It seems like the free market is set to bless us with yet another "once in a lifetime" economic crisis, and the working class will get the short end of the stick yet again. What are some tips or advice to not get hit too hard by this? I've heard having all your debt paid off helps but aside from that what are some practical things we can do that aren't just buying 3 years of canned beans and fucking off to a cabin in the woods? Any advice for what the low income and working class can do would be greatly appreciated
Bespoke: having so much medical debt that you don't even care anymore. Like honestly what is my government going to do to get the money back, repossess my 10 year old PS3 and TV? Garnish my wages, which are already basically garnished paying medical aid/health insurance and the minimum repayment on the debt? Send me another 50 page bill in the mail? Granted I'm not American but still.
Give this administration time and the will reinvent the concept of debtors prison with an app developed by some silicon valley ghoul called "Payoff" or something.
"More like paying your way to freedom!" -- The democrats, while doing nothing of substance to slow or change it.
New cryptocurrency that is mined by completing captchas employs 15% of the workforce. Company issued headsets can't be given to everyone out of a job because, "you have to earn it." Constant political discourse around cyrpto mining being a human right. :capybara-theorist:
And because it's virtual reality, they could make your virtual habit nice if they wanted to. But they won't. The cruelty, as always, is the point.
This is what I have been trying to do, it also has the added benefit of giving you an actual community that you can be a part in, which helps the doomerism. Which I think is something everyone here struggles with lol.
I'd try gardening or even growing herbs if you have any space. I'm a home chef and there are actually lots of depression era recipies which are taught by a real depression survivor here: https://www.youtube.com/user/DepressionCooking
and here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JKBsd3SuVw
Getting used to the idea of alternative ways to get food or even just having something to chew on is essential in my opinion.
Seconded on the gardening. As well as being a very practical hobby I find it to be pretty relaxing.
It's nice to take a few minutes and watch the plants daily progress each day in between work. :comfy:
What makes you think we are going to have an economic crisis? The fed literally dumped like 8 trillion into corporations. And we just let poor people die of Covid, long term untreated health issues, or freeze in tx, and they don’t matter anyway /s
Before covid we were headed into a recession (Michael Roberts has some good analysis here that came out early in the pandemic). The corporate debt market was overloaded and it looked like we'd have a similar bubble pop like 2008-2009 but with corporate debt at the heart this time. Covid kind of protected us because of unlimited federal money, but there's only so much they can really do - after all, we're marxists we know that capitalism has certain intractable contradictions. The fed and capitalist government cannot prevent recessions forever, so this is always a cogent question anyway.
The economic damage caused by covid looks like it will be permanently scarring (no v shaped recovery or return to the previous rather anemic growth rate) as well. There's no real way out of this according to neoliberal economics, they've been doing low interest, targeted means tested programs with cuts, and quantitative easing for like 12 years now.
Quantitative easing went insane , 25% of all circulating USD was printed in the past twelve months just to prop up the stock market. And they can't exactly print 9+ trillion dollars worth of USD, so almost of all of that was just numbers punched into a computer.
25% of all circulating USD was printed in the past twelve months just to prop up the stock market.
Wow! We have generated so much wealth this year.
:comfy:
Ok, then if it’s about that time, and you can afford to, save as much as you can - it’s Covid what the fuck are you going to do if your income hasn’t changed? Go to a bar? Probably not, so save your excess and try to get 3-6 months of income in a bank account (NOT in stonks lmao).
Paying off debt, other than credit card debt, isn’t a totally worthwhile thing to do. When times are really tough, you need to pay for food and shelter, not have paid off debt in advance.
Idk that’s my best advice. If you don’t have a job because of Covid or other reasons, then keep an eye on poverty finance on Reddit. It has helpful info.
But, like I said, we essentially had an economic catastrophe last year, we are probably in the clear for a while as a country. That’s not to say individuals won’t struggle in some cases. Shit is pretty bad for most lower income Americans
Do you not think we're in a huge bubble? I'm constantly trying to talk myself down (almost daily) and mostly failing. Stocks look extremely expensive compared to historical norms but I can't imagine how or why that would change. I suppose no one can, otherwise the trend would reverse.
