I think the important thing is that you are taking action and making plans. Sadly many people will try to deny what is on our doorstep. I congratulate you for talking action and protecting your family.

Nev

We’re doing all the things you said, Nevyn, except moving into an apartment. It took us 13 years of marriage to get to the point where we could buy a house, so we’re not real eager to give that up. Plus, like I said, it wouldn’t be worth anything if we sold it now anyway. What we were paying in rent at our little townhouse was more than our mortgage payments are now anyway.

Yeah, I don’t think that McCain has the resources or the personality to criminally steal the election the way W did, so it would be because of either racist or sexist people who just won’t vote for a black man or a woman, and therefore give McCain the vote, or people who are kind of undecided and go with McCain. Because I don’t think there are enough genuine party-voting Republicans to carry him. But, we’ll see.

But, if he is elected and doesn’t do something to help keep innovative research here, then we may need to leave if DH wants to continue doing science. New Zealand and Scotland are the most feasible options. It would suck beyond belief to be forced from our country so that DH could continue to do his job. But, I think it would be just temporarily anyway. A lot of the companies who have invested in research in India are finding that it’s not quite as cost effective as they thought, since things are not passing mandatory US inspections and the quality is NOT the same. So, whether they want to continue to invest over there for a possible long-term gain, or whether they’ll just give up and bring work back here is left to be seen. It would be nice if the government stepped in and taxed companies for overseas employees though, to give the US workers a fair playing ground.

I actually think McCain is going to win, so you may want to get those passports in order.

LOL, and for what it’s worth New Zealand is one of our plan B options. Maybe we can hook up if McCain is elected.

The actual unemployment rate could be double what the statistics say, since the statistics only count people drawing unemployment benefits. It may be lower than the Carter years. Carter was a good man, but a lousy president.

I know, most of this is whining about how all of this has directly affected us personally, which makes it lose some of it’s point. Yeah, my family is on thin ice right now, but truthfully even if we’re hit and the worst happens, we, personally will recover because we have several plan B options. A PhD might not be as stable as it was 5 or 10 years ago, but it’s still a PhD and there are options to keep us afloat. But, there are a lot of people suffering worse right now and they don’t have a feasible plan B at all. It’s not just the economy. It’s not just the housing foreclosures. It’s not just the war. It’s not just the oil prices. It’s that everything is all in a big tailspin and our fearless leader just smirks and chuckles about it, because he couldn’t care less. But, we want to vote in one of his buddies?

I wanted to comment on this, too, because you know Al Gore and Jimmy Carter both went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize after their political careers

As did Henry Kissinger and Yasser Arafat — so what does that prove?

Bill Clinton has been devoted to very active philanthropy since leaving office, so I’d say that yeah, the democrats do seem to breed more people who actually care about our country and our world than the republicans.

Maybe if there were no such thing as “Clintonian politics” I could believe that his vague charitable acts were more than a way to boost his image to help his wife’s campaign. I guess time will tell. Speaking of philanthropy, Obama — despite making a healthy income — donated less to charity than the nation average (and not just in percentage of income, but actual dollars) and didn’t step it up until his run for president when people actually noticed this fact. Personally I don’t think that’s a big deal, until it’s trotted out how the Dems are so caring about us commoners.

And Prescott, you also know that the unemployment statistics are very misleading, don’t you?

While it may not be 100% accurate (but lets be honest, even if it’s off by 2% we’re still below the Jimmy Carter years), it’s a better measure than anecdotal evidence, no? Because I could counter most of your statements with anecdotes about the Chicago area, where we had to move to a remote suburb because we can’t afford to live in the city, the owner of the Mercedes that I literally just saw pull in the driveway across the street is doing pretty well, my wife is not in danger of losing her job because she’s in the health care sector which is growing nicely, etc., etc., but I know that’s all moot because my little world doesn’t reflect what’s going on everywhere in the country just like yours doesn’t.

Yeah, it sucks that your husband’s career choice may be dwindling — as I said, part of what I do is as well. But other sectors are growing at the same time. We’re a nation of 300 million people — no matter who is in the White House, chances are not 100% percent of that population is going to be living happy and care free.