Correction? yes .
Recession? Most likely.
Collapse? Very , very unlikely.

But the way most states and most people have set up their lives, I can see something coming that will be close to the great depression but not as bad.
Just like we don't let other countries economies fail, so others won't allow ours to fail.
But a little pain is good for people. It makes them appreciate what they have even more.

As for the last comment.

I remember all the right wing chicken littles coming out of the woodwork all through the clinton years and I am very sure they will return with the next democrats return.

kenblakely said:It's really, really, REALLY time for the mods to deep-6 this thread. It was pointless to begin with, and it's even more pointless now.

Oh really now? Don't you think the future of the economy is relevant
to a finance forum?

TheThinker said:
I don't understand why some people are so eager to defend the oil and pharmaceutical
companies, when it is obvious they are making a huge profit over everyone's back.

How can you be so stupid? Please tell me? How can you support a system where oil companies
make a bundle while everyone else pays up at the pump, making transportation of goods more
expensive? How can you defend a health care system where insurance companies are fat and rich
but the regular American is left out? Do you know that our health care is the most expensive

If you love your country, stop being an ethnocentric idiot and stand up for the American people,
not the wealthy elite. It's the common sense thing to do. But I'm sure you are gonna keep rooting
for the wealthy and the powerful, while everyone else suffers.

So let me get this straight. A group of individuals goes through the effort and risk of acquiring a plot a land (which may or may not contain oil), seismically surveying the numerous subterranean layers of the earth, locating hard to find deposits of hydrocarbons, boring a hole miles into the earth, pumping the oil to surface, developing infrastructure to transmit the oil across land, loading it in to a multi million dollar tanker, shipping the product across one of the largest bodies of water in the world, unloading the product in a port, transmitting it via a pipeline to a multi billion dollar refinery, refining into a product you really really want, then delivering it to convenient locations where you can easily purchase it in any quantity you desire...for less than the cost of cows milk, AND THEY HAVE THE AUDACITY TO MAKE A PROFIT?!?!

How about the pharmaceutical companies who spend billions of dollars, and decades of time battling a huge government bureaucracy to deliver a tiny pill which can make a 80 year old man have an erection/lower cholesterol/eradicate small pox. HOW DARE THEY WANT TO MAKE MONEY?!?

I am sure they would gladly due it all for peanuts!

As for rooting for the wealthy and powerful, DAMN RIGHT! I've never seen a bum/welfare queen/commie take the resources given to them, and add value which advances the standard of living for the rest of us...

Razorwyre said:
So let me get this straight. A group of individuals goes through the effort and risk of acquiring a plot a land (which may or may not contain oil), seismically surveying the numerous subterranean layers of the earth, locating hard to find deposits of hydrocarbons, boring a hole miles into the earth, pumping the oil to surface, developing infrastructure to transmit the oil across land, loading it in to a multi million dollar tanker, shipping the product across one of the largest bodies of water in the world, unloading the product in a port, transmitting it via a pipeline to a multi billion dollar refinery, refining into a product you really really want, then delivering it to convenient locations where you can easily purchase it in any quantity you desire...for less than the cost of cows milk, AND THEY HAVE THE AUDACITY TO MAKE A PROFIT?!?!

How about the pharmaceutical companies who spend billions of dollars, and decades of time battling a huge government bureaucracy to deliver a tiny pill which can make a 80 year old man have an erection/lower cholesterol/eradicate small pox. HOW DARE THEY WANT TO MAKE MONEY?!?

I am sure they would gladly due it all for peanuts!

As for rooting for the wealthy and powerful, DAMN RIGHT! I've never seen a bum/welfare queen/commie take the resources given to them, and add value which advances the standard of living for the rest of us...

Your thinking is completely illogical. Your argument is plagued with false assumptions
and poor reasoning. Let me tell you why.
Should oil companies make a profit? Absolutely. It's hard work and they deserve to make
a good living. But that is not what I'm talking about. Do you understand? We are not talking
about making good money, we are talking about making an insane amount of profit while everyone else
pays record highs at the pump. Don't you find it very disturbing that Exxon makes more profit than any company in America, at a time when people are paying more than ever for gas?

Don't even get my started on health care. Our health care is the most expensive in the world, plain and simple. And yet we are far from having the best quality. Studies have shown this.

The problems with a lot of people in America is that they are raised to despise socialism and anything to do with it. Look at Canada and Europe, they get FREE health care and FREE education.
You can't beat that! Some of you say that people die in Canada because they have long waiting lists,
but that is not true! The waiting lists do not apply for serious emergencies.

