Economic impact on you?

[Exit]

I have not seen anyone mention this, at least not lately. Has the economy impacted anyone here or caused you to delay purchasing A/V equipment or other discretionary purchases?

For me I will be supporting two kids in collage, so I had to cut back because of that. We will have to take out big loans, and a few schools have said credit will be available. These loans will be over twice the original cost of our house, so I am anticipating the equivalent of three house payments a month until my kids get jobs and assume payments. It will be four years for one kid and eight years for the other. This is definitely the biggest expence in our lives. The other option is to have the kids loaded with so much debt that it will take them decades to pay it off, and they really don't comprehend how hard this will be. I think college cost increases have way outpaced salary growth over the years.

 

[MidnightSensi]

I have not seen anyone mention this, at least not lately. Has the economy impacted anyone here or caused you to delay purchasing A/V equipment or other discretionary purchases?

Not really, I find this a pretty inexpensive hobby. But I don't have any kids or much overhead, so, I think that is why.

For me I will be supporting two kids in collage, so I had to cut back because of that. We will have to take out big loans, and a few schools have said credit will be available. These loans will be over twice the original cost of our house, so I am anticipating the equivalent of three house payments a month until my kids get jobs and assume payments. It will be four years for one kid and eight years for the other. This is definitely the biggest expence in our lives. The other option is to have the kids loaded with so much debt that it will take them decades to pay it off, and they really don't comprehend how hard this will be. I think college cost increases have way outpaced salary growth over the years.

I figure college cost me a bit over 150,000. Tuition, books, food, rent, transport. Your kids need to get a job while they are there to offset it. There are lots of stupid college kid jobs. The best one, in my opinion, is being a computer lab moderator ... because you basically just sit there and get paid to do your homework and add paper once in a while. Just about every school has tons of these jobs. It's like a study hall you get paid for. I used to bid for the stupidist labs that no one used, so most of the time I would sit there and no one would be in there. I got a lot of school work done doing this. You just want to be a dumb employee so they don't put you in the busy labs because the pay was the same regardless. I pretended not to know much about computers and such, so they used me in the lighter load labs that were more conductive for getting work done.

 

[Davemcc]

The economy hasn't affected me...yet. It certainly has the potential to knock me out cold. I'm an autoworker and that's pretty scary right now. The good news is that Ford has already made the bulk of it's cuts (I hope) and has announced the opening of a new plant here that should (I hope) keep me working for many years. The constant stream of bad news is a little unnerving but maybe I'm just an optimist at heart.

 

[unreal.freak]

Yeah, it certianly has affected my spending. I want to buy Speakerman39's amp and speakers, but the company i work for has laid off 25 people the last count i had. It isnt looking any better for the near future either. Im a mechanic that has been there since the facility has opened, but it doesnt make it any easier to stomach. I hope with the falling gas prices and the "promise of change" from the two candidates the bottled water industry starts to pick up.

Peace,
Tommy

 

[bandphan]

Other than rental property,(trying to buy more) I have seen much ill effect yet. We have noticed more credit card spending with customers though..

 

[Exit]

My company keeps cutting jobs too. Management decided that it was more cost effective to outsource the technical writing and provisioning functions. They laid off 30 people out of our 60 person department. Most of these people I have worked with for over 20 years. I have still got my job because we come into contact with the customer and therefore we need to be kept in-house. The funny thing is, our former department head was laid off too and he formed a technical services company and hired most of our laid off people. The same people end up doing the work they always did but they work for this new company. I think they make their same salaries but I am not sure of the benefits. They have a lower cost because they don't have the overhead of our management structure. The ironic thing is that we have fewer employees to spread the overhead across, so our costs go higher. Go figure.

 

[mike c]

im spending 15-20% more to get the same US stuff as before.

im not allowed to buy anything at the moment - since i have to pay for my plane ticket to LV's CES this january

 

[ParadigmDawg]

It really hasn't affected me but I got laid off last year and it could happen at anytime.

 

[Hi Ho]

I work for a locally owned business installing A/V gear and times are definetely tough. My income has dropped as my hours have been cut back. I have put off the purchase of a Blu-Ray player and an APC S15 that I was looking forward too.

I recieved a major blow last week when a very good friend and co-worker was laid off (completely unfairly). The job just won't be the same and I'm seriously considering finding another job or going back to school. At the very least I'll probably take advantage of the 2 weeks vacation time I have built up.

 

[bandphan]

I work for a locally owned business installing A/V gear and times are definetely tough. My income has dropped as my hours have been cut back. I have put off the purchase of a Blu-Ray player and an APC S15 that I was looking forward too.

I recieved a major blow last week when a very good friend and co-worker was laid off (completely unfairly). The job just won't be the same and I'm seriously considering finding another job or going back to school. At the very least I'll probably take advantage of the 2 weeks vacation time I have built up.

Do you have cedia any certifications?

 

[mazersteven]

I'm an autoworker and that's pretty scary right now. The good news is that Ford has already made the bulk of it's cuts (I hope) and has announced the opening of a new plant here that should (I hope) keep me working for many years.

