Oh dear is it really this bad out there?

[old steel]

"I travel all over the southeast doing Industrial Heat/Air work

I'm off this week due to "Spring Break" so I went to the Flea Market in Pickens SC....WOW, this place has north of 1000 tables and every time I've got to go before it's been 3/4 full at the least, today maybe 20% of the tables had sellers and of that 20% 3/4's was junk(when I say junk I mean true junk)...where was everybody ?

then I started back and went down main street, 75% of the storefronts empty ???

so I come thru Easley, store after store closed!!

I've seen this in most towns/cities I pass thru for work but it really hit home today being so close to home

I really don't know how we've made it this long...

I shudder to think what's coming in the next 6 mos, year, 5 years(if we make it that far)

What's it like in your neck of the woods ?"

[Hypertiger]

run to an inflation zone...out of the deflation zones...or the demand for yield from the inflation zones will eventually suck the flesh off your skeletons.

[Ponce]

My town is so poor that they don't even have skeletons for sell.....all that they have for sale at the garage sale are junk that even I would not add to my preparation pile of junk.......only the senior trieft store has anything of value for sale and now they are going up in price by five times.

V

[Glass]

yes I don't know what people are doing. I have a few clients in a mixed commercial/retail district. Its usually chaos to get in to the area and the streets are jammed with cars. Parking is right pain. At Xmas everything everywhere quietens down, businesses closed for 3 - 4 weeks. It's now 4 months since Xmas and the place is still like a ghost town. No cars, no traffic jams. Lots of for lease signs. Other places I go such as several light industrial areas are mixed. Some of them are dead, others next to the freight terminals are flat out. Trucks racing everywhere. I find those areas you have to drive like a maniac to get in and out of the traffic flow, round-a-bouts etc. I think the freight terminal stuff is obviously the food and consumer goods. We import the bulk of the former and all of the latter. Plus the mining industry is still going although not as strong as before.

I wonder what people are doing these days? I think everyone is doing shorter hours per day or something. We've seen +40% decline in turn over this year. I think it's the same over the country. It's a slow burn and I'd rather everything just tank all at once. Get it over with.

[Hypertiger]

My town is so poor that they don't even have skeletons for sell.....all that they have for sale at the garage sale are junk that even I would not add to my preparation pile of junk.......only the senior trieft store has anything of value for sale and now they are going up in price by five times.

V

The cost of nothing is hyperinflating.

[Hitch]

Yes, it is really that bad out there. In the cities.

I took public transit yesterday to the big city and was shocked. I had to deal with a drunk at 11 am in the morning. I dealt with him because if I didn't...other passengers would have. It was not a pretty scene.

I am a very patience person. The drunk, tested that.

[Cebu_4_2]

Yes, it is really that bad out there. In the cities.

I took public transit yesterday to the big city and was shocked. I had to deal with a drunk at 11 am in the morning. I dealt with him because if I didn't...other passengers would have. It was not a pretty scene.

I am a very patience person. The drunk, tested that.

Was really nice to personally meet you Pete... :cool:

[Hitch]

Was really nice to personally meet you Pete... :cool:

LOL...you bust me up. That guy did not speak English. You speak English. :) Cheers my friend, thanks for the laugh..

[hoarder]

Western Montana has been poor so long the people are well adapted to it. Very little seems to change besides there being a lot less rich Californians buying stuff.

[govcheetos]

Lots of people broke and the ones who don't know it yet are living on credit cards and paying the minimum balance.

Went to the scrap yard the other day with a medium sized load. Yard was slow, all the big piles that are usually there had been processed, kind of surreal looking. There was a black guy in front of me in the line for the scale driving a mitsibishi lancer. It was obvious he'd never been there before, took a few minutes for him to check in. Followed him around to the back where they were taking steel. He got out of his car and looked preturbed that he had on his cool basketball shoes in the dirt and mud. Opened the trunk of his car and took out a shoe box and dumped it on the ground next to the pile. They way he lifted it there's no way it could have weighed more than about ten pounds!

The mexican supervising the offloading looked at him like, "Que???" "Is that all you freaking have?!!"

He could have only gotten about a dollar.

