February 23, 201214 yr Sorry, but if you want be the believe the economy is really as bas as people make it out to be there shouldn't be a 2 hour wait anywhere to eat and I shouldn't have to drive a round a mall for 20 minutes looking for a place to park. If people want to complain about the economy then maybe they should look at themselves first and use their money a little more wisely. Sounds to me as if you are from an area fortunate enough to be relatively un-impacted by the recession. Good for you. Regardless, we ARE in a recession. You can't seriously only believe the things that you witnessed personally and refuse to accept that circumstances exist other than those that you find yourself in the midst of. According to your logic, and seeing as I've never met or seen anyone from Norway, people from Norway don't exist. They might say that people from Norway exist, but if I don't run into people from Norway in my neighborhood, in my day-to-day commute to and from work, at the grocery store, or in the restaurants I go to, there's no way people from Norway exist.
February 23, 201214 yr Author Sounds to me as if you are from an area fortunate enough to be relatively un-impacted by the recession. Good for you. Regardless, we ARE in a recession. You can't seriously only believe the things that you witnessed personally and refuse to accept that circumstances exist other than those that you find yourself in the midst of. According to your logic, and seeing as I've never met or seen anyone from Norway, people from Norway don't exist. They might say that people from Norway exist, but if I don't run into people from Norway in my neighborhood, in my day-to-day commute to and from work, at the grocery store, or in the restaurants I go to, there's no way people from Norway exist. My experiences are from different areas. This weekend I was in Cincinnati. Last night I was in Lexington. Everytime I go otu to eat there is always a wait. That simply doesn't seem like an economy that is pressed for money. People brought up the constrution industry earlier in this thread and I'm not saying they're wrong but I still see an awful lot of construction going on. I do a lot of driving around for my part time job so this observation isn't based on one area. I've been looking for a full time job for a year now and I'm still doing fine. I chose to go into a competitive field. That's the nature of certain fields. I could get a full time job if I really wanted to. But it wouldn't be a job I would want. When I was in grad school, we had a person running for a government office come talk to our class. She said, where I lived, there weren't enough people who could pass drug tests to fill all the jobs available at factories around the county. So If I wanted to go work in a factory I could. If it ever comes to that, then I'll have to consider it. But at this point that's not what I'm going to do.
February 23, 201214 yr People brought up the construction industry earlier in this thread and I'm not saying they're wrong but I still see an awful lot of construction going on. I do a lot of driving around for my part time job so this observation isn't based on one area. I was the one who brought up the construction industry. There is NOT a lot of construction going on. There are numerous people (including many government entities) who are choosing to take advantage of a desperate construction market to get things built for pennies on the dollar. Those jobs are often large in size and noticeable, but what you don't see is the virtual absence of any small work. Building right now is very much to the advantage of the owner. Just to give you an idea, with competitive work, the going rate for mark-up in 2007 was 5% profit and 10% overhead. Negotiated work was closer to 10% profit and 15% overhead sometimes. Now most companies who have managed to keep working are getting somewhere around 5-7% overhead and 2-3% profit. Architecture has a market average of 13% unemployment, and construction has just under that.
February 23, 201214 yr Author I was the one who brought up the construction industry. There is NOT a lot of construction going on. There are numerous people (including many government entities) who are choosing to take advantage of a desperate construction market to get things built for pennies on the dollar. Those jobs are often large in size and noticeable, but what you don't see is the virtual absence of any small work. Building right now is very much to the advantage of the owner. Just to give you an idea, with competitive work, the going rate for mark-up in 2007 was 5% profit and 10% overhead. Negotiated work was closer to 10% profit and 15% overhead sometimes. Now most companies who have managed to keep working are getting somewhere around 5-7% overhead and 2-3% profit. Architecture has a market average of 13% unemployment, and construction has just under that. To each his own. I'm just telling you what I see when I drive around central KY. Those people who are taking advantage of a desperate construction market are smart. They get things done for cheap and are keeping people in business.
February 23, 201214 yr Author First off, with the bolded, I agree completely! Secondly, if you beleive that the economy is in good shape then you don't work in sales. Everybody is undercutting everybody. Its still rough out there man. Just wait until this hike in gas prices starts to hit. That's all we need for things to start to get real bad. Just one catalyst like gas prices, a war (Iran) or natural disaster will throw things into a real funk. I do not work in sales. I currently work part time in the general labor business.
February 23, 201214 yr By definition, a recession is "a period of reduced economic activity". Economic activity IS reduced - especially in construction.
February 23, 201214 yr Secondly, if you beleive that the economy is in good shape then you don't work in sales. Everybody is undercutting everybody. That may be true for commodities but I haven't seen it in all areas and, yes, I am in sales. My discounting has been steady and it's starting to be less and less. I do not sell a commodity.
February 23, 201214 yr That may be true for commodities but I haven't seen it in all areas and, yes, I am in sales. My discounting has been steady and it's starting to be less and less. I do not sell a commodity. The wife works in textbook sales and it has been brutal especially last year.
February 23, 201214 yr The wife works in textbook sales and it has been brutal especially this year. Only so many ways to word the Civil War so it's hard to demand a higher price than your competitor.
February 23, 201214 yr The wife works in textbook sales and it has been brutal especially last year. She may want to apply for a company that sells Kindle's or notebooks? My buddy in the industrial knife business says the production of newspaper and Book knives has been declining sharply.
February 23, 201214 yr P&G to cut it's workforce by 5,700. They're a consumers giant...and they're having to cut back. I'll take this as a sign long before I look at the length of the lines at the restaurants I eat at. http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120223/BIZ/302230103/P-G-cut-employment?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|
February 23, 201214 yr Author P&G to cut it's workforce by 5,700. They're a consumers giant...and they're having to cut back. I'll take this as a sign long before I look at the length of the lines at the restaurants I eat at. http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120223/BIZ/302230103/P-G-cut-employment?odyssey=tab|topnews|text| In the article it says they are having to cut back due to little or no sales growth in the United States and Europe, rising costs of raw materials, including fuel, and volatile overseas markets. Only one of those 4 has anything to do with America being in a recession.
February 23, 201214 yr In the article it says they are having to cut back due to little or no sales growth in the United States and Europe, rising costs of raw materials, including fuel, and volatile overseas markets. Only one of those 4 has anything to do with America being in a recession. They don't have much in sales, and materials and fuels cost more than they can afford given their current number of employees, and therefore they are laying of nearly 6,000 employees. How does that not point directly to recession?? :confused:
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.