Gloom, Despair and Agony
We're all gonna DIE!!!!1
Cheery, isn’t she? Another few paragraphs of that and I'd be chewing on the barrel of shotgun. Looks like Peggy is the one who needs to be on anti-depressants.
I guess that’s what happens when you’re trapped in New Yahwk. My father -- who taught history, government and economics his entire life -- claims that a lot of what is happening here involves something the country has been ripening into since Reconstruction: big labor is finally chasing all the industry out of the liberalized and over-unionized north and down into the low gains tax, right-to-work states -- which are mostly in the south. I know from firsthand experience that new construction here in Houston is still bidding at a volume over double that of 2005 –- the supposed "height" of the boom economy. Oh, it'll slow down eventually. But we don't chase companies away; we open the door for them.
So cry me a river, Peggy. Your depression is not synonymous with a Depression.
___
(Hat-tip to Vizigoth)
It is six months since Lehman fell and the crash (or the great recession, or the collapse—it's time it got its name) began. An aspect of the story given less attention than it is due, perhaps because it doesn't lend itself to statistics, is the psychic woe beneath the economic blow. There are two parts to this. One is that we have arrived at the first fatigue. The heart-pumping drama of last September is gone, replaced by the drip-drip-drip of pink slips, foreclosures and closed stores. We are tired. It doesn't feel like 1929, but 1930. People are in a kind of suspended alarm, waiting for the future to unspool and not expecting it to unspool happily...
People don't talk about this much because it's too big, but I suspect more than a few see themselves, deep down, as "the designated mourner," from the title of the Wallace Shawn play...
The sale of antidepressants and antianxiety drugs is widespread...
Gun sales continue up...
People are scared... They are taking cash out of the bank in preparation for a long-haul bad time...
I spoke to a Manhattan-based psychiatrist who said there is an uptick in the number of his patients reporting depression and anxiety. He thinks what he is seeing, within and without his practice, is a "psychological pandemic of fear" as to the future of things—-of our country, and even of mankind...
Cheery, isn’t she? Another few paragraphs of that and I'd be chewing on the barrel of shotgun. Looks like Peggy is the one who needs to be on anti-depressants.
I guess that’s what happens when you’re trapped in New Yahwk. My father -- who taught history, government and economics his entire life -- claims that a lot of what is happening here involves something the country has been ripening into since Reconstruction: big labor is finally chasing all the industry out of the liberalized and over-unionized north and down into the low gains tax, right-to-work states -- which are mostly in the south. I know from firsthand experience that new construction here in Houston is still bidding at a volume over double that of 2005 –- the supposed "height" of the boom economy. Oh, it'll slow down eventually. But we don't chase companies away; we open the door for them.
So cry me a river, Peggy. Your depression is not synonymous with a Depression.
___
(Hat-tip to Vizigoth)
posted by Jar(egg)head at 09:51
2 Comments:
The move south to right to work states is why the Unions and the Dems are pushing for the card check legislation. If you don't know what this is, it is where the unions can come in to a shop and instead of a secret ballot to decide if they want a union, people fill out a card that is kept public saying if you want a union or not, and if 50.01% say yes then everyone gets a union. I can see it now, union "Reps" showing up at your house asking you why you haven't filled out a card yet. Union membership has been dropping off as more people move from union controlled states to the south.
Some interesting facts about unions; Membership is down approximately 1 million from 1983, the first year of tracking. 36% of all government workers are unionized, compared to private sector which is only 7.6%. Oh, and the UAW has a cash surplus of over 2 BILLION dollars, yet felt it could not help out GM, Chrysler or Ford.
If you wish to to continue the drumbeat mantra of the 'evils of unions' there ,of course, is nothing to be done about it. But I would remind you of certain things in the USofA. If you hold an hourly wage -paying job, you define full-time work as 40 hours per week. You expect certain things from your employer such as a safe work environment, fair pay for all hours worked, overtime pay for hours in excess of 40 per week, freedom from harassment for sex, color, or creed. Most expect some sort of vacation program,many expect a 401K or a retirement program, most expect healthcare in the form of insurance. These all are things fought for and won, and now maintained by the actions of unions. These benefits by which you have come to define work or a job are extended to you by the political actions of unions and their members. 'Oh', you say, 'but they're not necessary anymore. The protections are in place as a matter of law now. No more need of unions, Their positive influence is over.' Well, to that I say 'look around at the pressures being brought against labor in the political world today. Look at the efforts to reduce or completely eliminate benefits. Pensions are already a thing of the past, with Social Security, Unemployment insurance, minimum wage, maximum compensatable hours and safety issues are all future targets. 'Get the government of the back of business'...If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that one in the past 8 years, I wouldn't be worried at all about the current economic situation because I would have wealth beyond avarice.
Unions don't do these things, they don't fight indefatiguably for the rights of labor expecting compensationfrom you. They have their own political agenda certainly, but you most certainly reap the benefits of of unions , as does this nation, every day of our existence. Instead of railing about how bad they are , more likely you should send them all flowers as a small token of thanks
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