I have no more wealth. F...ing repukes!

[county worker]

I am a lot better off than a lot of people. I have a job still and can pay my bills, but the house I had for sale for the last two years has lost $200,000 in value. I would have to kick in $14k to sell it at the market value now.

My wife's 401K has lost 1/2 of it's value. I'm not asking for any pity I'm just pissed that we let the repukes put us in this position.

Everything I was taught in civics class has been turned up side down. The Supreme Court is no longer our protector. It gave us Bush and the repukes. We could of had Gore and a surplus.

The Bush administration stripped us of our Bill of Rights.

In CA the majority can vote to take away rights from a class of people.

The American Dream doesn't work for most of us anymore.

Fuck the right! I say let's turn this country into something that transfers wealth back to the working class!

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Sounds reasonable to me.

[MercutioATC]

2. Actually, greed got you where you are now.

Not your greed, collective greed....and not just any old greed, "imediate gratification" greed. Democrats, Repubs, bankers, amateur real estate speculators, the rating agencies...there's a long list.

[Oregone]

4. Yeah, but...

Its easier to just blame the Republicans we collectively hate than look at the overall societal conditions, which create problems that are bound to repeat themselves.

[county worker]

5. I'm willing to bet that if Gore had been president the last 8 years we would not be in this mess.

I don't think the wall street lobbyists would have had as much success. I don't think we would have had all the sub-prime loans. The danger signs would have been heeded.

It was republican ideology gone wild that put us here.

[Oregone]

6. There still would of been a recession

NAFTA gutted the country's manufacturing base, and outsourcing became the modus operandi of the globalization movement (and this is from pre-Bush activity). Essentially, our economy shifted into a service economy, where workers were not being paid enough to afford their insatiable demand for a high standard of living. We could no longer afford our education, college, and large homes with what we were being paid. For sure, there would of been a recession in 2001-2002, regardless of the president, due to the consequences of globalization gone wild.

What the Bush administration did at this time was encourage consumerism (leading to HELOCs) and home ownership (leading to irresponsible mortgages), and worked with the industry to make credit available to any mole on an idiot's ass. This activity created a housing industry bubble that offset the job losses in the technology and manufacturing sectors. In essence, Bush hid our recession and prolonged the pain that the country would feel. There was no "boom", but an orchestrated bubble to hide the flailing economy. The problem was multiplied though due to the deregulated industries driving this movement (deregulations that were also pre-Bush).

We have no idea if a Gore administration would of orchestrated a housing boom to combat a recession (the Fed probably would of similarly advised him to). But he would of faced the same similar labor and industry conditions when facing that option.

[dem mba]

15. the tech bust happened under Clinton

a President can't always control idiotic speculation. The current mess was so complicated and convuluted, it's possible Gore wouldn't have seen it coming either.

[county worker]

18. From what I hear there were all kinds of warning signs.

Maybe Gore would not have seen it but certainly deregulation would not have happened as much and the regulators that were in place would have done their jobs correctly.

I feel very certain the tone that the last administration set is the reason we all are suffering.

[Warpy]

9. That's a bit unfair

It's not greed so much as buying an inflated property out of the fear that inflation will last forever and you'll be locked out of the market forever. I remember inflation in Boston in the early to mid 80s and the psychology was the same, people rushing to buy "condos" that were slum tenements that had been painted recently.

People also thought their savings were safe, their investments were safe and their jobs were safe and that they'd continue to earn the money to pay their debts while saving for retirement.

It's a tough lesson to learn, the lesson that income is temporary but debt is forever.

The bankers and real estate agents and everybody else are just as shocked and dismayed the game didn't last forever. Even the plutocrats are wandering around in a haze, that billion dollars now being reduced by half or more and their own debt looking a lot more serious.

My advice about the house in the OP is that the poster needs to look at what rents are doing. If rents are cheap and plentiful, he might consider taking the loss on the property and getting out now. If rents are high and properties are tight enough to ensure they'll continue to rise, then paying an underwater mortgage becomes a prudent hedge against rising rent. Knowing one's own market is always essential.

