got multi million dollar bonuses for destroying the company back in the 70, 80.
Hey I am not against profit but we have CEO's and others making more money in a year than a normal human could spend in a life time. Something is wrong! Really wrong! And we simply refuse to see it. You talk about home interest on home loans being low okay. What about the biggest and most common loan people have credit interest. Those rates are soaring. Look at ATM fees and other bank fees all at previously unknown levels. And we all know banks are doing terrible that is why we gave them a bail out and they in turn build on every corner. The bail out money that was to help people killed in the housing market collapse was used instead to buy land and build more banks.
Again if you don't see what is going on I have this bridge .....

In the 70's, 80's, 90's the only people I knew that didn't have a job was those that didn't want to work. Today I'm constantly running into people without steady work. People that give 100 percent but can only find part time or seasonal work. That is not normal as prices keep going up and politicians can hold $40,000 a plate dinners and have the tickets sold out months in advance. Or give a speech to a select group of people and be paid nearly a Million dollars.
What possibly can a person say that is worth a million dollars to say it? Something is wrong!

I got this bridge.....

You can't really draw accurate conclusions about what's going on with employment on a state let alone national level by relying on what you hear from talking to the people you know or meet, which is probably fewer than a 1000 people.

The unemployment rate (4.9% nationally) is actually pretty low by historical standards. And Florida (4.7%) is actually a little lower than the national average. And before you go all conspiracy theory on me, the BLS which calculates the unemployment rate, is non-political and has used the same method for decades for both republican and democrat administrations. The facts are here for anyone to see. http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet

[Ed in Tampa]

Late 60-mid 70s 30 year mortgages where over 10%, savings was running about 6-7% depending on CD or not. Car loans were running about the same as mortgages.
Then we hit the hyper inflation from the later 70s- early 80s, with rates in the mid to high teens.

Okay tell me one CEO that got multi million dollar bonuses for destroying the company back in the 70, 80.
Hey I am not against profit but we have CEO's and others making more money in a year than a normal human could spend in a life time. Something is wrong! Really wrong! And we simply refuse to see it. You talk about home interest on home loans being low okay. What about the biggest and most common loan people have credit interest. Those rates are soaring. Look at ATM fees and other bank fees all at previously unknown levels. And we all know banks are doing terrible that is why we gave them a bail out and they in turn build on every corner. The bail out money that was to help people killed in the housing market collapse was used instead to buy land and build more banks.
Again if you don't see what is going on I have this bridge .....

In the 70's, 80's, 90's the only people I knew that didn't have a job was those that didn't want to work. Today I'm constantly running into people without steady work. People that give 100 percent but can only find part time or seasonal work. That is not normal as prices keep going up and politicians can hold $40,000 a plate dinners and have the tickets sold out months in advance. Or give a speech to a select group of people and be paid nearly a Million dollars.
What possibly can a person say that is worth a million dollars to say it? Something is wrong!

I got this bridge.....

You can't really draw accurate conclusions about what's going on with employment on a state let alone national level by relying on what you hear from talking to the people you know or meet, which is probably fewer than a 1000 people.

The unemployment rate (4.9% nationally) is actually pretty low by historical standards. And Florida (4.7%) is actually a little lower than the national average. And before you go all conspiracy theory on me, the BLS which calculates the unemployment rate, is non-political and has used the same method for decades for both republican and democrat administrations. The facts are here for anyone to see. http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet

There are many people not counted by the BLS and when added they represent 17.7% to nearly 22 % check these sites. http://columbiacountyobserver.com/maste ... gures.html

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_da ... ent-charts

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48468748

Look at the U6 numbers for Florida more like 17%.

Actually my impromptu survey was fairly close to what these sites report.

[algale]

The BLS method hasn't changed. So saying they don't take into account X makes no difference. The rate is still historically on the low side to all those other years they also didn't count X.

[Ed in Tampa]

The wolf is upon us it is time we wake up and say enough! Either that or learn to speak Mandarin because they pretty much hold all of our $20 trillion debt. Buy more foreign goods it is good for our economy, does anyone seriously believe that? If so I got this bridge.....

