In Washington, there is going to have to be drastic cut-backs in everything, if this country is going to survive this financial crisis around the world.  Everyone will have to sacrifice.  The party is over...and the Great Society has come to an end. 

Militarily, the United States has no foe or equal, so that's not a worry.  What has to be a worry...is the debt of the United States. and most of the states, who are also fighting their debt problems.  If the people of the United States can't think that the U.S. can go belly-up...think again.  All the great societies of the past have vanished...and the United States is no different.  America can go under at any time! 

I don's consider myself a fatalist; a doomsdayer; or a predictor of the end of the world, etc.  I consider myself a realist.  And, the realistic picture of everything in the states...the U.S. as a whole and the European picture...dosen't look good. 

In Nomember, 2011, President Obama attended a G-20 meeting in Cannes, France in Europe, with mixed results, etc.  The following article was written by Greg Keller, of the Associated Press, and the piece was published in the Albuquerque Journal on Saturday November 5, 2011.  The headlines read;

"No Extra Aid For Europe"

The sub-headline reads;  Meeting of G-20 Comes to an end; 

CANNES, France:  The G-20 summit ended in disarray Friday (11-4) without additional outside money to ease Europe's debt crisis and new jitters about Italy clouding a plan to prevent Greece from defaulting. 

In Athens, meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou survived a confidence vote in parliment, calming a revolt in his Socialist party with a pledge to seek an interim governerment that would secure a vital new European debt deal. 

In the end, only vague offers to increase the firepower of the Internatiopnal Monetary Fund...at some later date...were able to take home after two days of tumultuous talks.

With their own finances already stretched from bailing out Greece, Ireland and Portugal...and the United States and other allies wrestling with their own problems...eurozone countries had been looking to the IMF to help line up more financing to prevent the debt crisis from spreading to larger economies like Italy and Spain. 

Italy's fate in particular is crucial to the eurozone, because its economy...the third largest in the currency union...would be too expensive to bail out.  The implications for the world economy are start:  The debt crisis that has rocked the 17 nation eurozone threatens to push the world economy into a second recession. 

European leaders could point to one potential catastrophe averted:  They stared down Greece's prime minister and berated him into scrapping a referendum that threateded their European bailout.  Greece's politics are in upheaval as a result, but the shaky bailout plan appears back on track...for now. 

"We want Europe to work," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on lFrence TV when the summit was over.  "I think today we can have confidence...but that's not to say our troubles are behind us." 

In the end, the Greek question completely derailed Sarkozy's aim of using the summit to show that Europe had sorted out its debt problem once and for all...and possibly convince some of them to pitch in to the rescue effort. 

In the space of days, the already shrunken list of goals set out by France to close out its year as head of the G-20 was scrapped, replaced by a nearly constant stream of shocking new developments and reversals in Europe's long-running attempt to get control of Greece's debt crisis. 

The reality was perhaps best illustrated at the height of the summit on Thursday evening, when hundreds of journalists dropped what they were doing in the basement of the Cannes' Palais des Festivals and gathered around television screens to watch a live transmission from the Greek parliament in Athens, where Papandreou was speaking. 

This week of unending drama in Athens horrified its European partners, spooked global markets and overshadowed the summit in Cannes.  The threat of a Greek default or exit from the common euro currenty has worsened the continent's debt crisis.'" 

END OF ARTICLE; 

 Thoughts/opinions; (My Two-Cents about the economy)

- I think the United States is in trouble...for old people and young people alike;

- During my working years (50), I was laid off from six jobs and three of those companies closed right from under my feet.  I worked for an engineering company for over ten years, and with 35,000 employees around the world, and today...that company doesn't exist. 

- After my job layoffs, I worked at more temporaries than I would like to think of...and at one time, I was signed up with 24 agencies so I could survive. 

-  All of my job layoffs were in a period of over a decade or so.  It was the worst time in my life, and finally...I went under.  A person can only live off of a credit card so long, after savings, etc., are all gone. 

- I was technically homeless, but I was living at the local VA Medical Center for over four months.  From there, I went to live in a homeless shelter, and stood in line in a soup line for over two months. This was the worst time in my life...and it was all due to job layoffs, etc.

- I wrote an article about my experiences entitled, "I Know What It's Like To Be Homeless"  In it, I point out that many of the people, didn't look like they had that sterotypical look of a homeless person...you know...the weathered faces and worn clothes.  Many people, looked like they could put on a shirt and tie and go down the street and get a job at the local bank.  This point was disturbing to me, because I saw a trend happening here...the job losses of professional people...and it would last a long time! 

- In my view, there will be no more full-time jobs in the future.  There will only be temporary work and part-time work.  Employers won't have to give benefits, with part-time employees.  Depending on their standard of living...employees will have to work more than one job. 

-  Everyone knows that the government cooks the books, to make the president look good.  So, if the unemployment is listed at 9%...you can add 5 or 6 points to it for political reasons.  The government lies about the numbers all the time. 

-  I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is a city of about 500,000 population.  Here, we have had big names leave the city...never to return.  General Electric; American Online (,1000) employees/closed in 1999); Martin-Marietta; Seimens; Phillips SemiCondctors; Digital; Tread Technologies; Motorola and Intel is just outside the city limits.  Intel at one time employeed about 7,500 employees...and in 2011...is down to about 2,000 employees.  I predict that Intel will consolodate and move the operation someplace else. 

- Who says anyone has to hire you for anything?

- I read someplace, where Bill Gates (Microsoft) has made more than a dozen trips to India.  I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft fled the coop sometime in the future.  I read someplace else, that the employees of Microsoft are all temporaries.  Because of this, they don't get any benefits.  Do you think Bill Gates is foolish enought to pay benefits?  Why do you think he's a billionaire?  What cave have you been living in? 

- I was declared disabled at the age of 60 by the VA and Social Security, and I now consider that a blessing in disguise, because it allowed me to get Medicare earlier, and I was given Social Security earlier as well.  I was not given tazpayer's money, but the money I earned all my life. 

In conclusion...I don't see any bright spots in America in the future.  During the Great Society years, we had all these subsidies from the government to dairy; housing; farmers...all that is going to go.  I live in subsidized housing now, and that will be a thing of the past in the future.  Young people, in this country, are going to have it harder and harder...

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Copyright; 2011; Jerry Aragon; The Humor Doctor;
Website name; humordoctormd