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Sunday, November 16. 2008
Work and Fire
It’s 10:30 p.m. Friday Night and I’m just six and a half hours from waking up to go to work. Work is a four-letter word … really.
Some friends were congratulating me on getting this job, I tried to be gracious, but to wake up at 5 a.m., then hit the road by seven for a two-hour commute … aye-yi-yi.
On the other hand, it pays pretty well. I might even buy another motor vehicle! And this really is good news, despite my slacker sensibilities. I won’t have to depend on the usual and usually unreliable sources of income. And you know I’m just too old and fat to sell my ass. Shoulda made hay when I was a handsome young devil.
Good news in an economy of bad news, sad news, devastating news. Sun Micro Systems, a San Diego company, is laying off a major bit of its work force — just in time for the holidays. I know someone who worked for DHL. He’s not anymore. Just this past week DHL said it was ending its U.S. operations. Nine thousand jobs gone and so far this year, over one million people have found themselves filing for unemployment.
Then there are the millions who have fallen off the unemployment rolls and have given up looking for work. The unemployment rate — of just those on the unemployment rolls — is pushing 6%. Actually, as of last month, it’s 6.5%. That’s recession level unemployment and it’s going to get worse. The Labor Department projects unemployment will be over 7% within six months.The economy is crashing around us in a replay of the Great Depression and what do we learn? That big bailout in September has been scrapped. Not the part where we taxpayers give nearly a trillion dollars, just the part about how the Treasury Department will allocate the money. Seems the banks and other financial institutions that got roughly half the 700 billion dollars have not loosened their lending so the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, wants to use the rest of the money to do just that.
But none of it will go to the “Big Three” automakers: Chrysler, General Motors and Ford and they will surely file for bankruptcy. Should that happen, the unemployment rate would skyrocket past the projected 7.4%. The automobile industry accounts for one in ten U.S. jobs, directly and indirectly. Should any of these giant corporations fold, the repercussions could devastate an already collapsing economy.Of course there are Washington politicians who don’t want to give the Big Three the 25 billion dollars they are asking for, mainly for political grandstanding. And let’s be honest here, the Big Three are up Shit Creek mainly because they were late into the game of fuel-efficient vehicles, among several bad business decisions.
On the other hand, the trade imbalance for automobiles is almost criminal. Foreign automakers can import as many cars as they can sell, not to mention all the cars they have assembled here in the states. U.S. automakers in most foreign countries can export just a fraction, less than 10,000 per automaker in South Korea for instance.
The fall of the U.S. automakers can literally kill this economy, yet there are politicians who don’t want to send them the money. Why? It’s all about the small businesses, the entrepreneurs, or so a couple grandstanding Republicans said Friday. The collapse of the Big Three will be a Democrat problem cause the Democrats are in charge and if the Republicans hold off long enough, it will be a Barack Obama problem and that could be the key to regaining power — the ultimate aphrodisiac.Republicans got a taste of what they had lusted for, only to succumb to the heady elixir, steamrolling their agenda to roll back the New Deal and worse: anointing themselves the Masters who would rule forever, “permanent Republican Majority” as Karl Rove claimed years ago as he manipulated political races around the country from his White House office.
“Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” the old saying goes and the Republicans, with their 13 years of control, proved it. So much so the electorate decided the Democrats could manage the government — and the economy — better.
Remember when the Republicans were considered the better stewards of our nation’s finances? I never believed that because history has proven the U.S. has always done better overall with a Democrat in the White House.So, without any real plan to speak of, other than to remove whatever useless regulations might still be in place, the Republicans’ only hope is to saddle the Democrats with the Great Depression of the 21st Century. So no loans to the Big Three. It has nothing to do with small business in the least. As a matter of fact and record, should any of the Big Three go out of business, or even file for bankruptcy, thousands of small businesses that depend on the auto industry will cease to exist.
Once again California is in the fire season. Right now there are three fires burning thousands of acres, all three being within 150 miles from here. One in Riverside County less than 100 miles. We are in a “Red Flag” warning, which means no open flames out doors. A spark could ignite a fire that can devastate vast areas, as we saw five years ago here in San Diego and just last year.
Where I now reside, Scripps Ranch, was hit both times, the 2003 fire most severely. Friends lost everything and moved away. One, we speculate, distraught over his loss including two pets … well, we don’t want to speculate, but no one has seen him since.Time to keep an eye on the sky and hope it doesn’t turn orange and rain ash.
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