Depression

[callen]

I'm from south east louisiana and south west mississippi area. The area used to be called the dairy capital of the south. Now every local small towns stores are going out of business due to all the farmers selling out of the dairy business. My family sold out after Katrina. Seems to me thats when it really got bad around here. My family and many other southern families have been farming all their lives. About 15 years ago their were aprox. 400-500 dairys in a 200 mile radius, now theirs only about 30 in that 200 mile radius. There is defintly something happing to this country!!! With No farmers!!! There will be NO USA!!!

How do they expect a farmer to make it with fert. almot 1000 ton, diesel 5.00 gal (7.00 by the end of sumer), etc...

 

[N80]

And a protracted drought brewing in the south east.

 

[scott_vt]

My wife and I own a goat dairy farm. We were shipping our milk to a cheese processor that is about 75 miles away. Dairy farmers are always responsible for the transportation costs to get their milk to the plant. My wife and I got certified to ship our own milk, but the cost of fuel is now so high, shipping costs ate away at our profit, until we had to stop shipping. We're trying to find a more local cheese processor, but so far, we haven't had any luck.

Good Afternoon Rich,
Good to hear you on !

When I visited your operation last year, I felt for sure you and your wife had found a niche market in the goat milk/ goat cheese market ! Then all of a sudden fuel prices went through the roof ! I can only hope that you can find a processor closer to your operation, I was very impressed with your milk house !

Good luck, btw we need to hook up again !

BBtw, maybe you need to call my neighbor Neil on some hay prices if you can deal with small rounds, his prices are very good !

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Funny, I'll bet these conversations have been going on for a hundred years. Just now we have the internet.
Could you imagine the internet conversations during Vietnam, the Carter years(double digit inflation and interest rates), Korea, Oct. 1929, the real depression. Given everything going on, I think we have it pretty good. Don't listen to the news. How is your life right now?

 

[RichZ]

No, I don't think this is like anything but the great depression. If you were a farmer, you'd see that. Family farms are going under at a rate greater than anytime in US history. Case in point, my friend is a 4th generation dairy farmer. He's smart, and knows what he's doing. But the price of fuel and feed, plus milk prices (to the farmer) being the same as they were in 1974, has destroyed his farm. He's closing up this November. Think of that!!! He's a 4th generation dairy farmer. He farms the same land that his great grandfather did. And that is example is being repeated again and again throughout the country.

Our economy is in a collapse.

 

[MossRoad]

Are we headed for a depression? Every time I think things are beginning to turn around there is more bad news.

RonL

I've been on vacation the last week. The highways are packed, hotels are booked and attractions are crowded. Gas was averaging just under $4.00 a gallon, yet there was a constant flow of folks at the pumps. SUV's are everywhere. People are just spending their money on pay t.v., pay radio, pay bottled water, toys, cars, houses that they never should have bought in the first place, etc...

So, in my opinion, it doesn not appear that we are in a depression.

People are just very unrealistic about what they can afford. As frugal, middleclass, average workers, we were able to save for a vacaction this year because we did just that.... saved up for it before we left. $25.00 a week for two years gives you $2600 dollars to blow before you leave home. $2600 dollars on a credit card gives you a boat anchor around your neck.

 

[browns40]

We are not headed for a depression. We are headed for an awakening.

This nation was built on the backs of farmers... on grit, work ethic and determination... with some exceptions, these traits are being bred out of subsequent generations by an overindulgent parenting model, and educational system.

Each generation is guided to "reach higher" which in America has somehow come to mean get as rich as possible... it all falls back to the almighty greenback... and the real money is not work where you use your hands, it's where you use your head. Lawyers, accountants, administrators, CEO's, doctors... our "best & brightest" are pushed to a professional life, which provides a service, and generally consumes rather than produces... they are not "value-added" careers...

Throw any 17 year old a cell phone, camera, laptop--they'll begin running it effortlessly... throw them a tape measure, a chainsaw, or a pickaxe... what will you see?

We continue to diminish the importance of productivity, work ethic, creation of value in favor of material wealth... we shift our talents away from the foundations that built the economy to the areas that benefit the most personally.

