People in the US how bad is it really ?

[halfpint]

How bad is the financial situation really over there. We hear and see all of this on the news but what is it really like. Are people really cutting back on spending. Is the situation really as bad as what they are saying.

From my point of view living in the UK and dealing with people from all walks of life every day, there is def a tighting of peoples spending habits and over the last few months it seems to be getting worse. Im in the recruitment game and we are seeing a huge cancellation rate compared to 8 months ago. When we send out a questionare as to why they canceled. 99% of them say they can no longer afford the membership or have lost thier job. In one area we saw a drop rate from 16000 members down to just over 9000 which is unprecidated in my line of work.

[Sly]

It must not be bad enough yet. I see more people complaining than doing.

[sperbonzo]

Here in Miami we only resort to eating the flesh of the dead about once a week right now....




.

[JamesGw]

I, personally, haven't experienced anything negative from the recession nor do I know anyone that has. Well no, I know one, but they haven't been tightening their wallets. Still buying new cars and shit.

[brassmonkey]

how is it in the uk?

[L-Pink]

We're all trying to get by. I've cut back on my cocaine consumption and only eat in nice restaurants 3 times a week now.

.

[Captain Kawaii]

Ask us next week...
Day to day seems normal but I hear from shops that people are being more frugal...
After Greece defaults then US, if it happens...will be interesting to see and horrible to experience.

Programs we promote who should be doing fat rebills have dropped to 10% of what they used to do...

[Caligari]

People in the US how bad is it really ?

This bad?
http://news.yahoo.com/dont-caught-ho...191153227.html

that was written by a Forbes analyst on Saturday...

a few telling things in that article, one being that in the last year the amount of credit card transactions in the u.s. to buy gasoline has risen 39 percent.

[boneprone]

Its Horrible out here. Instead of eating crab and lobster on the Private Penthouse/FFN Jet we had to eat Pasta, sandwiches and shrimp..

[L-Pink]

One of my neighbors has ripped out the extensive landscaping nest to his house and is growing his own pot. Much to the anguish of our home owners association. But, a penny saved ..... (can you grow cocoa plants in Florida, just curious)

[Best-In-BC]

Originally Posted by L-Pink

can you grow cocoa plants in Florida, just curious

[halfpint]

Originally Posted by L-Pink

One of my neighbors has ripped out the extensive landscaping nest to his house and is growing his own pot. Much to the anguish of our home owners association. But, a penny saved ..... (can you grow cocoa plants in Florida, just curious)

terrible I would not be happy with that at all if i were on the home owners association. You should run him out of his house and use his garden for cocoa plants

[halfpint]

Originally Posted by boneprone

Its Horrible out here. Instead of eating crab and lobster on the Private Penthouse/FFN Jet we had to eat Pasta, sandwiches and shrimp..

Nice photoshop and very well done to

[The Porn Nerd]

Originally Posted by halfpint

How bad is the financial situation really over there. We hear and see all of this on the news but what is it really like. Are people really cutting back on spending. Is the situation really as bad as what they are saying.

From my point of view living in the UK and dealing with people from all walks of life every day, there is def a tighting of peoples spending habits and over the last few months it seems to be getting worse. Im in the recruitment game and we are seeing a huge cancellation rate compared to 8 months ago. When we send out a questionare as to why they canceled. 99% of them say they can no longer afford the membership or have lost thier job. In one area we saw a drop rate from 16000 members down to just over 9000 which is unprecidated in my line of work.

I'm in NYC/NY, so any recession always hits us last, if at all. More rich people moving into the city, those who could afford to move out did so long ago, many holding on to mortgages/rents since they can't sell/rent for a profit. But it's Manhattan so it's still the center of the Universe (sorry folks, but it is) so you have to kind of look under the surface to see the middle class people who live here barely hanging on. But you see it; less shopping at the grocery store, Korean green markets complaining, lots of empty taxis....less locals hanging out at the street cafes (tho tourists still pack 'em, you can always tell)...stores that have been around for YEARS closing all the time (and people WEEPING, literally, on the telly: "Why did they have to raise the rent on H&H Bagels from $1200 per month, as it had been for thirty years, to $24,000?" The store sits empty now...)