At $2.43 a share I would be sweating too. And no one is looking to bail out Ford. 700 dealerships predicted to close in the next year. New Plant???

 

[speakerman39]

Well, we ALL are affected by the high price of gasoline. I know it has been coming down, but it still is expensive. Lets not forget that. One thing I have noticed is that people seem to have plenty of money to spend. Perhaps, it is getting closer to the holiday shopping season or the awesome weather we have had here as of late. I really don't know, but I am quite hopeful we will have a good X-mas shopping season or otherwise my hours will be cut back yet again. As such, still on the fence about ordering a BR player. I plan to wait it out a bit longer. In the mean time, pay off my new Ascends. Lets just say I am getting closer.

Cheers,

Phil

 

[Davemcc]

At $2.43 a share I would be sweating too. And no one is looking to bail out Ford. 700 dealerships predicted to close in the next year. New Plant???

Not new, exactly. It's the re-opening of an engine assembly plant that has already been closed. It's supposed to build a new line of fuel efficient engines.

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/09/03/windsorfordmoney.html

 

[MidnightSensi]

Well, we ALL are affected by the high price of gasoline. I know it has been coming down, but it still is expensive. Lets not forget that. One thing I have noticed is that people seem to have plenty of money to spend. Perhaps, it is getting closer to the holiday shopping season or the awesome weather we have had here as of late. I really don't know, but I am quite hopeful we will have a good X-mas shopping season or otherwise my hours will be cut back yet again. As such, still on the fence about ordering a BR player. I plan to wait it out a bit longer. In the mean time, pay off my new Ascends. Lets just say I am getting closer.

Cheers,

Phil

I wouldn't expect a good holiday season. I've already heard people saying things like "we are just going to agree not to buy any gifts this season except for some small things"

We are going to have a rough couple of years. And I don't really think we are going to see 90s "greatness" like people seem to think we will. A "recovery" ... based on what?

We don't really have a particular technology to get us out of this hole yet. Really we need to be on the forefront of green energy, but we have a huge shortage of engineers. Huge. I'm fresh out of engineering school and had plenty of job offers, most my friends are living at home or takign some bs job, there simply aren't enough engineers to get us out of this hole. Engineering, math, science, just wasn't cool. People went for the "business" degrees and "finance" degrees. They still are. It's a serious problem America is going to face, and might be the ultimate reason why we won't be able to keep up economically with recovery.

 

[bandphan]

I wouldn't expect a good holiday season. I've already heard people saying things like "we are just going to agree not to buy any gifts this season except for some small things"

We are going to have a rough couple of years. And I don't really think we are going to see 90s "greatness" like people seem to think we will. A "recovery" ... based on what?

We don't really have a particular technology to get us out of this hole yet. Really we need to be on the forefront of green energy, but we have a huge shortage of engineers. Huge. I'm fresh out of engineering school and had plenty of job offers, most my friends are living at home or takign some bs job, there simply aren't enough engineers to get us out of this hole. Engineering, math, science, just wasn't cool. People went for the "business" degrees and "finance" degrees. They still are. It's a serious problem America is going to face, and might be the ultimate reason why we won't be able to keep up economically with recovery.

If history is on our side, we will recover Supply and demand dictates our lives in so ways, good example is the RPN/LPN feild which goes through big swings in what seems like every 10years. There is always great opportunity in chaos

 

[MidnightSensi]

If history is on our side, we will recover Supply and demand dictates our lives in so ways, good example is the RPN/LPN feild which goes through big swings in what seems like every 10years. There is always great opportunity in chaos

History isn't on our side though. Technological innovation got us through our last slumps, while other countries couldn't keep up. We don't have that anymore.

I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel for a long time.

 

[bandphan]

History isn't on our side though. Technological innovation got us through our last slumps, while other countries couldn't keep up. We don't have that anymore.

I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel for a long time.

Dont be so sure Positive attitudes bring positive results Opportunity in chaos

 

[MidnightSensi]

Dont be so sure Positive attitudes bring positive results Opportunity in chaos

I hope your right! Usually I'm really a positive person, but this I can't seem to get on the same level as people that have high hopes we are going to recover soon. I just don't see the exit.

 

[haraldo]

Guys, you're probably not going to enjoy this post at all

We're all affected by the economy and the high oil prices, and what happens is that we get new jobs, better economy, more oil refineries and more business, because we're an oil and gas producing country exporting most of our stuff to EU and USA

So in a way this troubled economy makes businesses go better, although what happens right now in US is downright scary and of course affect us, somewhat, but not so much.

So no, this doesn't affect me in any way whatsoever negatively... Economy is very very good over here.

-Harald

 

[Halon451]

I agree, that the economy has affected us ALL in some kind of way - whether by gasoline prices, or cost of food at the grocery store, or worse case - layoffs and downsizing, or maybe not getting that raise one had expected...

The good thing about being in the power business, is that even though we're still affected by commodities prices, the lights will still have to stay on, because they just do, so we've been relatively shielded from the effects. My company experienced nearly a 50% growth just this last year, which is unarguably an anomaly these days. Especially considering we've developed our resources to incorporate expanding our reach well into Wind Power - which as everyone knows is red hot in this age.