[Jerrylynnb]

I live in the Dallas, Texas area and it seems to be very active here - not BOOMING, but plenty active. Lots of building, stores are usually crowded (except for old timey ones like Penney's, Sears, etc.) and traffic can be a real headache. Even houses are selling and new ones being built. If I didn't pay attention to news on the 'net and only watched here locally, I'd think all was well and we were about to enter a new boom.
I don't know how to figure it - why is there so much activity here in bigD when I read about the sluggish economy elsewhere? Also, we are overrun with non-Texans - foreigners of every stripe, and they got money to spend. Compared to 40 years ago (hell, even 20 years ago), you'd not recognize this as Dallas.

[Dogman]

I live in the Dallas, Texas area and it seems to be very active here - not BOOMING, but plenty active. Lots of building, stores are usually crowded (except for old timey ones like Penney's, Sears, etc.) and traffic can be a real headache. Even houses are selling and new ones being built. If I didn't pay attention to news on the 'net and only watched here locally, I'd think all was well and we were about to enter a new boom.
I don't know how to figure it - why is there so much activity here in bigD when I read about the sluggish economy elsewhere? Also, we are overrun with non-Texans - foreigners of every stripe, and they got money to spend. Compared to 40 years ago (hell, even 20 years ago), you'd not recognize this as Dallas.
Hi Neighbor!

Longview/Tyler/Marshall area have been doing fine. Bunch of Co,s
Have moved here or have started here.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Forum Runner

[Carl]

Well, Irving Tx is dead/dying but that may be because of the yuppie progressives who run it, they regulate everything.

[Horn]

Well, Irving Tx is dead/dying but that may be because of the yuppie progressives who run it, they regulate everything.

The only thing that moves here is government based currently. This week Holy Week typically in years past the entire city empties towards the beaches, not so this year, still a full city of people milling around.

[Norweger]

The big corporations have bled the populace dry.

[Carl]

The only thing that moves here is government based currently. This week Holy Week typically in years past the entire city empties towards the beaches, not so this year, still a full city of people milling around.
Hell, that's 90% of our traffic, people just milling around....

[Hypertiger]

Because Texas is where all the oil profits or taxes sucked from the rest of the USA end up.

In Texas they are having a party...and outside...the flesh is being sucked off the skeletons of the losers.

Are you all really that ignorant of economics...New York is taxing the rest of the USA to sustain the good times...Boston...Washington DC...it's like candyland there.

please do not tell me you all in the USA are that gone.

corporations?

people...there are those who are existing in the inflation or positive domains...or the demand...the light bulbs...or suns...or the absolute 1's...the winners of the exchange for mutual benefit.

and those who are existing in the deflation or negative domains...the power plants...or black holes....or the absolute 0's...the losers or the exchange for mutual benefit.

I'm ground zero...I supply power to people around me...and I noticed...everyone is yield starved.

for money...sorry kids...but I try to stay away from money...because the more I have...the more monkeys I can rule.

It's a boom in Texas...compared to the oil war in Syria...since Turkey is beginning to run on empty.

and Syria is filled with millions of starving people.

turning into skeletons...because that is a deflation zone...that was cut off...since the USA began collapsing in 2008.

eventually deflation will come home to all the inflation zones to roost.

and the positive bubbles of inflation...will be popped by the negative needle of deflation.

they always say a boom is on the way...to get all you monkeys to sign on the dotted lines.

because if you do not...you can not supply the demand of the boom for credit inflation.

To flood the economy with debt which is credit created out of thin air that you all use as money.

That the Rich masters fill up their bank accounts with...while the poor slaves that think they are rich masters spend the next 30 years paying for.

Unless the supply of inflation is cut...like when all the people outside of Dallas have the flesh eaten off their skeletons to pay the Texas tea party taxes.

[Hypertiger]

The NSA has an internet connection...and so do I and so do all of you...difference is...I helped build the matrix...the NSA and you...exist within it...

that and I do not require billions of dollars to use it like the NSA does...I'm not interested in your secrets...because I know what a secret is.

It is something you think I'm unaware of.

with the devil being in the details.

There are evil people...that are hidden...evil masterminds...I try not to be evil...but it is harder than it looks.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBecM3CQVD8

[hoarder]

Because Texas is where all the oil profits or taxes sucked from the rest of the USA end up.

