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2013-01-01 Economy
Obama's New Economic Normal: Seven Devastating Facts
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Posted by tipper 2013-01-01 07:19|| || Front Page|| [336107 views ]  Top

#1 1. All-time record annual average gas price.
2. All-time record food stamp participation.
3. All-time high youth unemployment.
4. All-time high number of Americans no longer in the labor force.
5. All-time record number of Americans collecting disability.
6. All-time record number of Americans living in poverty.
7. All-time record U.S. debt.
Posted by Glenmore 2013-01-01 08:54||   2013-01-01 08:54|| Front Page Top

#2 #8 Majority of US electorate thinks #1-#7 don't matter & that Obama has been doing a wonderful job & will do even better in the next 4 years.
#8 is the most devastating fact of all.
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2013-01-01 09:53||   2013-01-01 09:53|| Front Page Top

#3 So what happens when the money runs out? Print more? Riots in the streets?
Posted by JohnQC 2013-01-01 10:05||   2013-01-01 10:05|| Front Page Top

#4 I don't believe the money actually runs out. The dollar just gets dinkier and dinkier as they print more and more of them and the national credit rating gets lower and lower. Same thing as Zim-bob-we. Buy a wheelbarrow while you still can.
Posted by Fred 2013-01-01 10:46||   2013-01-01 10:46|| Front Page Top

#5 A brand new 1963 Chevy or Ford pickup truck, short box, straight six, 4 speed trans...cost: Approx $1800.

Similar vehicle 50 years later ... Approx $23,000.

You do the math. Inflation is a tool of a ponzi scheme, debtor nation. Has been for a very long time.
Posted by Besoeker 2013-01-01 10:55||   2013-01-01 10:55|| Front Page Top

#6 Of course, Besoeker, you had to change the spark plugs in that '63 once or twice a year. And got 15 mpg. The new one's plugs last 80,000 miles and you get 20 mpg. Plus it handles better and has airbags so you stand a better chance of surviving a bad wreck. SOME of the price increase is not inflation. A better indicator is postage stamps - 3 or 4 cents to 44 cents or whatever it is now.
Posted by Glenmore 2013-01-01 11:08||   2013-01-01 11:08|| Front Page Top

#7 Excellent points Glen, but I enjoyed changing points and plugs :-( I'll also give you the gas mileage (even though a gallon of gas was only .21 cents or .20 cents if you didn't take the Green Stamps). I'll take a half-ton vehicle with a cross-braced frame with a speed limit of 80 mph over uni-body with a V6 in the diversity left lane of I-85 going 95+ mph.
Posted by Besoeker 2013-01-01 11:17||   2013-01-01 11:17|| Front Page Top

#8 Besoeker - I guess that makes you a classic, old-fogy conservative!

I hear ya.
Posted by Bobby 2013-01-01 11:58||   2013-01-01 11:58|| Front Page Top

#9 Letters 1st Class 45¢ + 20¢
1 oz $0.45 Bad envelope penalty 20¢
2 ounces $0.65
3 ounces $0.85
3.5 oz $1.05

The First-Class stamp will be 46 cents after the new postage rates begin January 27, 2013. The US Postal Service has officially announced the postage rate increases for the 2013 mailing season. The Post Office has recently switched from doing large postage increases every 4 years to a smaller increase each year to keep up with costs and industry fluctuations.
Posted by Au Auric 2013-01-01 12:12||   2013-01-01 12:12|| Front Page Top

#10 but I enjoyed changing points and plugs :-(

Aha! The evidence I've been seeking, there is something wrong with you.
:)

Plugs okay, points not so much, I always screwed up or forgot the lube.
Posted by Shipman 2013-01-01 12:28||   2013-01-01 12:28|| Front Page Top

#11 Obama's New Economic Normal
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2013-01-01 12:39||   2013-01-01 12:39|| Front Page Top

#12 Never liked changing the left front plug in that 425 CUI SuperRocket but once I threw away the air-conditioner over it - not so bad.

Of course then... real premium (now racing fuel under inflationary octane formulas) was 25 cents a gallon and moon missions were affordable to NASA.
Posted by Water Modem 2013-01-01 12:39||   2013-01-01 12:39|| Front Page Top

#13 We still have a '79 GMC 1-ton that we took out the HEI and put in a points system. - 100% Analog Doomsday Vehicle. Gets about 19MPG on the road + 2 - 32-gallon saddle tanks (not a great design, but oh well). VERY easy to work on. Tires are a bit pricey, though.

Cam Lube available here.
Posted by Mullah Richard 2013-01-01 12:51||   2013-01-01 12:51|| Front Page Top

#14 Changing the plugs and points on an older-model (pre-80's) car was fairly easy and could be enjoyable.

Now of course they have so much crap (of various uselessness) piled on top of it I simply have an expert handle it. Besides the wife and kids don't like me using so many 'bad words'.
Posted by CrazyFool 2013-01-01 12:55||   2013-01-01 12:55|| Front Page Top

#15 You can have my new F-150 mobile gun safe when you pry my cold dead body from the front seat.
Posted by Besoeker 2013-01-01 12:55||   2013-01-01 12:55|| Front Page Top

#16 "I enjoyed changing points and plugs"

Don't know what points are, Mr. B, but I had to change my own plugs many years ago because I couldn't afford to pay a mechanic to do it. Likewise oil changes.

