Thankfully I am retired but my retirement relies partially on an IRA that has taken a real beating in the market. I have decided that the only way to keep from depleating the IRA is to start thinking more seroiusly about doing work in my shop and doing more vehicle transporting if there is any out there to do. I have been hearing that some repair businesses are up now because people and companies are thinking of fixing stuff as opposed to buying new stuff. I don't know if that is true but I probably should look into it.
I have been down this road before. I spent my last thirty years working as an IBEW electrician doing major electrical construction work building and upgrading power plants, factories, steel mills and the like. The last major hard hit we had in this field was back in '82 & '83. I would have lost everything then if it wasn't for the fact we lived on a paid for place out in the country and had very few expenses. It was a hard place to live but it saved our butt. Even then when I could find work I had to travel and stay away from home. I learned a lot of survival skills but that was a different place and time and now I'll need to come up with some new ideas.
Knowing what I do, and having seen all this before, I have a real idea of what some people are going through right now. It's hard to stimulate the economy when you can barely feed and shelter yourself and family. With no income I can't imagine how people can be expected to contend with 1K mortgage, 1K health insurance and another 2K or more in other costs every month on maybe 2K of unemployment benefits. Let's face it, something has to give.
What really PO's me is the misguided notion that going out and spending in places like Wal Mart, that sells Chinese crap and drags in Mexicans from other places to build their stores and avoid paying the taxes everyone else pays locally, is a good way to stimulate the economy. If there ever was a time to buy American and help out the local Mom and Pop places, this is it.
OK, that's my little rant for the day...