Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT: Katrina and World Support?

Heh heh - One of my favorite clients told me this in 1990, when it looked like Hussein had a hammerlock on Kuwait, gas went up to over $2 per gallon, and with the Soviet Union looking pretty fragile, people were wondering would they chance peacefully, or go out with a bang ... :

"""When things are rolling, it is not as good as it seems. And times like now are not as bad as it seems."""

I feel for you, because even though it is clear you feel blessed doing the child rearing again, it is also equally clear that it places a stress on your life which you should not have at this point. You should be spoiling your grandchildren, and travelling while enjoying the fruits of your labors.. That being said, I applaud your "goodness" in how you handled your situation.

My dad turns 70 in January, and he looks at me and says "I am glad I don't face the challenges you do". I am sure I will be saying that to my sons in 30 years, too.

At my age ? I look at the world as an opportunity. It takes some serious work, but it is there.

Given the current situation, that they chose to leave is moot, divisive, and agitating. That every conservative I see or know is concentrating their energies on this issue is telling. I'm generally a conservative btw.

People will always stay and they will always need helped. And they deserve it. Any implication otherwise is ridiculous.

I didn't see hundreds of buses ready to take people out of the city nor was it mandatory that they left. I believe this has already been mentioned. So, how many left and how many chose to stay? We have no idea. Which makes this line of discussion even further moot.

Riffman - The evacuation was mandatory as of Sunday morning. Since you say people need help, what have YOU done so far ?

Yes indeed,...when I was your age and doin' all those things that were fun and in fact made a difference to the lives of lots of folks, the world looked like an extreemly rosy place.

Raising a second family with no assistance from the actual parents, and without additional funding from ANY state agency tends to cloud your vision toward the futureBut the kids are cool, and fun, and I couldn't imagine just getting up in the morning like some old retured dude on perpetual vacation without gettin' all four of them up, and dressed, and fed, and cleaned up and finally on their way(whew)it CAN be a chore. And, helping all those little ones with all that homework every evening helps to keep one from getting too dull too fast!

But....the fact still remains.....

.....this ain't New Orleans I'm livin' in here!

Life is good, the tunes are good, the movies are fun on a 65" TV. Just what the hey am I complainin' about here?

Thanx for helpin' me get my head back on straight
Rich.

>>I have no problem with creating new markets and getting the entire world into the modern age, my problem is doing it in such a way that too many people have to suffer the move back to third world status right here in North America. Am I thinking of just myself? Darn right I am!! I don't want to see my pensions evaporate, I don't want to see my Social Security fade away, I don't want to see my hard won 401k savings eroded by financial and governmental irresponsibilites. A strong American economy with lots of high wage, high tax paying employees contributing their fair share, is entirely in my benifit.

Not to encourage thread splitting but IMO anyone who already has their savings is going to be OK. My concern is for the kids just coming out of school now who are coming into a more uncertain economic world than we have seen in North America for a while. Don't know about the US but Canada is DEFINITELY heading towards third world status in terms of day to day life. Standards of living are dropping, and our economy is shifting strongly towards a bunch of poor people selling cheap stuff to each other and clustering into extended families to survive.

My personal theory is that the only reason we have not seen further economic problems is that the combination of savings from the boomer generation plus cheap goods from China we can sell at high margins are carrying what would otherwise be an insanely overbuilt retail sector and allowing most people to keep jobs and support the service sector.

What I don't know is what will carry the economy once the boomer generation ages further and stops buying so many toys. The next generations don't have the savings and generally aren't buying the luxuries that we are.

As Craig says, this is not the end of the world. We will find some new way to survive and make the economy work, but there is no guarantee that things will be as good as they are today. Toronto is picking up a lot of that third world "what's in it for me, why should I subordinate my desires for the greater good ?" mentality and we are seeing that in spades in NO today.

It takes many generations to build a "civilised" society but nowhere near as long to muck it up...

What have I done? That is none of your business. I guess I'm coming across as being morally judgemental and that is not my intention. I just don't see the importance that every conservative I know sees - in this "they chose to stay issue".

I know that what I did choose to do would have been far less than if I were still living near downtown Houston. All the wealthy people in Sugarland and The Woodlands (Houston) should be opening their large homes. I used to live there and I would. It's a no brainer, really. Perhaps I could have selected a family that couldn't leave as opposed to one who had made the choice to stay. LOL.

So people were going to walk out of the city during a hurricane? One woman (a tourist) didn't have a car and reporting people at her hotel loading up their SUVs without offering rides.

Meanwhile:

Thanks for rejecting aid that people could use Bush. Not very smart. Also, assuming few offers because we haven't asked for them is an insult (esp since offers have already been made). Meanwhile, Condi Rice says all offers accepted. Who's running this country?

"Still, Bush told ABC-TV: "I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn't asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country's going to rise up and take care of it."

"You know," he said, "we would love help, but we're going to take care of our own business as well, and there's no doubt in my mind we'll succeed. And there's no doubt in my mind, as I sit here talking to you, that New Orleans is going to rise up again as a great city."

Bridgman, Here is some food for thought ... I graduated high school in 1978, and Penn State in 1982. The unemployment rate was 8.9% when I finished college, Inflation was 11%, the prime Rate was 16% and a car loan was 18%.

One of the major hit songs of the year was Billy Joel's "Allentown".

My first job application was for a sales job at a ball bearing plant. It paid $14,500 per year, and there were 76 applicants.

In 1982, I was terrified. Today, I look back at this with nostalgia.

Riffman - I expected that type of answer from you. "None of your business?". Yet you feel justified in complaining loudly at ALL the things everyone else is doing wrong.

By the way, My wife and I have already sent over $10,000. We believe in helping, no finger pointing.

No argument that those were also scary times as our governments started to understand the dark side of deficit financing (stagflation).

Having said that, I would propose that for a university grad today things are at least as tough if not more so. We had a job fair at ATI last year -- 25-30 positions and over 2000 applicants lined up around the building. In suits.

That was in a sector which is regarded as one of our few shining hopes for continued growth.

Craig, I've been watching this debate with interest from the sidelines, and you both have valid points. However, that's the second time you've thrown that number out. While I doubt it was your intention, one might be led to think you believe a $5 or $20 contribution that might be the limit of someone else's budget is somehow unworthy or invalid. As I said, I'm sure you didn't mean to do this, but that's precisely how it reads on screen.