I understand people who like to play with cars can enjoy doing the maintenance on them, but I never liked it and to me having to do maintenance on my own car (other than adding windshield fluid, checking the oil, & stuff like that) is a sign of poverty. As soon as I had a good enough job that I could afford to pay someone else to do oil changes & stuff, I did. Hope I'm never in a position where I have to do it myself again (particularly because of my age).
Posted by Barbara 2013-01-01 13:12||   2013-01-01 13:12|| Front Page Top

#17 F-150! Drink up!
Posted by Frank G 2013-01-01 13:47||   2013-01-01 13:47|| Front Page Top

#18 What's this plugs and points you speak of? I miss those good old days; especially the mid-January starter replacement in Michigan because they didn't last for crap back then.
Bought a new Camry last August and a service manual from the dealer is not available to us wrench twisters.
Of course the 63 short box (or any points and plug vehicle) will not be affected by any EMP, so that may be a good reason to have an old car project--just for mobility. (will need to put hardened valve seata in to handle unleaded fuel however)
Posted by USN,Ret. 2013-01-01 13:52||   2013-01-01 13:52|| Front Page Top

#19 Rough put, automotive ignition points regulate the flow of electricity to the plugs which fire and create combustion. Mostly done electronically today however.

As I heard an old tradesman tell a very infuriated foreman many years ago..."Don, I don't get paid for what I'd doing, I get paid for what I know how to do. Right now I'm having a Lucky Strike". If you had to change your own oil again Barb, there is little doubt in my mind that you could accomplish the task. :-)
Posted by Besoeker 2013-01-01 13:59||   2013-01-01 13:59|| Front Page Top

#20 Been there USN - still remember being stuck in the middle of nowhere. Finally jamming a penny between the solenoid and starter to make a connection so the '63 Rambler would start.

It was always either the starter or the generator. Except for replacing some U-joints on the side of I-5.

Ahhh... the good ole days!
Posted by CrazyFool 2013-01-01 15:53||   2013-01-01 15:53|| Front Page Top

#21 Full Service Circa 1960's = Guy in a bowtie comes out to your car, washes your windshield, checks the oil level and air pressure of the tires all for paying 22 cents a gallon for gas.

Greatest American generation indeed.
Posted by Dino Shomomp7692 2013-01-01 16:24||   2013-01-01 16:24|| Front Page Top

#22 CF-LOL: my persoanl fave is when my 57 Olds ( one of 3 i had @ the time) blew a heater hose in the middle of 'Resume Speed' Allegean, MI in December. no spare, but in the yard nearby was some kid's tricycle and I had a hacksaw and a couple of hose clamps. handlebar tubing was perfect fit for getting it home.
Posted by USN,Ret. 2013-01-01 19:03||   2013-01-01 19:03|| Front Page Top

#23 you bastard. Someone stole my trike. I bet it was you!
Posted by Frank G 2013-01-01 19:17||   2013-01-01 19:17|| Front Page Top

#24 I never stole trike parts, but one night a school bus donated about 5 gallons of regular to my 57 Chevy.
Posted by Besoeker 2013-01-01 19:25||   2013-01-01 19:25|| Front Page Top

#25 "If I could pick out Satan, as he really is, I would picture him as a great, popular leader of government. And he comes forth as the champion of the people and rather than face the harsh realities and stubborn facts of economic life, he soothes the people into the persuasion that he is their great benefactor and patron, and he looks at the printing press making money ; thousands of dollars, millions of dollars. And he gives order through the instruments of government for deficit financing, and the presses—it is that simple—and they print money, and print money, and the government goes in debt and what finally happens is: it's a painless way to rob the poor, and to destroy the pensioner, and finally to bring the country into economic collapse and chaos. That is Satan! Smart, shrewd, deceptive, but beyond his soft and mellifluous voice there is destruction and ruin: that is Satan."

The Late Dr. W. A. Criswell, 02-24-1974 (Many Years Before Obama Became President)- Pastor First Baptist Church of Dallas (Link)
Posted by Dino Shomomp7692 2013-01-01 19:33||   2013-01-01 19:33|| Front Page Top

#26 He sure had the Dems' number, DS.
Posted by Barbara 2013-01-01 20:13||   2013-01-01 20:13|| Front Page Top

#27 Well, I remember doing a curbside valve job on my Chevy powered '52 Studebaker back in the day.

Hint: a deep socket won't work on #4 in a Subie. Slip a short length of Tygon over the plug as a handle to get it started.
Posted by KBK 2013-01-01 20:54||   2013-01-01 20:54|| Front Page Top

00:14 JosephMendiola
00:14 JosephMendiola
23:49 trailing wife
23:35 Thing From Snowy Mountain
23:35 JosephMendiola
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22:35 Thing From Snowy Mountain
22:34 Thing From Snowy Mountain
22:05 SteveS
21:41 Pappy
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