Not only is the economic failure felt across America, but it's also being felt in other countries now.
I lost my full time job in September. I worked for a technical college that you've maybe seen ads for on T.V. I actually studied and graduated from said college. I studied multimedia and learned CIT as a work study. After graduation I became a full time system support technician for the school.
Said school was having "difficulties" with a well known money lender, so it, as a corporation, decided to float student loans on it's own. This seemed like a good idea, but became catastrophic very shortly after implementation.
In September 15 employees were let go. They were mostly instructors, but 3 secretaries a financial aid adviser, and myself were included.
Luckily, I've been managing by doing freelance graphic design as well as field tech work. Within the last 2 weeks the work has essentially dried up.
I only bring that up because it was a similar situation on every campus across the US that this company owned. And to me, it was a personally felt beginning.
Ford motor Co. just announced that it will be closing all of its American plants for at least one month. The employees will not be getting paid for this. This means that each person will be able to collect unemployment. This is going to be a huge deal because the government has already spent $700bn on the failed banks, and just recently dropped $17.4bn to the auto industry. Where's the money coming from?
California is expected to be broke by February unless the Governator can come up with a damned good plan to boost the economic decline. To start things off, there's a hiring freeze in effect until things get better. Without California our entertainment will have to rely on imported shows and movies. Video games will take a nasty hit...expect to see the next hot game feature 8 bit graphics.
Speaking of graphics and entertainment, Sony's expecting to slash 8,000 jobs world wide. It may not seem like a lot, in relative terms, but a couple hundred people here, a few hundred there, and we're now talking about a job market place saturated with people vying for the same positions.
Iceland is looking at a similar disaster. China's exports are down for the first time in 7 years, and they're considering an "economic stimulus" plan. Japan is in a recession. Its first since 2001. The "Euro Zone" is facing similar issues as Japan...from Paris to Tokyo, jobs and money are becoming scarce and almost worthless.
The Bad NewsThe Worse NewsPeople, we're fucked, globally. Unless some radical ideas and industries pop up, we'll be rioting for basic necessities in the next few short years.