We have created this problem ourselves, and we will come to a solution, but lifestyles will change, and conveniences we take for granted will diminish into necessities. We will re-learn to do for ourselves more & more the tighter the dollar gets.

The world that has been shrinking for so many years gets just that much bigger with every hike in oil.

I'm not by any means saying there will be some resounding crash, and the "depression siren" will start blaring... it will be an atrophy, in some cases nearly imperceptible, that will eventually bottom out to where the "new" standard of living will ultimately be... we will ultimately shift away from a broad service economy based on consumption to more localized economies.

My stimulus check went to a deep freeze, a rifle, and my biggest garden to date... I am blessed to live in a place where hunger & warmth should never affect any able-bodied person.

Who knows really... only time will tell.

 

[bigshovel]

We are not headed for a depression. We are headed for an awakening.

This nation was built on the backs of farmers... on grit, work ethic and determination... with some exceptions, these traits are being bred out of subsequent generations by an overindulgent parenting model, and educational system.

Each generation is guided to "reach higher" which in America has somehow come to mean get as rich as possible... it all falls back to the almighty greenback... and the real money is not work where you use your hands, it's where you use your head. Lawyers, accountants, administrators, CEO's, doctors... our "best & brightest" are pushed to a professional life, which provides a service, and generally consumes rather than produces... they are not "value-added" careers...

Throw any 17 year old a cell phone, camera, laptop--they'll begin running it effortlessly... throw them a tape measure, a chainsaw, or a pickaxe... what will you see?

We continue to diminish the importance of productivity, work ethic, creation of value in favor of material wealth... we shift our talents away from the foundations that built the economy to the areas that benefit the most personally.

We have created this problem ourselves, and we will come to a solution, but lifestyles will change, and conveniences we take for granted will diminish into necessities. We will re-learn to do for ourselves more & more the tighter the dollar gets.

The world that has been shrinking for so many years gets just that much bigger with every hike in oil.

I'm not by any means saying there will be some resounding crash, and the "depression siren" will start blaring... it will be an atrophy, in some cases nearly imperceptible, that will eventually bottom out to where the "new" standard of living will ultimately be... we will ultimately shift away from a broad service economy based on consumption to more localized economies.

My stimulus check went to a deep freeze, a rifle, and my biggest garden to date... I am blessed to live in a place where hunger & warmth should never affect any able-bodied person.

Who knows really... only time will tell.

Well said and extremely truthfull about today's youth and their parents.
I paid into the system of the government more than most last year and for that I will not recieve a borrowed stimulus check, go figure.

Brad

 

[N80]

I paid into the system of the government more than most last year and for that I will not recieve a borrowed stimulus check, go figure.

Brad

Which makes no sense at all. If that money is supposed to provide stimulus for the economy then the government intends for you to spend it. So why is there an income cut-off? Can't a rich guy spend it just as well as a poor guy?

And if the government intends for us to spend it in order to stimulate the economy, why don't they cut out the middle man (we the people) and just give it to GM, Ford, United Airlines and Home Depot? They all need it more than we do right?

I personally think that economic stimulus dole out is the most socialist thing I've ever seen this country do. Makes me gag.

And like someone said, if we do go out and spend it, most of what we buy will come from China. Should have just sent the money directly to them.

And browns40, you got it right. Its going to be an awakening and it will be a rude one, both for our spoiled youth, our spoiled baby boomers and you and me too. But, its going to be like that shot of penicillin back in the old days. Its going to hurt real bad, but its going to help in the long run.

Gotta go. Blood pressure is going up and I'm turning purple.

 

[bigshovel]

Funny, I'll bet these conversations have been going on for a hundred years. Just now we have the internet.
Could you imagine the internet conversations during Vietnam, the Carter years(double digit inflation and interest rates), Korea, Oct. 1929, the real depression. Given everything going on, I think we have it pretty good. Don't listen to the news. How is your life right now?

That's what i'm screamin. Turn off the radio and tv, move forward and quit dwelling on speculation of others.

Brad