More thoughts on the economy

After my post the other day, I got to thinking more about the state our economy is in. Supposedly it is getting better, at least that's what the government and financial pundits are telling us.

But, then I watch commercials and see how the car companies are practically begging consumers to buy a new car. Or the furniture companies that are offering NO down Payment/No Finance Charges/No Payment until 2009 or whatever means they can come up with to convince me that I have to have a new bed or whatever.

So my question is, how can the economy be better when day after day, I see more of these types of commercials. I mean, they wouldn't be doing this type of begging if people were really buying their products, right?

The other side of this is the prices, companies are charging for their merchandise. We were at Home Depot the other day and couldn't believe the price tags on some of the items. I know all manufacturers have to meet a bottom line that's in the black, but really, do things have to be so expensive that it is prohibitive for the average income worker to buy it?

Maybe it's really not that prices have gone up so much as it is the value of the dollar that has gone down. I can still remember back when you could get paper money that was backed by silver. Currency, called 'silver certificates', was backed dollar for dollar by silver. Take a silver backed dollar bill to the bank and you could receive a dollars worth of silver. You can't do that today; a dollar doesn't buy much of anything of value anymore. But silver will buy as much as it always has.

Okay, I guess I'm rambling. But, I really can't see that anything dealing with our economy is getting any better. With high gas prices, and all other goods rising in price because of those prices, I don't get how some people are going to be able to maintain the standard of living they are used to. And goddess help them, if their job is outsourced to another country. I read somewhere that a good portion of American families are two paychecks away from homelessness. Not a pretty picture of the economy to me.