Outside of the NYC area? Fucking scary. Millions out of work, everyone fighting with each other over nonsense while the rich laugh and get richer, the poor doing their work for them (killing each other)...

Meanwhile, I try to sell porn and save my nickels.

Originally Posted by L-Pink

One of my neighbors has ripped out the extensive landscaping nest to his house and is growing his own pot. Much to the anguish of our home owners association. But, a penny saved ..... (can you grow cocoa plants in Florida, just curious)

Can I live where you live, pretty please? Preferably somewhere close to this neighbor of yours...:D

[halfpint]

Originally Posted by brassmonkey

how is it in the uk?

fucking terrible one of our top recruiters only earned 7k GPB last month

[brassmonkey]

Originally Posted by halfpint

fucking terrible one of our top recruiters only earned 7k GPB last month

well don't fight wars it cost to send soldiers.

[halfpint]

Originally Posted by brassmonkey

well don't fight wars it cost to send soldiers.

Im deadly serious that was really the top recruiters earnings last month. I came in at num 17 out of 186 recruiters accross the UK

[L-Pink]

On a serious note, YES. The economy and way of life has changed for America's middle class. Between Wall St. stealing retirement funds and management positions that will never return the quality of life has changed ... And won't get better for those people.


.

[IllTestYourGirls]

Empty houses everywhere. Many selling around 50% of what the town/city have them appraised at. Im not just talking the poor areas either. I just looked at a house appraised in the mid xxx,xxx selling for half that. It has been on the market for 8 months now.

[boneprone]

Originally Posted by halfpint

Nice photoshop and very well done to

Photoshop?
LOL? WTF?? Really?

Actually you are right. Here is another of me and my Pet Taya Parker getting onto our G5.



Again. Photoshopped.

[L-Pink]

Shit, that jet's at least two years old. Loser.


lol

[halfpint]

Originally Posted by L-Pink

On a serious note, YES. The economy and way of life has changed for America's middle class. Between Wall St. stealing retirement funds and management positions that will never return the quality of life has changed ... And won't get better for those people.


.

Over here it seems to be certain counties and other counties which we work had a pretty big membership increase, so whether it will spread to the wealthier counties in the comming months or years I dont know.
But that membership decrease which i mentioned above was the first time they have ever had anything like that happen in that county before.
We had a meeting about it today and we were all pretty shocked because for the whole of last month we had a good increase accross most of the UK.

[GetSCORECash]

Its not as bad as news let's on. People are working, money is still being made.

[boneprone]

Originally Posted by L-Pink

Shit, that jet's at least two years old. Loser.


lol

Like I said. Times are rough.

[halfpint]

Originally Posted by boneprone

Photoshop?
LOL? WTF?? Really?

Actually you are right. Here is another of me and my Pet Taya Parker getting onto our G5.



Again. Photoshopped.

[jimmy-3-way]

Originally Posted by boneprone

Photoshop?
LOL? WTF?? Really?

Actually you are right. Here is another of me and my Pet Taya Parker getting onto our G5.



Again. Photoshopped.

When they called security and threw you out of the airport did you tell them you were BP4L?

[Dead]

gangsta^... It is like anything that needs to check and balance, I had the best year in business after 12 in it ....Brick and mortar.

[digitaldivas]

Originally Posted by boneprone

Photoshop?
LOL? WTF?? Really?

If I ever meet you people, I would like to kiss her feet if that is cool with you

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by boneprone

Photoshop?
LOL? WTF?? Really?

Actually you are right. Here is another of me and my Pet Taya Parker getting onto our G5.



Again. Photoshopped.

Seriously? Who the fuck rolls in a G5? I thought a G6 was the in jet now?

[boneprone]

Originally Posted by Rochard

Seriously? Who the fuck rolls in a G5? I thought a G6 was the in jet now?

Tough times man. To charter a G5 for what we did is about $90k.. Anything more would be outside our budget.

