Except for a few talk-show conservatives, people seem to dance around the reasons for the high unemployment rate, especially in light of the hundreds of billions of dollars thrown into the economy via the so-called “stimulus package” passed by the democrats in Congress out of sheer panic in February of last year, with no republican votes in the House and only three in the Senate. No one had read the bill, which seems to be the practice these days amounting to governance by the Speaker of the House and the Senate president. Like sheep that can’t survive un-chaperoned, all the overpaid democrat legislators just got in line and did as told.
The propaganda provided by these honchos, along with those in the White House, was that jobs would be created. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average unemployment rate in 2009 was 9.3% and in May of this year stood at 9.7%, a figure highly deflated in real numbers by the temporary census-takers, some 700,000 or so beginning work in May and presumably added to those already employed. All are or soon will be unemployed again. The obvious question: If the stimulus is adding jobs, as the solons insist, why don’t the unemployment statistics indicate this increase, instead of graphically showing the reverse? The obvious answer: Layoffs – or more likely – permanent terminations continue and will likely increase in the foreseeable future, offsetting any claims, real or imagined, of jobs being created.
Informed economists said from the beginning of this stimulus stuff that the legislation would not increase employment – at least in the private sector, which is what actually matters – and noted that former president Reagan turned the dismal Carter “malaise” around by using tax cuts even as he greatly increased defense spending…all this with a mostly democrat Congress. So…why has the current bunch of elected officials and bureaucrats done exactly the opposite?
The obvious answer: No good reason, from the standpoint of simple economics! However, there has to be a reason(s), and this is what the pooh-bahs dance around, the better to not perhaps jeopardize what they perceive to be their absolute right to be in Congress or other office. The mantra of the democrats is, “don’t offend anyone, especially anyone in the administration.” The simple reason seems to be that the people running this country, through either ignorance or design, intend to change it from the well-documented, highly effective capitalist system to one predicated on socialism, i.e., government as chief authority and provider in every area of life.
The tip-off on raison d’etra came the other day in Wisconsin when Vice President Biden, combining a Feingold campaign-effort with calling a lowly store manager a “smart-ass” to his face, said, “there's no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession.” That Great Recession is the one in progress now. This is another way of affirming that the objective of this administration is to decrease employment chances in this country, with the inevitable consequence being more people applying to the government dole, ushering in the nanny state in spades.
So…why don’t knowledgeable democrats, assuming there are some, call out Biden and Obama and the rest of their czars on their obvious plan to wreck this country’s economy and bring on socialism? Surely they don’t think that John Q. Public hasn’t figured this out. It’s not about the touchy-feely, warm-fuzzy concern for the “little guy.” It’s all about power…that’s POWER. Obama and crew intend to re-colonize this country, this time in servitude to Washington, D.C., rather than a foreign power, as was the case in 1776.
Perfect case in point: The chocolate giant Hershey’s has been moving a large part of its activity to Mexico and China, putting 11.5% of workers on the street. Why would this penultimate American icon of industry do this? Why do people make every effort to move to Florida? There’s no state income tax in Florida…that’s why.
Why should an American company fight both the union and a government taxing it out of sight to stay in this country when it can make money hand-over-fist by comparison almost anywhere else? Hershey’s doesn’t get handouts from the government, the stuff of stimulus – quite the opposite! It owes its investors a return on their money…just plain common sense. The same is true for once-manufactured-in-this-country toys, textiles and shoes, most of these items now made in China, Taiwan or South Korea, along with valuable computer parts. The U.S. steel industry has all but disappeared.
This out-flow has been happening for years but the powers-that-be do nothing, regardless of party, although NAFTA and the WTO were creatures of the democrats – Bill Clinton & Company before the House went republican in 1995 and the Senate in 1997. When Biden said that “jobs” was a three-letter word, he just about said it all – either ignorance or willful design!
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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