So...................

[bill dedman]

>>>"All the Racer Fees went up anyway to cover those 10% pay cuts, OR IS MY MATH OFF?"

Sounds right to me!!! I LOVE IT!!!

You're too funny...

[Bruce Noland]

cwigle,

Talking about racing brings out the worst in you? Hmm.. Time to rethink this racing business because the best and worst situations are usually reserved for real life situations. And this racing stuff is NOT real life. It's easy to say someone is being negative when they are not saying what you want to hear.

Facts is Facts as the old man says - so let's see how this whole mess turns out. The facts will be very clear in a matter of months.

I started a thread last spring that said all of us should be very careful with our money because things didn't look so good. A few racers looked me up to thank me for bringing the issue up and decided to be a little more careful about their spending. And this year looks much worse. I'm not one to stick his head in the sand. Let's deal with it and move on.

[Lynn A McCarty]

I must agree with Colin on his few stated issues. The financial sector is down causing most business to be down. That has nothing to do with the viable business plan of most corporations. Like people think that GM isnt selling cars because they arent building more hybrids or electric cars.

Bull!

GM is down because they lost 40% of the customers cause the banks wont lend them money to buy a car. They were just fine until gas went $4.19 a gallon and banks stopped lending money. During globilization the number one rule is that you must protect your own assets or the competing countries will steal you blind. We are not protecting our assets, we tax businesses and other countries subsidize theirs. Watch everyone leave as we increase that!

All businesses live and die with their decisions, not to say that I agree with all of them in NHRA. However, this is not why they are down. We all are down except those that are getting free money from Washington.

No one can control a 50 trillion dollar economy, it flucuates and we can only mildly influence the normal cycles of up and down.

[Alan Roehrich]

Lynn,
I disagree. I know plenty of people who either already have money they could spend, or could very easily borrow money, and plenty either way. They will not now nor will they in the near future spend much, if any of that money. And they will not borrow any either, regardless of how easy it is.

I have lousy credit, we were forced into bankruptcy by an unscrupulous creditor when my wife had cancer a few years ago. I can borrow money, if I want to. The credit crunch isn't so bad as you might think. But consumer confidence is so low that nothing is selling.

A lot of people who have a fair amount of money because they are smart and work hard are spending it very conservatively. Racing is not cheap, broke stupid people either don't race, or they don't race long. That's why car counts are down, and will continue to be down.

There's plenty of talk about how "negativity" is part of the problem. Well, maybe so, but dishonest "positive talk" won't help things either.

[Ken Miele]

Bruce, I absolutely agree with you, when it comes to disagreeing. I think we all should be a little more polite about our opinions.

I guess what it comes down to is, some see the glass half empty, some see it half full, I see it as a something to drink.

Alan, we must live in very different worlds. I totally agree with Lynn. Banks do not want to lend money like they did a few years ago, but it starting to change now.

You see people not spending, I go to the track and 60-70% of the sportsman own rigs that are worth $200,000 plus. Things may be tough for some, but they are good for others. My friends are buying cars as am I, and everyday people are spending money. You may think I'm being dishonest with positive talk. But 92% of people are working and over 90% are paying the mortgage. I see restaurants full and a race track with people everywhere. How am I supposed to analyze what I see. Should I believe every media story about all the doom and gloom? I have been through tough times and good times. People will hurt when the economy is good also. Is the economy slower, sure, but compared to what, I'm sure the people from the 30's would have loved to have the economy that we have right now.

NHRA is not perfect, but I'm sticking with them. This country is not perfect, but I'm sticking with it.

I may be naive, but I'm happy. And when its all said and done, and I'm dead, what the hell did it all mean anyway if we were not happy.

[X-TECH MAN]

[QUOTE=Ken Miele And when its all said and done, and I'm dead, what the hell did it all mean anyway, if we were not happy.

That say's it all !

[Lynn A McCarty]

Not everyone has a credit score on the bad side or the good side. Many people are between. I was told that it takes a credit score of 720 to 750 to buy a car right now. Before you could buy a car with a 600 credit score. I gotta tell you there are millions in this category. I think enough to justify 30% of the auto industry sales.

If you are going to critique NHRA and GM go ahead we are listening. Use a false pretense that they are down destroys creditibility, and we just quit listening. GM is not down on sales because they are not building fuel efficient cars and hybrids until the markets change and make it that way.

It is a political objective trying to make hay with a false reality. It arguably can prove more they are right than they are wrong. Not seeing the difference is not conducive to reasonable thought. These arguments to push these political objectives must be called on the carpet and I for one will do it. If you are going negative, you better not have any holes in your argument or you will most certainly lose. A false pretense is a very big hole.

Ditto Ken!