[Hannah Bell]

20. nothing collective about it.

[Arugula Latte]

3. And this is one of the only "civilized" countries where medical bills bankrupt thousands.

[Greyhound]

7. Pushing wealth back down to the bottom is what will save this economy,

For the time being at least.
:kick: & R

[SOS]

8. You are not alone

10 easy steps to Wall Street ruining your life:

1. 2000 - Half of 401K wiped out in dot.con bubble. We were only allowed to shift allocations twice a year. By June it was half gone.
2. 2001 - 401K hammered again after 911. Now down to 40% of 1999 value.
3. 2002 - Took remains of 401 out of stock market...too late.
4. 2004 - Wife is "downsized" after Wall Street holding is company accused of fraud. Company share price cut in half, workers fired. Lost health insurance.
5. 2004-2007 - tapped into 401 to pay bills. Got hammered with huge tax and penalty bills, still paying off the IRS. 401 now 90% wiped out
6. 2007 - Had to take out home equity loan to avoid bankruptcy.
7. 2008 - rate jacking starts. Now in constant battle with creditors to stop charging us usury rates - our fico is 790.
8. 2008 - Learn that trust fund which pays my salary was slashed in half by Wall Street losses. Job will be cut back.
9 2009 - Home value plummeting. Our last hope for retirement fading fast.
10. 2009 - Both working, making bills with zero left over for clothes, books, etc. All security and assets either gone or declining fast.

Our American Dream was a reality in 1999.
Today it is gone.

Thanks Wall Street! Enjoy your f#cking bonuses.

[Carni]

13. Been there too

Sorry to say, I feel your pain!

[pnutbutr]

10. agree except

the supreme court is not our protector, the bill of rights is in tact and a majority vote is democracy.

[librechik]

11. The only good thing I can see about this situation is we're all going down TOGETHER

that might have an effect on the stupid two tier social structure we've been strangled by for the last 30 years.

BTW, welcome to DU!

[hugo_from_TN]

12. Why did you have your house for sale for two years?

I'm sure you would have gotten a lot more for it if you priced it at a reasonable market price two years ago.

Sorry for your financial problems.

[county worker]

14. The house is in the mountains and very few people would want to live there.

It is 30 miles from anywhere. It is horse country and most of the people who would want to live there are horse owners. So the potential buyers were few in number.

[closeupready]

16. That actually sounds nice.

:)

[county worker]

17. Well it may be available for rent in August Here it is the house on the left

http://www.zillow.com/homes/map/15515-Caliente-Creek-Rd_lb/Caliente,-CA-93518_rb/#/homes/for_sale/map/Caliente,-CA-93518_rb/35.319454,-118.399895,35.313833,-118.410002_rect/15_zm/

[closeupready]

22. Oh, I see - that does seem fairly remote.

How long does it take to get there from LA?

[county worker]

23. It is about 3 hours from LA.

It takes about 1 hr to get to the 5 frwy and two hours from there to LA

[scrinmaster]

24. It looks pretty nice,

Too bad all the way in California.

[county worker]

25. Where are you?

[Xenotime]

19. Agreed. It's not fair that rich fucks get to keep thier money while we lose ares.

There should be caps on a person's net worth so that nobody can earn too much money.

[county worker]

21. I wouldn't go that far but would like to see a more even distribution of wealth.

Since the Reagan era the gap between the wealthy and the poor has gotten wider every year. That means that wealth has been moving away from the working class to the investor class. I'd like to see it flow the other way for awhile.

I would like to see a society where people had the opportunity to take care of their basic needs and more if their skills and ability permit it.

Basically trickle down economics is a fraud. It just doesn't happen that we give wealth to the top and the rest of us are better off.

We all work hard, we don't all get enough for our work. I think that we should use this opportunity to redistribute wealth back to the working class from whom it was taken ever since Reagan was president.