Haven't been effected at all really.
There are 45 blocks and a river between me and my workplace. I commute via a 15 minute bus ride most days. My wife works eight blocks from our house and my daughter’s school is five blocks away.
Housing prices in my area are flat but not collapsing.
As a volunteer, I coordinate a team of volunteers delivering food boxes to the needy of my area for Saint Vincent de Paul. We have seen steady growth in demand for our services year over year but no big spikes this year. None of my delivery volunteers have complained about gas costs yet. Our food donations and monetary gifts have not declined or dried up.
Just took a trip to the Midwest (US) to see the in-laws and the plane tickets were high when we bought them, then we noticed they dropped considerably, then went back up. Who the hell can tell how airlines price things in good times or bad?
There are a lot of people in the US who decided it would be a good idea to buy a house they couldn’t' afford in suburbs of places like Phoenix, then max their credit cards on furniture, toys, etc. and commute 60 miles to work in a Ford F-250 or a Lexus SUV. These are not smart things to do in the best of times and will inevitably catch up with you.
I live in the NW US and over the years have flown or driven to see the Stones as far north as Vancouver BC and south to the Bay Area and probably would again. I have never criss-crossed the continent to see the band or gone overseas. It would be cool to do so but it's also cool to maintain a zero balance on the Visa.
Between 1999 and 2002, I worked for two dotcoms that collapsed and being out of work is no fun. My current job seems stable (knock on wood) but you never know.
The US has been in for a shock with high fuel prices and it is a foregone conclusion there are several more shocks to come in the near to mid term. Our European friends have known all about high gas prices, urban planning focused on density, the pleasures of train travel and the wisdom of investment in a first-class public transportation infrastructure for many years. These are concepts that will have to be embraced outside of Liberal-Democrat circles in the US. This will be a bitter pill for a generation of free-market / government is bad Republicans for whom Ronald Reagan is their political touchstone.
I guess the point of this rambling rant is that from my vantage point, the indicators point to a gloomy future in the US but it is not 1933 just yet. Lots and lots of folks are still doing the 60 mile commute in their SUV's and like we say, it’s a free country. The coming months and years will be tough for everyone but they will be a whole lot tougher on the people who built their lifestyles on poorly planned foundations.
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What the hell? I thought this was a Rolling Stones board!