the man who sold hot dogs

[dylo]

There was a man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs.

He was hard of hearing, so he had no radio. He had trouble with his eyes, so he read no newspaper. But he sold good hot dogs. He put signs up on the highway telling how good they were. He stood on the side of the road and cried “Buy a hot dog, Mister?” And people bought.

He increased his meat and bun orders. He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade. He finally got his son home from college to help him out. But then something happened.

His son said, “Father, haven’t you been listening to the radio?” “Haven’t you been reading the newspaper?” There’s a big depression.” “The European situation is terrible. The domestic situation is worse.” Whereupon the father thought, “Well, my son has been to college: he reads the papers and listens to the radio, he ought to know.”

So his father cut down on his meat and bun orders, took down his advertising signs, and no longer bothered to stand out on the highway to sell his hot dogs. And his hot dog sales fell almost overnight. “You’re right, son.” the father said to the boy. “We are certainly in the middle of a great depression.”

[Mr. Top Hat]

i want a hot dog now

[dylo]

Mr. Top Hat, you better use your stimulus money to buy that hot dog

[soy escuala]

dylo, I get it. It's something i think about a lot too. If everyone THINKS that there's a depression and stops spending money, then of course there will be a depression.

[Steven M]

mmm... hotdog...

[dylo]

[wakemitch]

[lumpy pants]

dylo, wakemitch, nailed it

[-=AlexXx=-]

[POPTART]

what if the man who sold hot dogs called his supplier (that made over 200grand a year) who told him that the reason he couldn't sell him any more buns was because he had to let most of his factory workers(bakers) go because the economy was already failing due to the previous administration , then the hot dog salesman would realize that most of his customers who loved his dogs so, worked at that factory just down the road and would come buy from him at work, would not be buying anymore because they didn't have jobs

and the big factory owners that were responsible for this money hold up don't even really like hot dogs so they are not concerned

so like alex said

you cant spend money you dont have

and when the Government realizes this we will all be in better shape

[nick]

POPTART, A presidential administration isn't completely responsible for the well-being of a free market economy, they are supposed to regulate it and help it grow but aren't completely to blame.

It's a cyclic self-fulfilled prophecy perpetuated by the media. Americans are t3h dummy.

[POPTART]

nick, true

but when we (as a people) are raised to be consumers we have no other means of recovering from an economic struggle other than spending money that was never there to begin with


so who is the real dummy

they gave us the opportunity to make something out of nothing , and when we have nothing to show for it there seems to be a problem

[nick]

POPTART, Ok, so it's a bubble created by our consumer culture/society, everything is overvalued and the economic ability to sustain our increasingly-urban population was a temporary condition.

What do we do now?

[kornhouse]

nick, Burn current currency and trade our goods?

[POPTART]

nick,(idk or id run for office...lol)

we wait for the apocalypse

and shred daily






America is a house made of cards, we look strong from the outside, but when we examine it , there is nothing really holding it together, lets just wait for it to fall, then roll up the sleeves and start rebuilding

[taku]

We didn't truly become a selfish nation of needing the latest and greatest until the '70s when technology started to boom. That change in our fundamental mentality of need vs want is contributing to driving record debt and it was only a matter of time before excessive spending caught up with the consumer. A weak middle class causes instabilities further up the chain and ultimately hits wall street.

One interesting tid bit that's somewhat related, is how when women became more 'open and free' in the early 1920s when they gained the right to vote.. the Betty Boop era, majorities of women began buying makeup for the first time and expensive clothes and jewelry and crap they never owned before or budgeted for, went to dancehalls and out to party, things that were desired because of social pressures. Anyways it was noted consumer debt increased dramatically during that time and that sort of spending was one of many contributing factors to instability of the middle class which ultimately led to the Great Depression.

Obama is right in saying a strong middle class is the primary path to repairing this disaster. And IMO letting financial institutions like AIG collapse will speed up, rather than prolong, this financial gloom and doom.

[JeffKnox]

taku, i knew it was women's fault somehow....

[edrex]

JeffKnox, first the apple in the garden of Eden and now this. What isn't their fault?

[taku]

[dylo]

it all started with the big banks, the media hyped up what they believed was going to happen, everyone gets scared and stops spending, profit is no longer generated, advertising is cut, less consumers spending.
this so called 'global financial crisis' is the result of greediness and the worlds susceptibility to the cash cow known as the media.

POPTART, views like yours are the reason why we are in a 'crisis'


businesses in australia have started to realise business has not dropped and in fact profit margins are rising. dont fall into the trap and think like poptart has..