Times are getting drastically harder right now, this is terrible. For while I've seen the US's economic problems, and thought to myself 'Bah, it's their problem. Our economy is doing well' What with the dollar going for that moonshot it did for a while. All that however has seemed to change more recently, and Canada to is hitting some hard times.

The problem is, it's a downward spiral. Banks are going under loosing people's money, people stop investing for fear of loosing their money, businesses go under resulting in job loss, people have no more money resulting in less business and investment resulting in more closures and more job loss.

Finding work right now is challenging, since everybody seems to be cutting back staff and hours these days due to slow business. My father works at a car parts plant that manufactures parts for Toyota, and even they are taking a hit. It's not just 'The Big 3' in Detroit, it's car manufacturers everywhere. Recently they've cut 80 jobs, and put most if not all remaining staff on 3 day weeks to cope. That sort of thing has a huge impact on a very small town such as this.

I admit, I am very worried I will not be able to find summer work to pay for my apartment when my job at the arena slows down in the off season. With this many people around here looking for jobs as it is, and so few jobs out there, the chances seem very slim. It's extremely depressing that these circumstances have come about

The thing that frustrates me the most is I don't know how we got here. I would have thought people might have learned from the great depression that economic panics like this is what causes the problem. By not investing your money in businesses, you are loosing them and more jobs. People are scared to death of making big purchases, such as cars and houses for fear of bankruptcy. It's a giant cancerous mess of fear that sets everything out of control. Instead of focusing on a solution, the media is contempt reporting gloom and doom, forecasting more hard times to come, but give no advise on how to possibly cope with this disaster.

As aggravating as it is, the USs problems have impacted us in Canada to a very high degree, which is why I was following the past US election so closely and intently. I'm sure glad the American people where smart enough to realize Mccain would have only brought 4 more years of the same failed policies, and only drag both our countries deeper into despair. I hope there really is going to be some of that change he's been going on about, cause god knows we all need it right now

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