How Bad will the Job Picture Get?
I just read that the job growth in August was zero. I believe it after my experience a couple of weeks ago in Atlanta. I was there on business and went over to Lenox Square Mall. On the way, I ran into a beautiful woman who said she was heading over to a job interview. I figured she was going for a job as a model or high level manager of a hotel or organization--given the way she was dressed. "Wish me luck!" she exclaimed as she headed off the elevator we were on. As I headed into the mall later, she was in a long line of women, all gorgeous and all meticulously turned out. The line was long and went around the store. What jobs were these women applying for? A co-manager or clerk at the Forever 21 store opening up at the mall. All of them looked eager and frankly, a bit desperate for a job. But in Atlanta, where the unemployment is high, people seemed happy just to be working when I talked to them in cabs or in restaurants. How much worse will it get? I don't know, but I think as more businesses "go John Galt" in the Obama economy, much worse.
posted by Helen at 9:02 AM
14 Comments:
Obambi is going to claim in his "jobs speech" that the unemployment level will not go down below 6% before 2017.
If this certifiable teenager assclown gets re-elected, it's proof positive that this country needs to die in order to be reborn.
I quit.
Love,
ZorroPrimo
The BLS report for August came out. Zero reported job growth. And you can't spell "ZERO" without "O"!
Dear ZorroPrimo:
quit. He will get re-elected. Now since the recession began before O. took office, and since unemployment is clearly an issue in many nations, then blaming one person is just plain dumb.
Would McCain have avoided unemployment?
Now if you believe a different president an cure unemployment, can you tell us what he or she would do?
the usual lament from conservatives: Cut taxes; dump regulations; no big govt
But has that worked? Nah.
Victor Hanson just posted a brilliant analysis of the Zero number at Works and Days.
How to spin Zero Growth? "Let me be clear. Zero job growth is not less than zero job growth."
As for "fred" let me remind him that now is not then and here is not there. Let me quote Hanson on why this man is a poison popsicle jammed into the mouth of job creators:
"Here is the lament I heard: the near $5 trillion in borrowing in just three years, the radical growth in the size of the federal government and its regulatory zeal, Obamacare, the Boeing plant closure threat, the green jobs sweet-heart deals and Van Jones-like “Millions of Green Jobs” nonsense, the vast expansion in food stamps and unemployment pay-outs, the reversal of the Chrysler creditors, politically-driven interference in the car industry, the failed efforts to get card check and cap and trade, the moratoria on new drilling in the Gulf, the general antipathy to new fossil fuel exploration coupled with new finds of vast new reserves, the new financial regulations, an aggressive EPA oblivious to the effects of its advocacy on jobs, the threatened close-down of energy plants, the support for idling thousands of acres of irrigated farmland due to environmental regulations, the constant talk of higher taxes, the needlessly provocative rhetoric of “fat cat”, “millionaires and billionaires”, “corporate jet owners”, etc. juxtaposed, in hypocritical fashion, to Martha’s Vineyard, Costa del Sol, and Vail First Family getaways—all of these isolated strains finally are becoming a harrowing opera to business people."
How to spin Zero Growth?
There is some delicious irony in this: I distinctly remember in the '80s two over educated liberals, one a budding psychologist, the other a college math instructor, advocating a zero growth economy. Well, here it is: I wonder how they and their kids are doing.
It is the people, with their skills, that make what is called wealth. Wealth is not a something that needs redistribution. People are about free-will and respect. Government should work on infrastructure, defense, and education (without the social engineering please). I do not see Obama, GE, Halliburton, BP, or George Soros getting out of our way any time soon. How sad.
I actually almost feel bad about saying this, but I honestly hope those who have gone Galt, stay Galt. And those that haven't, consider it strongly. While it will hurt many people in the short term, they have no idea how much smaller pain they will suffer if their suffering removes Obama.
However, I think, even with Obama gone, until much of the last 50-70 years of government mismanagement, corruption, socialism, environmentalism, and such are overturned as well, nothing will change. Republicans can't create jobs any more than Democrats. They can, only and at best, merely move the government out of the way of those who can. Yeah, worse indeed.
But, hey, if you ever meet such a woman again, and see her in a pile of other women, and they all look good and single... give em' my number! Dang it. :p I'd take em' all, I've got a great big heart and a loving nature. But uhm, my wallet and religion sort of precludes it. Never.
Mind.
interestingly regarding the expansion of government into every nook and cranny of human existence, the government here recently had a P.R. campaign wherein they were extolling the virtues of hiring licensed contractors to do renovation work on people's homes. the reason being that the underground economy was burgeoning because people resented and couldn't afford the the price of a licensed and taxed quote price for the work they needed done.
i worked in contracting for 15 years and many times was asked for cash prices for work and "occasionally" was glad to comply.
I'm no fan of Obama, I didn't vote for him, and I hope he will be gone in 2013. But to think our problems will end with his departure is naive. Pick any leader, living or dead, who could unwind the entitlement mentality which is the real culprit in this mess in a short period of time. What really has to happen before a turn-around is for our entire culture to hit bottom, get out of its state of denial, and start producing at a level far closer to our consumption than we do. In all liklihood that will result in lower consumption for most. No one wants to hear that.
We've had no real growth in personal income since the early 1970's. The apparent prosperity we saw since that time was allowed by easier access to credit and since Reagan, a trend of falling interest rates.
I don't see a turn-around any time in the the near future. In fact things will have to get much worse before they get better.
I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it.
I agree with tomcal. The very fact that welfare is called an "entitlement" says all you need to know.
That and when politicians complain about balancing the budget on the backs of the poor by taking away their freebies.
(Reminds of cutting household expenses to the bone and having kids complain that they are being treated unfairly when the gifts they get are much less expensive without realizing the sacrifices the adults are making. In my case, my ex-wife was actually worse than the kids.)
5 years ago I wanted to buy a new airplane, and almost did. Now I couldn't even afford to fuel it.
Oh how I suffer! Am I not entitled to fly instead of driving everywhere?
We could start by redefining poverty in this country. In Nicaragua, where I have resumed living about a third of each year, it generally means a cardboard shack, a mud floor, and watching your kids suffer malnutrition or even death by starvation.
One of the major problems of the "poor" in the US is obesity, no?
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