On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:16:56 -0800 (PST), Chuck Gould
wrote:

On Jan 30, 8:47*am, HK wrote:
Chuck Gould wrote:
On Jan 30, 6:42?am, "JimH" wrote:

Gee, I wonder why ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and CNBC are trying their hardest to
make sure we dump into a recession. ?

Bad news outsells good news.

Some might think, "They're trying to throw the election to the D's!"

I disagree. They just want to create enough uncertainty in the market
that more folks will tune in every day to "see how bad things are
getting", thereby increasing ratings and creating some justification
for raising ad rates.

Also, the companies that survive economic downturn often do so by
*increasing* their advertising, particularly for consumer goods.

You can't be serious. Either that, or you are totally disconnected from
the harsh reality facing many millions of your fellow citizens who are
jobless, homeless, losing their homes, health-insurance-less, and
without much hope for the future.

How are social services doing in Seattle these days? Still pretty
miserable for those in need?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

About 1-2% of the homes in the US are in, or at risk of, foreclosure.
Yet it's headline news in every paper and the subject of "specials" on
radio and TV. In some of the worst hit communities, the number is as
high as 5%, meaning that 950 out of every 1000 households in those
worst hit communities have no reason to fear losing their home to the
bank or mortgage company.

The health insurance issue has nothing to do with economic cycling.
We have had a broken health services delivery model in the country for
at least 30 years. We have had booms and busts along the way, despite
the fact that our health insurance system is designed first to make
corporations wealthy, and only then to see about making people well.

I don't really *get* joblessness, except in cases where people are
physically unable to work. It's absolutely true that people may not be
able to get work in a field where they prefer to work or where they
have developed considerable (but possibly obsolete) expertise, but
there is plenty of work available in other fields. When I opted to
drop out of the educational system, many people remarked "You will
never amount to anything in life without a college education!" I had
the pleasure of hiring a few of them over the years to work for
me. :-) Point being, accepting joblessness is accepting the role of
"victim of circumstance", and that's a load of equine excrement. Most
of us can determine, or at least materially influence, our
circumstances.

Homelessness; 30 years ago most of the chronically homeless would have
been cared for in an institution. It's tragic that we leave these
least able, very often mentally unstable, individuals to forage
through garbage cans and sleep under cardboard boxes in the rain.
There is no answer to all homelessness, but treating these addicts and
alcoholics somewhere along the way would be less expensive than
constantly sweeping up after the human train wrecks.

If I am "disconnected" from folks who are jobless, homeless, and
without hope it's because of choices I made along the way. Choices
that were available to everybody else, by the way. No privilege in my
background, at all. My heart (and no small amount of money as well as
some volunteer time) goes out to relieve what suffering I can. As
tragic as the situation may be for those on the most hopeless fringes
of society- their situations are not typical nor should they define
who and what we are as the American people.

Very well said. Almost unbelievable. It shows an acceptance of personal
responsibility that I'd thought pretty nonexistent in liberals.

Of course, you're 'independent'. I'd forgotten.
--
John H