How does the economy affect you ?

Looking at the prices on the exchange lately, it seems like the economy has not had much effect.

Or maybe what we are seeing is the absence of LK.
 
My father bought a house in 1976 or 1977 in a suburb in Los Angeles for about 32,000 dollars. at the time he was a draftsman making about 30,000 a year. that house value was roughly a years wage. now that house costs at least 250,000 to buy but income for a draftsman is about 50,000 a year. That is a big example of how buying power has gone down over the years. really, for the cost of living and housing, most workers should be makeing about 200,000 a year to be as well off as they were in the 70's and the everyone thought the 70's were bad. now, we call a person rich if they make enough money to have the same buying power as a draftsmen in the 70's
 
How is the economy effecting me? Bank of America foreclosed on my house. We had it listed for almost two years without a single offer, not even a lowball. We did everything that we could, followed all the rules, escaped the auction block three or four times, but eventually they got us. Luckily for US, we had moved back to our home town, but the house was rented, so our tenants where given ten day to get out of the house.

We bought in July of 2005 for $265.000, by the time it was foreclosed, it was valued at ~$130,000. My wife lost her life savings, and we were lucky enough to be get a $20,000 loan from my gracious mother and father in law to pay off the second.

How's the economy? The sun has just set and it's always darkest before the dawn. I'm afraid to say that we have a long ways to go before it gets better.

My wife has a good job, I have 25 units remaining on my criminal justice degree. I'm hopeful for a job in the next year...
 
Lil' Foo said:
It is indeed hard times... I merged my company with one of my vendor partners back in 2008 due to that recession. We really haven't seen any growth in revenue in the past year, any new clients are only offsetting the existing client cutbacks. :-/ Our visibility has dropped from 9 months to a year out down to 1 month, or even days in some cases. Very last minute in corporate decision making these days.

The reality is that nobody has seen a pay increase in the past 30 years... unless you climb the ranks closer to the top. Sure everybody has gotten some sort of nominal cost of living increase like 3% to 5%, but that hasn't kept up with the rates we have to pay out. Over the past 30 years, Management and workforce compensation has remained stagnate, whereas executive compensation has increased somewhere around 1000%. :eek: And over the last 10 years, executives and the top wealth have robbed the world blind! I could go on a deep, deep rant, but I'll spare you. :p

I do know that over the last year, I have paid out an additional $2500 in gas for my car alone, double it for my wifes car. Fuel oil, an additional $3000 annually... Food & electrical are roughly the same percentage wize, and health insurance up 30%... add it all up, and we're talking low 5 digit numbers.... and that's a LOT of $$$. :(

Bottom line... things NEED to change back into our favor, or there will be riots in the streets or worse, a revolution. Hey... these things happen when the masses have nothing left to lose.



I'm gonna pimp my dog out! :D

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This is a excellent well written post. It's been bad for us since Katrina. Too me, it's when thing's really went South. They raised the price of gas, everything followed, and they got away with it, and now is the accepted standard for no one will call them on their greed, and greed has become the acceptable way to be, and is celebrated. We all know where this comes from yet, can't seem to stop it or change it. Greed, lack of patriotism to our country and lack of concern for our fellow American's, will be our undoing if we continue down this path IMO!
 
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Super X said:
... greed has become the acceptable way to be, and is celebrated. ...
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I agree that greed by some Washington, state and local politicians and by some corporate execs is a big part of the problem - this certainly helped cause the mortgage meltdown and big trouble for the banks.

As for my personal economic situation, I'm doing OK with a fairly secure job, but I have not had a raise in over 3 years, benefits are being reduced and/or the employees pay more for them, and the company is beginning to downsize again.

I have not been buying as many knives lately, Busse or otherwise. I feel this is a very appropriate thread - the economy affects our ability to buy from each other and from the Busse companies.

Gene
 
At the end of 2008 the credit crunch by our banks over here , they having received huge bail outs from the government or should I say "tax payers", resulted in commercial lending being cut off more or less completely to the small to mid size businesses. I worked in the provinces as a commercial lawyer doing mergers and acquisitions. Mainly management buyouts where the next generation could own the company and let the current guys retire having cashed in their shares. That work dried up over night and I was looking at redundancy. I took a year off to do the World F CLass rifle championships which were being held over here in 2009 at Bisley. I was the vice captain for the team and put in a fair bit of practise and organising etc for the event. We managed to win it and I hoped 2010 would bring a recovery sufficient enough to enable jobs to be more forthcoming. No such luck ... I now work when I can doing consultancy and mostly abroad either in the oil and gas sector or private security. Basically a mixture of my legal and old military skills. Thankfully my kids were up and running at University and being divorced the tightening of the belt was'nt as harsh as if I had a family to come home to.
None the less though things have been tough and are likely to stay that way for a while.

