Funk

Well the economy may or may not be improving depending on who you listen to. Jobs may or may not be improving depending on who you listen to. Probably a whole host of things may or may not be improving. If you are like me, it really doesn't matter who you listen to, something just feels decidedly wrong.

There just seems to be no end to potential problems out there. The economy, employment, housing, our education system, the oil spill and other environmental worries, and it seems to me that under the surface there seems to be bit of racial tension bubbling up. Starting to seem as though we may never get beyond that. Just plain bad karma-I don't know what else to call this period in time. I am just north of 50 years old and can honestly say I don't ever remember a time like this. Whether or not we are in an economic depression, as has been posited by some very smart folks, something is most definitely wrong in America. I think that most of us can feel it even if we don't admit it.

I feel that we as a society are in decline. Tommy over at Freedom Guerrilla has a nice rant about this. His blog is always a good read but his latest is a cut above. It is hard to put your finger on our problems until you realize that it isn't just one problem or five or twelve but it seems as though everything is wrong. Everywhere you look the story is "it's all about me". It is pervasive. All ages, races, ethnicities,etc. NO ONE seems to give a damn anymore about anyone but themselves. Whether we go down the tubes in six months or six years or six decades, the fact is we ARE going down the tubes. We have become so shallow, with our heads so far up our collective asses, that I simply don't have much hope anymore. I mean, talk about the head up the ass-on local talk radio today there was still advice on flipping houses. Millions are hungry and unemployed and hopeless and we're talking about flipping houses. WTF.

jobs?

Well, it seems like regardless of the week, month, or year we just aren't doing well. The construction sector got hammered again as was expected by most. I can't help but wonder what has happened to all the "shovel ready" projects we heard about from this administration before and after election time. I visit The Infrastructurist often and there seems to be lots of potential work out there. You may or may not agree with a WPA type of program but the potential for lots of jobs is there. Having said that, I wonder where other types of jobs would come from? If you have an answer for that one for goodness sake let someone know.

As I have said before I am a certifiable doomer. It isn't so much that I think the world will end soon but I think we have problems in this country with our economic and political structure that will not be easily solved soon if ever. A radical reset will be in order.

There just doesn't seem to be much demand out there for the things that drive hiring and production in our economy, namely stuff people can't afford or don't want. Consumers aren't consuming as much so businesses aren't hiring as much. Pretty simple concept. People may be getting the idea that the ability to make payments is not the same as being able to afford the current object of their lust.

If we don't buy things we can't afford or spend our weekends at Walmart, how do we keep our economy afloat? Good question. Seems to me that we need to begin producing goods in our own country for our own people to buy. We need to maybe lower our expectations a bit in regard to our homes and our rides. We need to begin rebuilding our infrastructure post haste as things seem to be crumbling before our eyes. I don't think anyone really knows what will resurrect our economy but I think it is destined to be a slow painful process for millions of people because it feels as though we may really be in deep shit.

jobs?