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open group / 8 members
We The People 40 was created in order to empower people with the KNOWLEDGE of our country's historical foundation (US). It is very important that we become aware of the TRUTH so we can create our "lines of defense" against the powers.
In addition, this group is open to all issues of discussion such as: religion, business, and politics.
We The People 40 is also interested in joining other groups on SpokeUp.com. There is strength in numbers!
open group / 5 members
If I have to borrow, I'm not buying
I had worked for the Community Development Commission of the County of Los Angeles for 22 years until my position was eliminated in 2008. During the last 5 of the last 7 years, I received perfromance-based merit increases that elevated my salary to over 6 figures. It was this 6 figure salary that cost me my job; I became too expensive.
Along the way, my salary provided an incredible opportunity to spend and borrow... we added 500 sq ft to our house... remodeled the kitchen... bought 2 new cards... refinanced the whole thing into the mortage and still had a 30% debt ratio.
But we didn't have much savings. Because I believed my employer when they assured me that my position was secure (back in 2006), I didn't think we had to do much planning. Fortunately we did save enough to last about 6 months... add in unemployment insurance, cost cutting, and defaulting on my mortage - yes - I'm in an arranged forebearance right now due to good back and forth communication with my bank... I'm now in my 9th month after being 'let go'.
Looking back, we should have anticipated the worst. I didn't think it would take this long to generate income again... I figured - hell, with my qualifications - management, supervisory, strategic planning, public speaking, training, IT consulting... finding something else would be a snap. Not true.
We thought we needed a bigger house... but the 2 older daughters are now away at UC campuses... (2 in school is cheaper than one, believe it or not)... and our third daughter and I make music together while my wife completes nursing school. She has one more year. Turns out, our house is now too big... and about $175,000 more than what we would have spent had we all just shared one restroom and 3 bedrooms for 8 years....
We didn't need the new cars either- well, except for the van - long trips for 5 people in an accord gets a little cramped... even with very petit females in my household... we probably didn't need the dining out... I love Morton's and Ruth's Chris... give me a steak and I'll tell you everything... and on and on and on.... trip to Hawaii... trips to Orlando... Vegas... etc. Bought a timeshare...
You see... we could afford it. The money was rolling in.
NOW... I see something very clearly. If you have to charge it or borrow to buy it, don't. Even if you can afford the monthly payments. Save for it. If it's technology, by the time you have the cash, the technology will be 10 times as advanced as it is today. If it's a home, save for 10 years then plunk down cash (the beauty is you might be able to leave an expensive area for a better life in a small town and be a debt free homeowner)... instead of giving the banks 3 times the orignal value of the home for instant gratification.
Car? Drive what you have until it implodes.... saving $400 per month for 5 years will give you roughtly $20,000 cash to buy a new one...
OH, there's that thinking that inflation will make the future value of items too expensive under my scenarios... not true. What keeps prices up is when people keep charging and borrowing so that they can consume consume consume... demand keeps prices up.
Drop demand. Your life will improve... unless you are at the top of the corporate food chain - awwww... you might have to 'downsize' to less than a couple of million per year and a house that is only 5,000 square feet instead of 10,000.... and drive a Honda instead of a Hummer... and maybe shop for sales instead of the Beverly Center... NO! Unacceptable. We need a stimulus package now or the economy is going straight to hell and the world will end and Jesus will return and we aren't ready for that....
These old converse high tops feel better every day.
open group / 3 members
This group has been created for small business oweners who would like to have meaningful discussions and share ideas on how we can improve the "Power In Numbers" project. For more information on this project, visit: http://www.powerinnumbers.us
The concept is simple. Small Businesses in the US employ 52% of the private sector. As small business owners, we have the power to make real changes in Washington but not until we unite as one and use our hiring powers to force changes in Washington that will not only benefit enterprenurs but all those who work for one.
closed group / 3 members
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. (Lord Acton, 1887) I would add: the mass-media, television in particular, tends to paralyze democracy. The truths are out there, but the half-life of a critical issue on television is measured in days, and resolved by reducing it to a talking point.
There are malignant forces in motion, some of them ecological, but most of them driven by ad-hoc associations of human beings with power, focused on common corrupt objectives. In other words, we continue to pursue Tribal Darwinism at a time when the explosion in world-population, our technology, and our anachronistic assumptions about perpetual growth, are leading us to an unraveling of our civilization.
Our challenge is to fundamentally change the survival paradigms which have brought us this far. We must do nothing less than turn the intuitive behavior of our social networks towards a stable and therefore sustainable model, before the collision of natural resource exhaustion triggers a cataclysmic endgame for civilization as we know it.
I would argue that the only nation capable of leading such a fundamental initiative is the United States. Because I believed that Barack Obama recognized these risks, and had the vision to confront them, I voted for him. Now I find that business as usual is even more firmly entrenched in our government than before.
So I ask: What can we do about it?