Ed (and Dusty)this is from Wikipedia:

"On July 29, 2016, debt held by the public was $14 trillion or about 76% of the previous 12 months of GDP.[5][6][7][8] Intragovernmental holdings stood at $5.4 trillion, giving a combined total gross national debt of $19.4 trillion or about 106% of the previous 12 months of GDP.[7] $6.2 trillion or approximately 45% of the debt held by the public was owned by foreign investors, the largest of which were the China and Japan at about $1.25 trillion for China and $1.15 trillion for Japan as of May 2016.[9]"

Although this is about four years ago, I do believe that the Chinese have divested themselves of a portion of our debt so their holdings are somewhat less that stated here. This amount($1.25 trillion) is not even close to
"they (Chinese) pretty much hold all of our $20 trillion debt."

P.S. If the bridge price is reasonable, I may be interested if it is a toll bridge.

Dick

Check your numbers
As of September 2014, foreigners owned $6.06 trillion of U.S. debt, or approximately 47% of the debt held by the public of $12.8 trillion and 34% of the total debt of $17.8 trillion.The largest holders were China, Japan, Belgium, the Caribbean banking centers, and oil exporters.The share held by foreign governments has grown over time, rising from 13% of the public debt in 1988[45] to 25% in 2007.

As of September 2014 the largest single holder of U.S. government debt was China, with 21% of all foreign-held U.S. Treasury securities (10% of total U.S. public debt). China's holdings of government debt, as a percentage of all foreign-held government debt are up significantly since 2000 (when China held just 6 percent of all foreign-held U.S. Treasury securities).

There is talk that at one time the US was paying OPEC their price on the condition that they bought one dollar of US debt for every actual two dollars spent. Whether this is true I really don,t know but it had to have some basis since it appeared in so many articles.

[algale]

Check your numbers
As of September 2014, foreigners owned $6.06 trillion of U.S. debt, or approximately 47% of the debt held by the public of $12.8 trillion and 34% of the total debt of $17.8 trillion.The largest holders were China, Japan, Belgium, the Caribbean banking centers, and oil exporters.The share held by foreign governments has grown over time, rising from 13% of the public debt in 1988[45] to 25% in 2007.

As of September 2014 the largest single holder of U.S. government debt was China, with 21% of all foreign-held U.S. Treasury securities (10% of total U.S. public debt). China's holdings of government debt, as a percentage of all foreign-held government debt are up significantly since 2000 (when China held just 6 percent of all foreign-held U.S. Treasury securities).

There is talk that at one time the US was paying OPEC their price on the condition that they bought one dollar of US debt for every actual two dollars spent. Whether this is true I really don,t know but it had to have some basis since it appeared in so many articles.

Just google it. Numerous articles. All say around $1.25 trillion or less.

[jsburger]

This just my opinion and I don't think anything anyone can say will change it. I think, regardless of the time in the last 50 years, people that say they can't find a job don't want a job. They don't take a job because it is not something they want to do or the pay is too low. The "want to do" is making money to support yourself instead of leaching off the government. Having a solid work record in any job gives you an opportunity to move on to something you want to do.

My father was the personnel manager (human resources?) for Collins & Aikman Corp. used to say "If you don't have any experience I can't hire you". I used to say "How do I get experience if no one will hire me".

Good grief, we are paying burger flippers $15 an hour. I don't have any idea what my hourly pay was when I was active duty AF loading bombs because it was 24/7. When I retired I got a job as an AF contractor as an aircraft electrician re-wiring F-16 aircraft for the night vision system. That was in around 2002. My starting pay was $18 and something an hour. Does a burger flipper have the same skills that I have ? I don't think so.

It is called entry level jobs. If that is all you want then don't complain about about the pay. Do something for yourself instead of relaying on a hand out.

Why do most of the immigrants come to this country? For the incredible opportunities to make a better life. If you say you can't find a job you are not looking!

[ERLover]

That is why I stopped posting here, it could go on for ever, even if you would be a World Economist Expert, like Global Warming debates, just make saw dust!!! It is what it is and you cant control it!!!!!