In Texas they are having a party...and outside...the flesh is being sucked off the skeletons of the losers.Speak for Canada, Hypertigerstein. Washington DC is where they're having a party from the taxes they sucked from the rest of the country.

[old steel]

Looks to me like it is bad in some areas good in some other areas and grinding down slowly in a lot of others.

Give it some time, we have a long ways to go.

[Sparky]

Because Texas is where all the oil profits or taxes sucked from the rest of the USA end up.

In Texas they are having a party...and outside...the flesh is being sucked off the skeletons of the losers.

Are you all really that ignorant of economics...New York is taxing the rest of the USA to sustain the good times...Boston...Washington DC...it's like candyland there.

please do not tell me you all in the USA are that gone.
...

Yes, Hypertiger makes a point that is important to this discussion.

In terms of socio-economics, the country is splitting in two. Bifurcating. A divide is growing between the "haves" and "have nots". Those associated with the government subsidized industries (education, health care, homeland security, energy, and government itself) and those who supply the technology and support services to them (computers, software, internet/web services, etc.) are drawing a disproportionate amount of resources derived from the nation's collective productivity. Include in that the entertainment and insurance industries, and their respective support services.

These industries have regional concentrations. So a socio-economic divide is forming, and it has some geographic component. These industries tend to flourish in big cities where colleges, hospitals, insurance, entertainment, and government are concentrated. Then there are pocket locations that have concentrations of involvement with homeland security and energy.

Do not confuse this with "rich" versus "poor", or the so-called 1%. This is more between the comfortable/secure and the uncomfortable/insecure. It's probably the 15% versus the 85%. That's where the divide is forming.

[milehi]

Im hanging out in North San Diego. Nobody works but everyone is rolling.

[EE_]

Good economy here in eastern NC.
Decent homes get snapped here quickly.
Plenty of new homes being built...or I should say, plenty of big boxes being stood up on small properties crammed next to each other. It's a shame with so much open land available too.

Work? What's that?
Sometimes I wonder where I found the time to have a job?

[Santa]

Here in central Fla., GoodWill seems to be the new Walmart.

[Hitch]

Here in central Fla., GoodWill seems to be the new Walmart.

I've been shopping at GoodWill actually. There's one in particular, I went into it to buy some work clothes because we trash our clothes at work. $2 for a t-shirt. I found they actually had some really nice shirts. Button up shirts. There was guys trying on sport coats in there. I ended up walking out with some nice clothes, surprisingly. Gals actually compliment me, "that's a nice shirt". I don't tell them I bought them at good will. Fashion industry is a riot. People get rid of nice clothes because they become "out of style". It's crazy, seriously check out GoodWill. It might surprise you.

[milehi]

I've been shopping at GoodWill actually. There's one in particular, I went into it to buy some work clothes because we trash our clothes at work. $2 for a t-shirt. I found they actually had some really nice shirts. Button up shirts. There was guys trying on sport coats in there. I ended up walking out with some nice clothes, surprisingly. Gals actually compliment me, "that's a nice shirt". I don't tell them I bought them at good will. Fashion industry is a riot. People get rid of nice clothes because they become "out of style". It's crazy, seriously check out GoodWill. It might surprise you.


When I was in my early twenties, I lived in a large apartment complex. It was spendy with all the amenities. My neighbor used to jog around the complex and dumpster dive along the way. On the weekend she'd have a garage sale and pull in around $1600 a month.

[Horn]

What happens when the Goodwill runs out?

You can't purchase it at any price.

[Cebu_4_2]

I posted a thread about where I traveled to pick up my son every weekend in MI. Industrial business zones just empty. Booming areas with hundreds of businesses. That thread is gone and so are the pictures, my camera couldn't recharge in time to get all the for rent/lease/sale signs on the way. I should have known something before I lost all my shit in the markets.... Hindsight I guess.

Where I am at now is a tourist travel through area and there is a lot of areas and land available. A lot of trailer parks and white trash a couple miles away but no close threats. Just a stepping stone until I can grab something bigger and more private. With privacy people tend to be wary of invading my shit I have noticed.

