I read many car dealers were essentially telling anybody with less than great credit that 30% downpayment would be required. I can't imagine too many low-to-middle income families have that kind of extra cash in these times.
I'm not mentioning this to get into another political debate. But does anybody else worry that the U.S. might suffer the same fate as the U.S.S.R., when the latter collapsed in the early 90s? I have been frightened of this scenario occurring in the U.S. since Katrina. Particularly because Katrina was preceded by the economic disaster after 9/11, along with the enorumous cost of the Iraq War. And what is one big common factor that the Soviets and U.S. had? We were fighthing bin Laden and Afghanistan. He essentially bled the Soviets to death economically. I think it is obvious that is one of his goals against our country too. I think our capitalistic society is more able to fight back than a communist state, but it is still worriesome.
Granted, the mortgage mess and the credit worries are not related to the wars or bin Laden. But I get the feeling he's laughing somewhere right now at the mess we are in, which he was partly responsible for creating. It's fairly obvious that the billions we have sunk into Iraq a) could have helped rebuild New Orleans, b) been reinvested into better energy plans, c) used in improving our existing infrastructure. What's done is done, we cannot change it. But I sometimes fear that we have played right into the same trap the Soviets did against bin Laden.
The Soviet Union collapsed for a combination of reasons. One important one was the refusal of the international community to value the Ruble as a legitimate currency. Thus, the SU had to accumulate cash to pay its bills, much of it in dollars which at the time so many other national governments were competing for. They were also forced to trade in commodities. Overall, there were significant limits placed on the SU's ability to conduct business. Of course, there was little or no middle class in the SU across which to spur productivity and consumption. There is no parallel with what's going on in the US now. As I posted elsewhere, this Nation's economic power is tremendous and cyclical downturns attended by specific events are inevitable, but will be absorbed.
Last edited by olivant; 10/10/0802:41 PM.
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