I'm especially worried about this one because they're already doing everything they're willing to do, which of course rules out everything that might actually help people. So if it pops things either need to change or it will be more painful than normal. But if it doesn't pop, the bubble will just get bigger and the economy will get more and more irrational, right?
Or there's no bubble and I'm just too blackpilled to see how great the economy is.
I don’t like the term bubble, because it implies it will pop. Sometimes it slowly deflated. We are probably in that scenario. Financial results from publicly traded companies have been strong and have justified higher stock prices, rather than prices coming back down to meet earnings where they are in equilibrium, so it may be a bubble but that doesn’t mean it will stop, or pop.
I’m not trying to be an optimist here, because the stock market doesn’t not result in material improvements for 90% of Americans. As people get vaccinated we should continue to see this play out. No irrational exuberance yet, but inflation could start to become a bitch. Good for people with student debt or any non-credit card debt for that matter. But still capitalist hell world where mr Biden owes me $2000. Trump paid me $1800 Biden hasn’t done shit
If you have money, then I have some suggestions to protect your assets. But if you don't already have money, your options are going to be very limited. Which, like... yeah, that's the fundamental problem leftism is trying to solve.
The best thing I can think of for someone with minimal options and minimal savings is to try and take out a conservative, manageable personal loan right now while interest rates are low and banks are throwing money around, then sock that money away as emergency cash (in a bank, not literally cash). But that still requires you to have enough money to make payments on the loan, confidence that you will be able to make at least the minimum payment in the future or restructure the loan in the future, and be able to qualify for a loan (and a bank account) in the first place. The system really really screws people.
A similar last resort option, if you can do and are truly convinced a crash is close, would be to try and get a no fee credit card with a 0% introductory interest rate. That can ensure that you'll be able to pay your bills for a bit if you lose your job during the 0% interest period, for example, though you will have to pay it all back in the end or declare bankruptcy (which... also an option, but again, ironically an option more accessible to rich people.) And charges accumulated during the zero interest period will start to accrue interest if they aren't paid off before the end of the introductory period. But I do know someone who was zero-dollars-in-the-bank poor and managed to get through an especially rough patch by playing around with credit card debt and interest rates. (It can be dangerous though--you definitely have to be good at math, good at personal discipline, and know what you're doing.)
The bond market is going into a bearish dip which almost always indicates the top of a market as FOMO takes over and the melt up starts. I have predicted 17 of the last 3 crashes though so take that has you will.
I don’t think there will be a big one. It will just go flat for decades while everything slowly gets worse.
I have been making lists of the home address of every CEO at the top of the NASDAQ. I am going to mail them very unhappy postcards.
I am also buying at least one flat of canned food with every paycheck. I am storing them in a self storage unit and do not mind sharing this because it is now booby trapped!
Try to get into a trade maybe? If nothing else, try and find work with a contractor as general labourer before or during the crash. This isn't telling you to "just bootstrap", its that trades or even factory work can be more reliable income where corporate or service jobs can be axed in a slump. Much like layoffs during covid some things truly are essential, but the trades pay what grocery and service jobs should pay.
People say that stuff drops off during a crash because no one is spending money and they're kinda right, people don't spend money but a doctor or dentist office still needs to be built or fixed up, restaurants still need to be redone or built, people still move houses, no matter the economy so as a business they'll still pay for what they need done.
There's always work in cleaning out houses or work sites, drywalling, painting, plumbing, carpentry, framing, electrical work, hvac, etc: businesses still need their shit fixed or their offices built/set up, no one can really go without plumbing no matter the economy, houses will still be built or rebuilt in a crash if only because rich people and predatory companies will be buying them out hoping to make it big later.
Worst case scenario, you learn a skill that will prevent you from needing to call a contractor for something in your own place if you can do it yourself.
As some other commenters have mentioned, networking.
Two things you're paying attention to: What will people need? What can people provide?
