As I look at the news, and in the newspapers, People are being layed off left and right, The old people who have money in CD,s and they are turning over at a lower interest rate. {old people are good at not spending money} I would like to know how the economy is going to pick up, when all our manufactureing jobs are over seas. where are all these people who are layed off going to go to work. Even McDonalds is not doing good. I read where touristism is off, motels are laying off, and also Resturants too. And President Bush wants us to spend,Spend what, if we don"t have the money. Use the credit cards, my josh, most out there have them maxed to the healt now.I see hard times comeing. I am just a old lady that lived through the depression as a child. My dad once sent me into a store to swipe a can of soup. cause he didn"t think they would do any thing for a child. Tomatoe soup, I picked out. I quess I better close, Love Irene

-- Irene texas (tkorsborn@cs.com), September 23, 2001

Answers

He will get the same place Roosevelt did in the 1930s -- make it on the gov't printing presses.

-- Joe (CactusJoe001@AOL.com), September 23, 2001.

Actually, I've heard just the opposite, that people are not putting off spending money on purchases that they were going to make anyway. Recessions and business booms come and go with time, we just have to wait for the next wave of this cycle to go through. People always say, "well, this time it's different", but I don't think that's really true. The US has had wars or threats of war before and things just keep marching on with the economic cycle continuing. I'm beginning to think that the terrorism attack we experienced here in the US will in the end just accelerate the recession that we were already threatened with, and that we will come out of it sooner than we would have otherwise. Keep your chin up, Irene. :)

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), September 23, 2001.

I too have maxed out the credit cards. I tried to spend $20.00 more but the old check just don't stretch that far. Besides shouldn't we try to pay off our debts and save a bit for the long haul?

-- w.w. (ww@freedom.net), September 23, 2001.

If I remember my history correctly, don't wars usually give the economy a boost. Isn't WWII what helped get our economy going after the depression? Not that I want a war, mind you. Personally I think almost all Americans live way to high on the hog and could do with a little dose of "use it, use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!"

-- debra in ks (windfish@toto.net), September 23, 2001.

debra, you are correct. The gov'ts social policies did not get us out of the depression in the 30s. If anything, they just made the situation worse. What got this country going economically was when industry geared up for WWII production. The gov't printed tons of money to buy war supplies, imposed rationing to limit workers spending their new wages and introduced war bonds for them to spend their money upon. After WWII all the war bond and other savings unleashed a consumer spending binge that lasted until the late 50s.

-- Joe (CactusJoe001@AOL.com), September 23, 2001.

Debra is right in that the economy is going to be buoyed up by the war. That is where a lot of people are going to be employed. This country needed a shakeup in the economy (not that this was the way to get it) and I think it will be a good thing in the long run. It has made us stop and think about what we do as a country. I wonder now how many people will start buying American. I have always tried to buy American. My three vehicles are all American. We had too many airlines already and that is why they are failing so quicky. What kind of business is it that you couldn't have a 50% cut in business for a couple of weeks and not recover? An overextended one. That is the way these airlines have been running and that is why they are going to have it tough. I don't think we should bail them out. We are a capitalist society. If you and I owned a business and had a hard go of it, the government wouldn't bail us out. Why do it for the big companies. Let the market place pare down the numbers of airlines to what we really need. We already have too many restaurants and fast food places. We have four McDonald's all within a two mile radiance in my town. That is ridiculous. None of the restaurants have really been profiting. They are all getting by on a shoestring. We need this correction to make people wake up and quit opening up so many restaurants so that no one is really making a decent living. How many small business owners do you know personally that have failed? How many that have succeeded to stay in business at least five years? Think about it. I bet you know a lot more in the first group than the last. The country's appearance of a land of plenty is deceiving. Many businesses are in trouble but we keep starting new ones. I think that a lot of businesses are really just existing as long as the savings and/or capitalization of the owner. When that is exhausted, they close and the next schmuck jumps in until his/her money runs out. All of these businesses are just drains for people with some money. With so many businesses, particularly restaurants, no one really succeeds. We really need to pare down. If we go into a recession, that will probably make that happen. It was inevitable anyway. People that have overextended their credit cards are going to get hurt the worst. They were living beyond their means and now they will have to pay the piper and they may not have a job to do that. I plan to continue the same buying habits that I have had for the past few years. Don't use credit cards and keep paying down my debt. I buy things that are necessities and minimize the amount of luxuries I buy and try to amuse myself with inexpensive hobbies like reading library books and gardening (which although is not particularly inexpensive it puts food on the table so the money is not spent just for enjoyment.) When I wanted a more expensive luxury or toy, (like this computer) I saved up the money to buy it rather than go further in debt. I will be debt free next year (except for the mortgage) and then I will start paying that down as well. We needed to change and this is going to make us do it whether we want to or not.

