An Oppressive Sense of Doom

To what extent can we fool ourselves and think that our economic ship will somehow right itself and return things to what we've considered as normal? I'm of the ilk believing that the old economic model has been blown to smithereens and ain't going to return to viability, no how, no way. The federal government is simply in a throw-money-at-the-problem mode right now, too afraid to really dig down into the books of the the major banks and learn how bad the situation really is. It's avoidance behavior.

I think GM will be in bankruptcy before the end of the year and cause a ripple effect of job losses from suppliers regardless of how well the reorganization is handled. And I don't see our economy being driven by the blind consumerism like we've been used to seeing -- which to me is a good thing since it's founded on waste and obsolescence. So what is going to prop up the economy if the banks won't lend, jobs keep being shed by the thousands and the global financial markets continue on life support?

I think it will take years to remove ourselves from this stagnant financial situation and a lot of abrupt changes will be made to our way of life -- and to many other countries much less able to cope. I wonder how bad we'll neglect our environmental stewardship for short-term economic goals? I have a feeling that when the smoke finally clears the classic ideals of the American Dream will have to be radically revised.