I am now conscious that I have a lot of surplus possessions in my life which from travelling etc I know I don't really need. There are only so many knives and rifles you can carry or shoot and only so many clothes you can wear. I guess the time is approaching where I want to thin down what I have so that I am not as weighed down by these things. If I break even or make a small loss ... so be it. I would rather pass on good gear at affordable prices to those who need it rather than have it redundant in the house.

LOL, one of the quirks about being a "reformed" gear freak is that you really do start to take "if there could only be one knife" threads more seriously ... and having packed a few cases over these past years I know which ones I usually choose ... but it will still be hard to part with the others ... they are all great in their own way ...
 
Here is a funny picture that pretty much sums up some of the problem :D


wallstreetpicture.jpg
 
The state of the economy is being felt everywhere for sure. Up here for some reason we often times don't feel the same pressure as you in the lower 48 do but NOT this time. I have several friends who have had to shut there doors of there business. I know to buy anything now you have to think of the long term or at least what the repercussions will be for the next 6 months. This Christmas my wife and I aren't giving anything to each other.

Tourism is a huge part of the economy especially in the summer and you can look around and see how without those $$$ flowing it stifling the whole state. With the price of gas, food, utilites etc, it hard to come up with some fun money which used to be common.:(
Oh how I wish I could buy all that BC is putting out but again it's that old do I need it or can I do without it.

*** Economy be damned, I love my FUSION FURY:thumbup::D
 
It's hit me pretty hard as well. I'm in sales, selling tools directly to mechanics and it's not a pretty picture right now. I'm doing well enough to make ends meet, but my wife and I would like a house, at this rate it's not gonna happen. As far as knives go, I've sold about 20 to 25 knives this year, primarily to fund other knives (play money). Knives are really the only thing I spend money on, other than concerts.
 
To be honest it's hitting Australia in ways that the pollies aren't admitting to. Since they mainly look at averages and medians, we look okay. In the mining areas (Pilbara) of WA, tradesmen are being paid ridiculous amounts (and they ARE ridiculous) simply because they have a ticket, they know their stuff, and they speak english. I agree that yes, if you know your job, you would be worth money, but since not everyone works in the mines, the rest of us small business people can't keep employees. For instance, we recently lost our electrician to the north west because we cannot afford to pay $30k PER MONTH (plus superannuation) to keep him. For 22 days on, 6 off, fly in / fly out. He's not the only one getting stupid money either. There are thousands.

Which means that all the skilled labour has gone, we are training new people on what we do (high voltage stuff) and once they are trained they say "thanks for that" and get headhunted by Rio tinto or BHP for $200k+ per year. What does that mean?

There are cashed up people (by the thousands) buying houses and renting them out, buying more, renting out, etc, because it's hard to spend $3k a week after tax without being stupid. Thing is, there are so many people coming to our corner of the world to cash in on it that there is a shortage of houses, which means they can charge what they like and people are forced to pay. A family on 40-50k per year, starting out, has to find $350-400 per week for rent in pretty much any area you like. How does that work when food/electricity/gas/fuel prices have gone through the roof because of supply and demand again? Plus, forget living up north if you don't own a house that you bought 15 years ago. In Karratha, the main hub for the WA mining boom, rent for a 4x2 house that pretty much sucks starts around $2000 per week. Why? Because mining companies have bought / are buying every single house they can and keeping em for the employees. Heck a single room is on the order of $800 a week up there, in a share house.

We had a plant operator, in suburban Perth where I live, doing a job for us on a Cat grader. He was mid 40's, and his wife did the same thing. For the last 2 and a half years or so they have cleared, on average, $2.8k EACH per week. So they've bought their houses, renting them all out at exorbitant rates, negative gearing them as investments and are now traveling Australia in their $120k Toyota Landcruiser and $70k caravan getting their $400 per week for each house from struggling young people who can't afford it but have to live SOMEWHERE. Yep, they earned it for sure, but because of the mining boom taking all the plant operators, contractors are having to pay stupid wages to people who have no education past year 10 high school. In the mean time, kids are staying home with mum and dad til their mid to late 20's cause they can't afford to move out if they don't work up north.

Long story short? Australia is riding out the global recession really well. If you are in mining related businesses. If not, it isn't easy.

Note: I do not begrudge someone earning lots of money. But when a loud, abusive, uneducated, crude, unsophisticated moron with a "I can drive an excavator" ticket earns 3-4 times more than the nurse that deals with a-holes, drunks, violence, horrific hours and struggling to put food on the table because of said moron, but saves peoples lives... There seems to be a problem with society.

/rant off.
 