Look at the recent tax cuts for the wealthy. I support tax cuts for most Americans, of course.
But the rich should pay more taxes. It's logical and it's fair. We need to fund education and health care for all. Even if you take away half the money owned by the rich, they still have a butload of money.

TheThinker said:................... you guys really need
to open your minds and realize how corrupt and unjust our capitalist system is.You praise the big corporations and the inequality but you are too blind to see that they hurt nearly everyone........We also need to stop spending perverted amounts of money on military spending. Plain and simple. Keep defending our country's road to fascism and keep defending
the wealthy elite. ..........

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with caleidoscope eyes.

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head.
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she's gone.

[Ref :] Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah, ah

Follow her downto a bridge by the fountain
where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies.
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high.

Newspaper taxis appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you're gone.

Ref.

Picture yourself on a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties,
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile,
The girl with caleidoscope eyes.

Ref...

TheThinker said:
Your thinking is completely illogical. Your argument is plagued with false assumptions
and poor reasoning. Let me tell you why.
Should oil companies make a profit? Absolutely. It's hard work and they deserve to make
a good living. But that is not what I'm talking about. Do you understand? We are not talking
about making good money, we are talking about making an insane amount of profit while everyone else
pays record highs at the pump. Don't you find it very disturbing that Exxon makes more profit than any company in America, at a time when people are paying more than ever for gas?


First of all, you didn't disprove any of my assumptions are false, or that my logic is bad.

Second, the profits do not bother me one bit. They are providing a product that everyone on earth wants, they deserve to be compensated. Furthermore, the oil companies are not free to set their prices at whatever they want. Prices ebb and flow with consumer demand. If you don't like the price of Petroleum products, don't buy them.

TheThinker said:
Look at Canada and Europe, they get FREE health care and FREE education.
You can't beat that!


By your logic, the interstate highway system, the Space Program, and nuclear aircraft carriers are "FREE" as well. Its all FREE! Yay! Oh wait, it isn't, its all paid for with taxes, just like socialized Health Care.

TheThinker said: Even if you take away half the money owned by the rich, they still have a butload of money.

With such erudite observations your user name is well warranted.

German Pope, I have read several of your posts on FWF and you are clearly
a nut. So just get a life and go bother someone else, OK?

There's a lot of good stuff in America. A lot to be proud of.
But no reasonable person should defend the fact that millionaires
get tax cuts while college students struggle to pay outrageous tuition
and ordinary Americans get screwed by the big corporations and lobbyists.

This isn't any left wing rant, this is a common sense view of how our country
is becoming very disappointing indeed. When Congress and the White House pass laws,
they are much more likely to favor the wealthy lobbyists instead of the People.
Are you sure you want to defend that? Have you no shame?

richfish13 said:TheThinker said:We need to stop being selfish and start funding college and health care for all.

Oh boy, you are so wrong it's insane. The government does have a system to help fund college and its an absolute disaster. Heatlh care will be a disaster too if run by the government as EVERY other nationalized health care system is. There are two way to get things: pay for it yourself, or have the government take care of it and pay for it in your taxes. The problem with the latter is that the government does everything less efficiently than private industry and you usually end up paying to take care of yourself and two other people with your taxes.

How are we supposed to pay for education and health care?? how?
College tuition is several thousand dollars, and breaking your arm can
get you a 10k medical bill. Sometimes the insurance companies come up
with a silly excuse so that they don't have to fund ur claims. Not to mention how
insurance costs so damn much.

Health insurance is paid in part by the employer, but a good chunk is taken out of
your paycheck. Same as paying taxes, really. Socialism is very promising and the US
should definitely be more like Canada and Europe.

But you enjoy paying extreme amounts of money for such things, so rock on with your
fascism and corrupt capitalism.

germanpope said:
... hmmmm ... personally attacking people and engaging in a blatant political discussion in a finance forum that forbids such discussions

... shall I conclude that you never learned to respect other people and rules?

I am only talking about issues related to finance and the economy, that's all.
I'm not attacking or endorsing any candidate or any politician. I'm not attacking
any political party. Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, it doesn't matter.
These are issues we all need to talk about and fix. I am not interested in any political agenda.

I have a question for you guys.
Millions of Americans cannot afford health insurance, and millions
cannot afford a college education. Does that not concern you?
Should we keep embracing our policy of everyone-for-himself? The idea
that "I am insured and I have a degree so I don't care about the others?"

We should be less selfish and help them out. The billionaires have so much
money that even a 5% tax can help a lot with the problems Americans face.

But no, we are the country of extreme capitalism. Everyone for himself and to hell
with the unfortunate and the needy.