Curmudgeon's Corner

Unemployment & The Economy

Posted by Al Campbell on Feb. 19, 2010

Economy, Political, Quality of Life, Taxes, U.S., Wisconsin

Things aren’t good around our community and around our state, and around our nation.  We see unemployment running rampant, and there seems little real indication that our economy has regained the bounce in its step.

I hear, as I feel certain many of you hear, of the friends, and friends of friends, who are struggling to keep things together.  The stories of job searches when there are none to be had abound.  The homes that are on the market due to impending foreclosure action cause much concern.  Life’s savings are being depleted with little likelihood of being rebuilt anytime soon.

I hear the “news” that tells us that the economy is recovering but I question the truthfulness of those reports.  Wouldn’t we see some real, solid “ground zero” evidence of that trend if it were true?

And, why would we need to pump more money, our money, into the economy if it were already recovering?  What has been ‘stimulated’ other than for some pet projects that make no sense (“car speed” rail, for example) and for the public sector jobs that were ‘protected’ by what has become $867 Billion, or more, dollars of taxpayer money?

We see the continued foolishness in Madison, as if that in Washington doesn’t already meet the quota for foolishness in government.  We see a ‘debate’ over “global warming” regulations that impact only Wisconsin; what an absurdity.  We see the big story over payday loan operations, but we don’t see the systemic changes that might render such operations of no use to those who would have no other hope of getting a small loan to tide them over a rough spot.

There are very real problems in Wisconsin and in America and it does not seem that our elected officials are facing up to that truth with hard choices about real issues.  The one thing that would really spur the economy is tax law change that makes investment in new enterprise attractive, and tax law change that lets Americans, the working class Americans who really drive our economy, keep more of the money they earn.

We are, on both the state and national levels, sucking the lifeblood from our economies through the continued and increasingly confiscatory nature of tax law.  Government needs to tighten its belt just as those of us trying to earn a living have been forced to do as the result of our governments’ voracious appetites for our dollars.

It is little wonder that there is a growing “throw the bums out” mentality in America.  It seems that may be the only way to get the attention of those “bums”.  Let them look for a job in this economy and then maybe we’ll see some serious tackling of the real issues.  Oh, I forgot that most of them have already gotten “theirs” by taking “ours”; they won’t have to look for jobs if they’re thrown out of office.