I've worked for Reo Tinto on and off for 8 years now here in the US skilled workers are extremely under paid I am a union iron worker in utah. The risk to reward is not really worth it long hours and little pay benefits going down the drain. Paying skilled workers what there worth is not the problem its paying a manager of target 120,000 a year. I started 8 years ago as a laborer for reo Tinto at only $7 a hour I shoveled arsenic 12 hours a day for 2 years. I did it cuz I was broke and saw it as my way in now I make a better wage but the job is hard and safety is talked up but put on the back burner when work starts i've seen people get pushed into bad choices and rushed to save a buck i've seen a guy gets his leg ripped off because he was pushed to do something he knew was wrong. It's great to pay skilled workers what there worth the problem is elsewhere
 
I make about 75 cent more an hour than I did 2 years ago......and then the city increased my contribution to retirement from 7% to 10%......so I actully am making less than I did 2 years ago. I love my job but it pays very little, and without me having been blown up in my Army days I wouldn't be able to afford to do what I love.

I recently sold off a few Busses to take my children to Disney and a few more to send them to Private school as the local public is a joke at best. But these are all my decision to take the hard route for happiness and the betterment of my family.

As far as political or not, this is the best thread I have seen here in quite a while......not everything is gumdrops and rainbows out here....
 
I have not been on much or bought knives for some time because of the way things are. I worked for the state as a contract employee but with furloughs and cuts, what my salary was supposed to be and what I was bringing home were very different numbers. I switched state jobs to get benefits about 4 months ago but for less pay because I couldnt afford the health care cost of my pregnant wife. She is a physical education teacher but cant find a job in a decent school (she left dc after she had a kid stabbed in front of her and was assaulted, cried almost every night working there) because there are only a few phys-ed teachers in each school and in anything over elementary you need male and female teachers to cover locker rooms so when a job does come up it may be for a guy. I got lucky about a month ago and was offered a job at the discovery channel where I am now working for much better pay but a lot longer commute. I havent upgraded my membership yet but hope too on my next paycheck. I must have sold 5K in knives in the last year and I actually count myself lucky that I could have done so to pay bills. I look forward to again buying knives but doubt it will be to the degree I once did due to the new child and looking to own a home in the future. Still I count myself lucky as I know many have had and still have it much worse than I.
 
Cadman2008 said:
Note: I do not begrudge someone earning lots of money. But when a loud, abusive, uneducated, crude, unsophisticated moron with a "I can drive an excavator" ticket earns 3-4 times more than the nurse that deals with a-holes, drunks, violence, horrific hours and struggling to put food on the table because of said moron, but saves peoples lives... There seems to be a problem with society.
/rant off.
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Thanks, I'm an Operating Engineer and I operate an Excavator and a Blade and a Dozer and a Crane and just about every other piece of equipment out there, I am OSHA, MSHA, HAZMAT, OQ, Disaster Site Certified and can communicate with Homeland Security if it hits the fan..Be-careful who you insult, I might be called in under a Presidential Order along with 1st responders to save your life some day.

BTW..The last 3 years in the Chicago area has been slim to none unless you are one of the Union Business's Managers Pets.
My pay was cut by 60% then another 25% off that the next year and this year I have worked 19 days.
I think it will be 3-5 years before things get better.
Over the past 3 years I've sold several knifes and my favorite car, this year I sold my retirement property..I'm at the point where it just doesn't matter any more. I'll be OK.
Can they use any help in the North..feel free to give them my name. In the mean time I'll practice running my mouth being abusive and crude. I might have a problem with the Moron part as I don't like Stupid or Ignorant.

AND, I too put up with the biggest a-holes and drunks on oil Pipelines, violent people and horrific hours under extreme weather conditions that most people stay inside their nice warm houses for. I've worked in mud and water over my head in zero visibility and slid off rock ledges covered with ice that can get you killed in a heart beat.
And after that great life style of getting beat up, hurt and exposed for your whole career you can look for a long retirement...of 14 checks.
That's right, the average Operator draws 14 checks or 1 year and 2 months of living high on the hog before they die.
 
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I make the same amount of cash, except I'm working on contracts by the hour with no long-term security, no benefits, no vacations.

The only upside is I get to work from home.

The worst thing is my situation has more to do with an overpaid manager with an ego problem than the economy. The economy just made getting/keeping a new position very hard.
 
As was said earlier in the thread...I don't think we're anywhere near the bottom of this. Make sure that you have all the other necessities taken care of (water, food, shelter, ammo, etc.) before expanding any non-necessity collections. Just IMHO.
 
I'm in a holding pattern for buying any new knives.
I don't know what I am going to do when that NMFSH or whatever it is called shows up. :eek:
 
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