Chile Forum

Well, I am back in the States for my first time in over 4 1/2 years. Thought I would posts some observations on the State of the Union, as official State of the Union address is tomorrow.

Really I don't have a lot to say, and everyone else seems to not have a lot to say either. I think there is a general sense of relief that Bush is on his way out, and people are just tired of the whole mess all the way around.

The economy is a different issue. I think the economy here is in far worse shape than is being covered in the media. I went through LAX and Las Vegas air ports, arguably two of the most trafficked airports in the world during a Tuesday afternoon, the first business day of the week after a long holiday and the airports where both dead.

I remember going through LAX several years ago and sitting in a line of airplanes for 45 mins waiting for 50 plains in front of us to take off. Nothing this time. Flights where half full, airport bars where empty, and security lines where no more than one or two people at a time.

I have also noticed that just about every other building on the streets has empty space for rent. Las Vegas is one of the fastest growing cities in the US, and I don't see the construction trucks and projects like I use to as moved around the city.

One of the larger malls in Vegas is running at about 1/3 the people I use to see, and the parking lot is only about 10% full, when it use to be more typically about 30-40% full on a normal day.

I do have to say that people don't seem nearly as stressed as they where the last time I was here, relatively speaking. There seems to be general sense of political and social numbness now, as apposed to kind of general panic that seemed to be everywhere in the States about 5 years ago. I really can not put my finger on what that is I am seeing in peoples faces and behavior here. Perhaps it will strike me later. I would describe it as a general lack of joy, but not a stress sort of unhappiness.

Perhaps we can round up some animal behaviorist, anthropologist, and a fat research grant to figure it all out.

The things I find I miss about the States are really fairly trivial. Most of it either has to do with shopping or food, which I guess kind of sums up what the U.S. society has degenerated in to in recent years; basically, it is now a big mall with a food court.

I am rather shocked now by the level of poverty in the States. Somehow, after seeing different forms of poverty all over the world, the poverty in the States seems somehow more malicious and intentional. Some of the poverty I have seen in other countries is even orchestrated through various social means, but in the States it seems somehow actively engineered.

There seems as if there is no excuse for it to exist here, but it is everywhere. It has not gotten any better in recent years, and with the mortgage and economic crisis the little bit of credit many of them had is now gone. That is the many that where on the verge of stepping foot in to the middle class, will now have to wait until the next generation to have a chance at it. There is most definitely a debtors prison in the States, and many times it even comes with bars.

Perhaps most malicious is the sort of working poor. Neither poor nor rich, but one paycheck, trip to the hospital, or some other disaster away from loosing everything. They are everywhere here. In that respect, I would say I do see fear in peoples eyes. They have been victims of an economic terrorist attack, and they are just waiting for the next wave to hit.

I find the whole thing very depressing and just want to go home to Chile.

I have seen recessions, and this looks like something way worse than a mere recession setting in. This economic disaster hit the core engine: the American consumer. It struck at home, it hit their credit, and it undermined their confidence in really having a chance to build economic security.

I seen something on 60 mins last night that caught my attention. This real estate agent said that he was not sure who the owners of about 80% of the properties that where going in to default where. They where bundled in to those securities and are owned by hundreds of shareholders and such. So, the houses might not go back on the market anytime soon as the companies go though various liquidations. They have no landlord basically.