[Neuro]

Yes, Hypertiger makes a point that is important to this discussion.

In terms of socio-economics, the country is splitting in two. Bifurcating. A divide is growing between the "haves" and "have nots". Those associated with the government subsidized industries (education, health care, homeland security, energy, and government itself) and those who supply the technology and support services to them (computers, software, internet/web services, etc.) are drawing a disproportionate amount of resources derived from the nation's collective productivity. Include in that the entertainment and insurance industries, and their respective support services.

These industries have regional concentrations. So a socio-economic divide is forming, and it has some geographic component. These industries tend to flourish in big cities where colleges, hospitals, insurance, entertainment, and government are concentrated. Then there are pocket locations that have concentrations of involvement with homeland security and energy.

Do not confuse this with "rich" versus "poor", or the so-called 1%. This is more between the comfortable/secure and the uncomfortable/insecure. It's probably the 15% versus the 85%. That's where the divide is forming.
Mostly I agree with what you write here, but I would argue that these programs are not fueled by the collective productivity of the US, but by the printing of dollar and defense of dollar as a world reserve currency, by trashing Gold and the threat of invading any country that challenges its status... USA consumes way more than it produces. That's why you have the chronic trade deficits...

[Spectrism]

Governments (state & federal) are sucking money from suburbs and feeding the ghetto areas of the cities. They are also taking a nice cut and funding anti-Liberty programs and communist organizations. These same governments look away when the banksters steal and even back them up- both in mortgage "securities" and leveraged stock/derivatives trades.

Foreigners have been given trade favors to include an open market here and factories there... as long as they pad the pockets of the corrupt regime in power.

Hell has arisen on stupid Amerika because the people loved stupid and now stupid will hurt.

Back to the OP- I too have seen yard sales with plastic crap for sale. This has been progressing for the last few years. When I walk into a sale of good hard assets, I feel like I found treasure.

[pitwab]

I guess staying to home and enjoying what I have here shields me from seeing anything. No yard sales around here ever anyway as no one ever goes by. Had to laugh at my wifes brother last week as he always talks the big talk, his company laid off 130 people and he was one of them. Lost his phone, computer and truck. He had to borrow a phone to get someone to come get him and he has nothing now because he spent every dime on being the big timer.

[mick silver]

you know it bad when the guy next door use your boots to go to work when you get home from work

[Spectrism]

Follow the money. The free and open market has been destroyed to favor certain players. Corrupt governments have been allowed to arise because corrupt people did not remain vigilant. In fact, the populace loved greed, perversion, theft, unjustice... thinking it would always favor them. But the evil is now settled and secure in high places with corruption boiling over.

The friends of power have been allowed to take massive amounts of wealth from the game. This pushed the average family down although it was camouflaged under the apparent wealth of cheaper crap coming into the country. As the economy faded more, the devil-owned news media kept telling people things are getting better and more wonderful mind-numbing TV shows came forth.

Bank crisis hit. The top gave covering money to key players. Money was shovelled out to banksters and the stock market to keep up appearances. The corporate owners cut employees to make the P/E numbers look good. Big stock owners made more money on lower-taxed dividends while small business owners got their asses ground up.

Federal money is granted to special groups. That federal money is either fraudulently printed by the treasury/ federal reserve conspirators or it is stolen from taxpayers.

The corruption grows like decay through a rotting corpse. Vultures tear away chunks of rotting flesh periodically making the stink subside a little in the cool breeze. The dead are burying the dead and the vultures circle.

[Horn]

Follow the money. The free and open market has been destroyed to favor certain players.

Do you think there's enough left over for an entire race?

A small one possibly?

[Spectrism]

Do you think there's enough left over for an entire race?
A small one possibly?

Money is worthless if there is no valuable asset to exchange. When the machinery of production is destroyed and the impetus to produce is discouraged, less food, clothing, tools, parts and systems are made. We see the signs already of lower production numbers, less goods shipped and falling sales volumes. When it gets real bad, many companies will grind to a hault rather than work for negative numbers.

If the fed & US gov throw dollars at the problem, it won't matter how many they throw.

[Ponce]

Time to clean your guns and keep them handy......brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

V