[Mr Pheer]

Originally Posted by boneprone

Its Horrible out here. Instead of eating crab and lobster on the Private Penthouse/FFN Jet we had to eat Pasta, sandwiches and shrimp..

^^^ Thats totally no bullshit. BP was in absolute disbelief when someone handed him a sandwich.

[kane]

The main thing I see here is houses sitting empty. There is a neighborhood in my town where probably 20% of the houses are for sale and empty. They are all foreclosures and they are having trouble selling them even at greatly reduced prices. I drive by a real estate office almost every day on their reader board right now they have an ad up for a house in town that is 3 bedroom, big kitchen, big yard, in ground pool, bonus room and "very nice" for $224K. Three years ago a house like that would have gone for $350K+

[slapass]

Not sure where these guys live but the US is just fine. Drive around and you would not even know anything had happened. Yep people lost their house and soome lost their jobs but that was about it. Everything is pretty normal now.

[epitome]

Its fine.

[IllTestYourGirls]

Originally Posted by slapass

Not sure where these guys live but the US is just fine. Drive around and you would not even know anything had happened. Yep people lost their house and soome lost their jobs but that was about it. Everything is pretty normal now.

I live in a state least hurt by the great recession and it is still noticeable.

[TubeKing]

People are still too good to work for fast food joints, so it looks like everyone is doing great.

[Grapesoda]

Originally Posted by halfpint

How bad is the financial situation really over there. We hear and see all of this on the news but what is it really like. Are people really cutting back on spending. Is the situation really as bad as what they are saying.

From my point of view living in the UK and dealing with people from all walks of life every day, there is def a tighting of peoples spending habits and over the last few months it seems to be getting worse. Im in the recruitment game and we are seeing a huge cancellation rate compared to 8 months ago. When we send out a questionare as to why they canceled. 99% of them say they can no longer afford the membership or have lost thier job. In one area we saw a drop rate from 16000 members down to just over 9000 which is unprecidated in my line of work.

about the same here... any shopping center you drive by has lots of empty stores. lots of places for lease up and down parts of town that were once busy... some parking lots pretty much empty most of then day etc...

[INever]

The very rich are greedily keeping it all to themselves.

[Dead]

Originally Posted by INever

The very rich are greedily keeping it all to themselves.

Yea those selfish bastards probably earned it.......

[raymor]

What I'm seeing is times are quite tough, but it's having some good effects. 10% unemployment means friends are without jobs. On the other hand, people who used to bread about their $200 shoes now brag about the great deal they got at the second hand store. Thrifty is in. Webmasters tell us that sales are way down.

[epitome]

I live in South Florida, one of the areas that was supposed to be hardest hit. From the news, I expected that the area had imploded between my last visit and actually moving.

For the most part, nothing changed.

Yeah, there are vacant houses, but that is because everybody upgraded to brand new houses and then people that shouldn't have qualified, moved into the houses people moved out of. Then they lost them and went back to rentals. There was always excess inventory ... housing starts in the 2000's were insane. Some of that excess is being bought by investors at a fraction of the value pre-foreclosure and are turning them into rentals that the same people who got booted can now afford.

Of course retail will suffer. Everybody was refinancing on the inflated values of their houses and spending it buying new shit.

That cash cow died and so did a lot of the retail supporting it.

It's not doom and gloom. It is a correction. We built too much shit, spent too much money and now we have to recover from that.

Unemployment is an issue but it's less than 1 out of 5 unemployed. While bad, it's not devastating and not something that cannot be fixed.

[bronco67]

A year ago, I dried my sweaty balls with $100 bills every day. Now I only do it 3 times a week -- and I use twenties.

[96ukssob]

a lot of people are cutting back. friends that would regularly go on vacation or to the beach have cut back this year alone. most people are getting scared and trying to save money.

the one company im working with is talking about moving a big chunk of the business to an Indian team so they can save a TON of money... jerks, i hope the upper management would all burn if they do (i wouldn't be effected but thats fucked up).

[Captain Kawaii]

Originally Posted by Dead

Yea those selfish bastards probably earned it.......