-- Colleen` (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), September 23, 2001.

war is NOT good for anyones economy, wether it is being fought on your soil or not! wwI began an international slump that allowed mal -contents to elect hitler and was a part of our own 1929 crash. wwII was also devestating to a generation of the male workforce w/ death,crippling, and lack of marketplace skills since their education was limited in scope. the u.s. geared up commercial factories into war supplly factories so quickly in part because the commercial goods were not selling well,due to international econ. slump because of the war, and gov't contracts paid much better. What gave a false impression of war is good for the economy, was the Marshal plan. the gov't. kept our factories open by producing tractors, goods,& raw supplies needed to rebuild europe. and as they rebuilt they repaid those loans of money or goods rebuilding our economy. the '50's housing boom was fueled by major gov't. subsidy of g.i. bills,prefab /qounset<-sp? houses,& fannie mae morgt. loans. if you compare the value of 1950's dollar & current value, gas,oil,bread were much more expensive then. So i hold to history's example of less people at home making goods/services and stockpiled & currently produced wealth/goods used up to supply armed forces leads to an economic downturn.

-- bj pepper in C. MS. (pepper.pepper@excite.com), September 23, 2001.

The sale of War Bonds WAS what kept the war effort going. As far as jobs are concerned, there were tons of jobs because all the men under age 49 went to war and left over a million job openings. Women then went to work to cover those jobs, especially in the factories for war supplies and equipment. Problem this time is -- all the women are already working! If there is a ground war, we will probably have to enact the draft because we will be fighting in several countries.

We can't rely on what happened in the past. This is a whole differant ball game this time. Economy is differant, job situation is differant, technology is differant, and world weapons and attitude is differant. We are going into an era we know nothing about nor are prepared for because, altimately....no one REALLY knows what will happen.

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), September 23, 2001.

Here is my opinion for what it is worth. We stocked up for Y2K like very few even tried to do. We learned somethings would work some would not. For one you can't depend that any vehicle can be kept running even with fuel there was things that broke during the first six months of 2000 that we never thought about getting spare parts for and neither did the mechanics. So unless we wanted to step back to the 1830's we just could not expect to keep our life style the same. Give up electicity and all the gagets that go with it. That sure takes a lot of preparing list much shorter. The real shortage during war 2 was no new vehicles for any one during the whole war. And since I thought the president is probably at least partially right about spending money to keep the jobs open and so on we just bought a new van last week. Mabey it will help and no I am not going to try to store up on every thing. At this point I only last about 30 days past losing the local drug store so at least if we have a complete break down I will go out in a new truck. Funny how your outlook changes as you get older.

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), September 23, 2001.

I agree with Colleen points . . . we have way to many choices to buy the same darn thing for the same darn price. Too many restaurants, too many strip malls, too many shoe stores, etc. etc., all selling the same thing. Really ticks me off sometimes.

A nearby town of 105,000 has doubled their number of restaurants (60+), retail stores abound, banks darn near tripling their number (Now coming to a location near you!), shucks people this war might be a good thing for our country. Get our priorities straight, get us to see the big picture.

But I also agree with Irene, some people who are used to carefree entertainment are going to hurt. People who are used to eating out EVERYDAY are going to hurt. In short, the less self reliant you are, the more risk your world is going to change drastically.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), September 24, 2001.

And all those businesses going *out* of business are going to lay people off who won't have any money to buy anything. Was thinking about the above comment about all the jobs left open by men going off to war during WWII, and the fact that most women are already employed now. I suppose if a lot of the male population (and female?) is called into the war effort in this conflagration, it will at least take up some of the slack in the unemployment figures -- but military wages have to be paid for by taxes. Military everything has to be paid for somehow -- if the economy goes south for very long, how long would we be able to continue funding a major war effort no matter how serious the threat?

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 24, 2001.

Seems to me that war has been good for the economy in the short term. Invariably , it also seems to be bad for humanity in the long term.

-- jz (oz49us@yahoo.com), September 24, 2001.

Good point JZ! Wondered after Bush's tax refunds didn't boost the economy, would have been pretty hard pressed to work, with all the Republican's talking recession. But I do think this will work! Coinincidence? Probably not. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 24, 2001.

