....or not!

Just when the network cheerleaders began to nearly universally celebrate the strengthening of the "recovery",  fresh employment numbers snap them back to reality. Smiles turned upside down. I guess these fools really thought that all of the temporary seasonal hiring represented a trend of some sort. You know 150,000 this month, 170,000 next month and before you know it about 3,000,000 a month (give or take)...

Last night as I was  listening to the Jim Bohannon Show ( love late night am radio) I heard a guest named Dante Chinni who is  the director of the Patchwork Nation project. Though not nearly as apocalyptic as I, he nevertheless put forth the opinion that we are in fact in rather deep shit- at least from the standpoint of employment. Well worth a listen. In any event he was one of the few guests I have heard on any of these shows who not only was concerned about the overall unemployment numbers, but also the fact that the "created" jobs may not be sustainable or in fact may not pay enough to support the sort of life many had. I'm sure you may be thinking that these folks will just have to "get used to it"or "make some changes". That's obvious. What might not be as obvious is that many of these people, including yours truly, have built a life on the income that they had- and thought they would always have. They thought that if they lost a job another could be found to more or less replace what they had...with perhaps minor alterations. In many cases this was a very naive and unrealistic expectation. Believe me, I know.

True, not everyone is in denial, but it does in fact evoke odd emotions when you are constantly bombarded with "good news" when all around you seems to be just more of the same. Of course, none of the cheerleaders realize that life on 50k a year is even possible let alone what it would be like to suddenly have to manage on $9-$10 AN HOUR. My God, this is America! Just go out and be an entrepenuer and get rich. Everyone can do that.  This is America. Right. Go to hell!