Yeah, Goldman Sachs...its hard ripping people off...I bet BofA and the rest toil very hard...

[Sid70]

Originally Posted by boneprone

Its Horrible out here. Instead of eating crab and lobster on the Private Penthouse/FFN Jet we had to eat Pasta, sandwiches and shrimp..

Jet Lee clone, who are you?

[CIVMatt]

Military truck carrying infected broke down. Spreading rapidly. Supplies and troops parachuted in from Daytona. Barricaded in cul-de-sac ammo running low!

[redwhiteandblue]

Originally Posted by halfpint

Over here it seems to be certain counties and other counties which we work had a pretty big membership increase, so whether it will spread to the wealthier counties in the comming months or years I dont know.
But that membership decrease which i mentioned above was the first time they have ever had anything like that happen in that county before.
We had a meeting about it today and we were all pretty shocked because for the whole of last month we had a good increase accross most of the UK.

Is this MLM or something that you're doing?

[Fabien]

Originally Posted by boneprone

Its Horrible out here. Instead of eating crab and lobster on the Private Penthouse/FFN Jet we had to eat Pasta, sandwiches and shrimp..

That's 5 if i counted right ?

[barcodes]

Originally Posted by epitome

I live in South Florida, one of the areas that was supposed to be hardest hit. From the news, I expected that the area had imploded between my last visit and actually moving.

For the most part, nothing changed.

Yeah, there are vacant houses, but that is because everybody upgraded to brand new houses and then people that shouldn't have qualified, moved into the houses people moved out of. Then they lost them and went back to rentals. There was always excess inventory ... housing starts in the 2000's were insane. Some of that excess is being bought by investors at a fraction of the value pre-foreclosure and are turning them into rentals that the same people who got booted can now afford.

Of course retail will suffer. Everybody was refinancing on the inflated values of their houses and spending it buying new shit.

That cash cow died and so did a lot of the retail supporting it.

It's not doom and gloom. It is a correction. We built too much shit, spent too much money and now we have to recover from that.

Unemployment is an issue but it's less than 1 out of 5 unemployed. While bad, it's not devastating and not something that cannot be fixed.

I'm in the Fort Myers area which was hit really bad. Obama came here in 09 as we were having some serious issues.
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-11/p..._s=PM:POLITICS

I lost my mainstream job for a little bit as clients disappeared last summer. Took an unemployment check for two, maybe three months while I scrounged up some freelance work. Got off of unemployment as soon as I got a little money in from design projects and eventually was re-hired at my old job once the work started coming back. I am far from rich, but I can't complain. Have a house, couple of pets, car. We live week to week right now but everything gets paid and we have amenities most can not afford in these dire times (ac on 24/7, food, dsl, cell phones, cable, etc).

I haven't made any money doing the affiliate thing yet but I am confident that in time I will. Even if it makes a couple hundred a month or a year, anything really, I would be grateful for it, but we are still managing without it.

The one thing that really sucks is that I don't have any spare money to really work on my sites like I would want to. My two legal tubes, for example, are using Nubiles script. I don't have the money for Mech or multiple licenses of a different script at the moment, and don't want to rely on Nubiles as they skim traffic, they have encoded code that's difficult to work with, etc. For now, I won't build any more tubes and started working on blogs (which, from what I hear, are probably more profitable anyway) and cam w/l's. In time, if any money comes in, I will spend it on upgrading the network, getting off of HostGator and onto a dedicated server, purchasing some traffic, etc. You can live well even on a very tight budget, as long as you are willing to sacrifice on certain things until you can afford them. Who knows, maybe one day, my girlfriend and I will be out on a jet making "suck it" poses as well lol but if it doesn't work out that way it's ok. As long as I have food, roof over my head, and an internet connection I will be good!

^^ PLEASE! Do not take this as crying, complaining, etc. Just sharing my thoughts on this. I am a happy person that's grateful for what I have. I wish for more at times but who doesn't? lol.

[barcodes]

This is the suck it pose by the way for those who have no idea what I was referring to lol, popular in the early 2000's if I remember right.

No offense with that comment by the way, was just being silly.