Driving home from an appt. in Madison, I notice a huge new building going up. The signs say that it's to be a jewelry store, five times the size of "ordinary" jewelry stores. Sure made me wonder whether that place will ever open. Will anyone have disposable income to buy jewelry? But then, I don't think we need all the jewelry stores we already have .. .

-- Joy F [in So. Wisconsin] (CatFlunky@excite.com), September 24, 2001.

Hmmm, first you libs yap about your right to abort unborn babies as a remedy for the "world population explosion" and yet you whine about accidental civilian deaths in a war against terrorism. You all make me shudder; your logic is as unrealistic as most of your opinions of ignoring the recent attack that killed 6000 innocents and going "over there" and do acts of kindness to win the terrorists over. All I can think or wonder is what you'll think when they kill even more of us here in our homeland...more acts of kindness? I'm warning you here and now, this isn't some educated/idealistic/lofty/ultracivilized group of folks we will are dealing with...they are murderering, sick individuals with what they perceive as being a holy-purpose. Unfortunately, the world isn't made up of "highly civilized, highly evolved/beyond war" people like you perceive yourselves as being. Like it or not, we are still basically animal. Deal with it and get behind your government this one time.

What is wrong with you folks? Don't you know the terrorists have access to these and other forums? They read our newspapers; they watch our sappy TV shows, especially the "telethon" last Friday. They monitor this drival and believe it to be what Americans are...No wonder they feel confident about what they are doing. They think we are a bunch of Julia Roberts' and Jack Nickolsons'.

Well, terrorist read this: this is a list that consists mostly of anti-government, anti-American paranoids who want to live separated from society. For whatever reason, they believe their own government is out to get them and the world...these folks are only American in that they live here, work here, speak freely here, are free to worship whatever here, abort babies here, and vote here. The TV is media/Hollywood based, liberal. They will be anti-Bush, anti-republican, and anti whatever that doesn't fit into their little package of what they think the world should be like. They over-intellectualize everything, but often totally miss the most basic. They see themselves as "doing good" when really they are "doing the easiest"; "doing what "feels" good." Not all the people who live in America are like that; some actually will support the country with unconditional loyalty. Some actually believe that there are "almost honest" people in political offices that truley want to do the right thing, especially now. Some folks even will toss their ideaologies aside at a time such as this to become unified against someone who has inflicted the greatest death count on our soil since a civil war battle 138 years ago. Support, unified = no second guessing; no whining; no finger pointing; even volunteering to do something you disagree with...wow, what a concept. I wonder what would have happened after Pearl Harbor had people reacted like some of you?? I'm sorry, but some of you are really getting under my red, white and blue skin. Hey, if you disagree, fine!! Keep it off the dam internet! Talk among yourselves. Or for sure, for sure, we'll have a carbon of Viet Nam. You have cause to be upset, let yourself be upset. let yourself want revenge, it is actually a "human response" you are in no way compromising your civilized-lofty selves and dipping to a primate level by "feeling" anger. It is ok.

If you think I'm upset and whacky, yes, I am. My country, my serenity, my way of life has been terribly, terribly violated...It is only 14 days later and already people have put the real event into a TV event pigeon hole and are worrying about trivials such as "how the economy will effect me/b>" There are 6000 folks I know of that aren't worried about the economy or what act of kindness we can do make the bad guys like us. In my mind, anybody protesting our leaders/govt now are not only committing treason, but aiding the terrorists.

Good bye. folks. You had better move out another 20 miles; you may get contaminated by the antrax virus that our government is going to dump on its own people to arouse anti-terroristic sentiment....I jest, but from what I have read here, there are some of you that really believe in that type of thing. The Tribulation has begun.

-- JackM (jlrclr@earthlink.net), September 25, 2001.

Sorry about the bold that should do it.

-- JackM (jlrclr56@earthlink.net), September 25, 2001.

Ever since the liberals figured out back in the 30's they could start all these social programs and give people money, there has not been a depression since. So every time we go into a recession, the government just hands out money to people, be it welfare clients, farmers, or airline companies. When people have money to spend it keeps the economy going and everbody (or a majority of the voting public) is fat and happy.

-- fred (fred@mddc.com), September 29, 2001.

He is just doing his job, that would be to use up that big super surplus that was left behind by the previous occupant of the white house.

What does it matter if people get laid off. We have now reached the point where the folks who work have less than the ones who do not. It is magic.

-- Ed Copp (OH) (edcopp@yahoo.com), September 29, 2001.