Hi Pippin, I found your outsider's perspectives interesting - thanks for sharing them.
Much of the 90s coincided with the upstroke of the business cycle. Especially the second half, which also included the dot com bubble. Little or none of this is affected by politics or governmental policies, either on the way up or on the way down. A fair amount of public infrastructure-type things apparent to a visitor are funded by state and local authorities rather than the federal government. In the US, unlike in much of Europe, the majority of local governmental revenue is raised locally, not as an apportionment of federal funds, and it tends to have pieces that are difficult to change - real property tax, sales tax, etc. In boom times, receipts (and so expenditures) swell. When growth slows (as we've had since the turn of the century), the opposite happens, which is why state and local budgets have been under such pressure in recent years. Most are not able to run deficits, as the federal government can. It's also clear that a lot of federal money has been wasted over the last 6 years. I agree with you, US infrastructure sucks compared to that in most European countries. On the other hand, our tax burden is rather lower. People are generally unenthusiastic about tax increases, so you get what you pay for. As far as moods go, a lot of that is dependent upon whom you speak to. Most of my friends and associates are middle class, still employed, and not too radically impacted by recent travails in our economy. There will be more problems, job reductions, etc., so things will probably get worse before they get better, but overall, I do not sense a heavy mood among people I know. Of course, none of them have lost a house or have been significantly bitten by recent problems, other than the downturn in the stock market. People who have suffered big losses, different story. -- Goodsounds ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Goodsounds's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=14201 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=54678 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
