[Mr. Ali]

I am using my $600 to stimulate my little member.

[-Sevendust-]

Just figured out why I havnt gotten mine.

* Filing and/or preparation fees were deducted from your refund or you received a rapid refund from your preparer. You will be receiving a check instead of a direct deposit. Please see the Paper Check Payment Schedule below.

Thats what I get for letting H&R do my taxes. And guess what, Im the last date for the check to get to me. Fucking hell. Glad I dont need the money.

[mistawiskas]

Got this email. Doubt it'd do any good. It's everybody for themselves and there'd be no way anyone would band together in this country good enough to actually impact anything:

I wonder how many of us can do this including myself?

Are we Americans as dumb as we appear or is it that we just do not think? While the Chinese, knowingly and intentionally, export inferior products and dangerous toys and goods to be sold in American markets, the media wrings its hands and criticizes the Bush Administration for perceived errors.. Yet 70% of Americans believe that the trading privileges afforded to the Chinese should be suspended. Well, duh..why do you need the government to suspend trading privileges?

DO IT YOURSELF!!

Simply look on the bottom of every product you buy, and if it says 'Made in China' or 'PRC' (and that now includes Hong Kong), simply choose another product or none at all. You will be amazed at how dependent you are on Chinese products, however you will be equally amazed at what you can do without. Who needs plastic eggs to celebrate Easter?

If you must have eggs, use real ones and benefit some American farmer. Easter is just an example, the point is.. do not wait for the government to act.

Just go ahead and assume control on your own.

If 200 million Americans refuse to buy just $20 each of Chinese goods, that's a billion dollar trade imbalance resolved in our favor...fast!! The downside? Some American businesses will feel a temporary pinch from having foreign stockpiles of inventory. ** Downside ??

The solution ?

Let's give them fair warning and send our own message. We will not implement this UNTIL June 4, and we will only continue it until July 4. That is only one month of trading losses, but it will hit the Chinese for 1/12th of the total, or 8%, of their American exports. Then they will at least have to ask themselves if the benefits of their arrogance and lawlessness were worth it.

Remember, June 4 to July 4.

Send this to everybody you know.

Show them we are Americans and NOBODY can take us for granted.

If we can't live without cheap Chinese

goods for one month out of our lives,

WE DESERVE WHAT WE GET!

[Chainblade]

good post mista but the problem is that most americans don't care enough to voluntarily change their lives and habits...

[sims]

Originally Posted by Chris

I stand by what I say. The stimulus effect is to help people overburdened by debts, the housing crisis, etc. Hey, if you have ZERO bills to pay (aka living it up), then by all means go out and buy a brand new flatscreen TV. Doesn't matter if its made in China or Chile, you're stimulating someone else's economy with the money.

But I GUARANTEE, that 100% of Americans eligible for this stimulus package can use it to knock out some debt, which is what this is meant for.

I’m not saying paying off debt is a bad thing, that’s probably what most people ultimately *NEED* money for, but that was not the intention of the stimulus package. It was to give American’s money so they could spend it and stimulate your economy.

Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

$600 will do next to nothing for most American’s debt reduction. I’d be willing to bet that the average American home owner spends easily more then that a month in interest alone, let alone paying any debt down!

Your china argument does not work. Every time you buy a Chinese product in American the majority of the money ends up in American hands. Unless your flying down China to buy said TV the money basically stays in America. Even in that situation you would probably end up using an American airline. You also wouldn't be buying a chinese name brand, you would be buying a japanese/taiwanese/korean name brand with parts maufactured in China, meaning again most of the money is not going to china. We use Chinese production because the manufacturing among everything else I listed before is considerably cheaper. American’s can’t afford to live on $20 a day like someone in China can and until they can(read: never) we will continue to source cheaper labor over sea’s. The goods are still sold in an American store and American companies are keeping the majority of the money.

Look up the list of companies that make up the S&P500(your stock market). These are the largest public companies in America. Try spending money in America without it somehow passing through at the very least one of those companies (or there sub companies). You can’t. THIS is what the stimulus package is about. These companies stocks are down, either due to losses associated with the sub prime and cash liquidity mess or because consumer spending has slowed down considerably because everyone’s so scared of the big scary recession everyone can’t stop talking about. These companies, the companies that ultimately run American currently, there bottom lines are getting hurt because of this. They don’t like that much, nore do investors and because of this Your Gov. is giving you money so that you go out and spend it which in term puts money into these companies pockets which improves there balance sheets and makes the American economy stronger. That’s what this is all about.

As I said, Your Gov doesn’t care to help you out of debt. America is structured in such a way that the majority needs to be in debt to keep things working in the way that they do. All first world countries work like this, but with a lot more ethic’s and safer lending practices and safety nets, plus the fact that the average American has their priorities extremely out of whack. You have secretaries and used car salesman spending like their CEO’s and rockstar’s without a care in the world about their future. Having Fancy shit now has long taken priority over having anything later and THIS is the problem. American's are to blame, not china or global warming, or godzilla or whatever the fuck else you want to blame.


I don’t even think I want to get started on how stupid of an idea it would be to try and go 1 month without directly putting money into china’s pocket… it’s both completely impossible and foolishly illogical and I’ll leave it at that.

That email is about as helpful as every other chain letter in existent. Don’t buy any gas that month either; see how much of an impact it has.

[HEAVY-D]

Not sure I understand the "China is Evil" thing so maybe someone could explain it to me. Looks like theirs enough blame to go around on all sides. China has been exporting cheap and I mean cheap sh*t...uh goods for over 40 years which was/is common knowledge.

[mistawiskas]

The "don't buy chinese thing would hurt the bottom lines of the powers corporations that run this nation......that is the point my Canadian friend.
You have lambasted the american everyday person so many times, that sounds like a narrow view. How about looking at the big picture for a change? How about corporate psychological manipulation of the masses? How about asking how things gotr this way? You seem to blame everything on the general public and absolve the corporates of the greed and proffit driven ethics that fuel the consumerism that feeds the monster.I'd sincerely like to know what you have against the average person that just wants to live a comfortable life much the same as you, while paying no mention to the rest and biggest portion of the problem. And you have to agree, that the stimulous package is just a token bone thrown too little too late....what a joke.
Credit Card Industry Profits
CrossingWallStreet.com: Banking Profits
NO-FAULT PARADISE: INSURANCE COMPANIES MAINTAIN RECORD PROFITS IN 2007
Oil industry awash in record levels of cash - Oil & energy - MSNBC.com
Lilly Profits Set a Record - New York Times
LiP | Feature | New World Disorder
Need I say more?

[jake]

I don't understand the point of the 'don't buy chinese products' email Wiskas. At first I thought it was aimed at stopping money from going to China, but then you said it was to keep money from going to large American corporations? But if you are buying American products instead it is still going to big American corporations. I clearly got lost somewhere.

I think the point Sims is trying to make is that the reason the American economy is slowing is that people are living out of their means and are now not able to spend money to stimulate the economy because they are in debt so badly. Of course this dosen't include everyone in the States, just an average. Canada is much the same way except our banks are structured to not give people money so freely and at such high interest rates.