$20/hr at McDonalds? Whoa!

800 a week and discount Big macs?

Sign me up!:p

I am with ya, Kay. Heard the jobs report yesterday on NPR.

If it wudn't so damn cold, Dakota would suit me fine.

Florida boys do not do well below 65 degrees.

In 1978, we had STAGFLATION! In many ways, the economy was the same as NOW! Prices were going UP as jobs and business went DOWN. I wish I could again say how the 70s affected my current position. Outside of the fact that the 1999 overturning of glass steagle, reversal of china bans, and outflow of technology and manufacturing, and some service off shore, spending, and some other financial things that make this seem like 1929, this really IS more like the late 70s.

A lot of people think the stock market crashed in 1929. THAT is like saying that people in a car crash die the moment one car hits another. That is realy NOT true! MOST people DON'T get hurt by the crash! They get hurt by the compression of the car, car parts compressing them, and inertia of the car stopping! The majority are severly injured some number of seconds or MINUTES AFTER the initial impact. THINK ABOUT IT! Likewise, NOBODY got hurt by 1929! They got hurt by the fallout that happened LATER! That was YEARS or DECADES later. And look at the chart!

Chart of 1929 - 1933 stock market crash

NOW, unlike then, the government, and much larger group of investors, and inflation, and muti nation diversifying, are clouding the REAL status of the market. It IS drying up, but could take a decade or so. We are only about 5 years into this. Companies ARE going bankrupt! Just this morning I read an article claiming that the LARGEST maker of solar cells IN THE WORLD, has gone BANKRUPT! The stock WAS selling at $90/share, and is NOW around $0.50/share! Don't forget about GM, and Chrysler and nearly every airline in the US, JUST FOR STARTERS!

Steve

The reason for this is they have discovered oil in ND. So every able-bodied person is working, and making a ton of money, for the oil companies. The area has become a boom town. The trouble is, there is now a shortage of housing, and pretty much, everything else including workers.

Well gee - the only problem with that one, Kay - is that you get a great paying job........but live in ND. Ya had to know it's a hard core trade off.

As far as numbers - The United States has a carrying capacity of 200 mil and we are almost at 75% over carrying capacity. Some people think that carrying capacity stops at environmental issues. It doesn't. It covers the whole dammit of our world. If we brought all those jobs that exported back, we might be able to fill job needs, but would completely devastate our environment. You can't fight nature no matter what people want to think. We have to cut population. Mom nature has ways of doing that EVERY TIME a species goes over carrying capacity. Hold on - it's gonna be a rough ride.

The way our politicians are acting right now - it won't take long to clear out the excesses.

Couldn't do it. Worked at McDonalds for about 3 weeks while in college. I had long thick hair and could never get that fry stink washed out. It also seemed to come out of my pores. And don't even get me started on the permanent smelly uniform.

Fortunately I had trouble figuring out which combination of burgers went in which size bag and speaking of bags had a real douche for a manager. When I quit he threatened to not pay my last check. I threatened to come over the counter and hurt him bad. I got my check.

Well, many people in my country would kill for that...oh wait, no they wouldn't. They're too proud to be serving big macs even if it means earning most managers (btw, I live in Croatia...so, yeah).

I researched this a while back (northern US oil), the main problem is housing.

I read one story where a guy was making good money hauling trash in one oil boom town & buying the expensive semi trucks/roll-off dumpsters, basically he's constantly expanding his business. The more people, the more trash they create, the more money the guy makes. The guy is smart considering his trash business is portable, he can follow the oil boom wherever it goes.

I know some folks might laugh when I say trash, but trash & scrap recycling is HUGE money, look at Waste Management, it's a global billion dollar business.

Anything to do with trash is big money now. Trash has become a problem in a lot of countries. Being able to sort it is actually a demand service now. Our landfills are becoming so loaded we have a major garbage problem coming down the pikes at us -- and a lot of the older fills are now leaking toxins. As long as the population numbers are rising, trash will be big business.