Where Have All the Jobs Gone?

By sinde on March 7th, 2008

In January we lost 22,000 jobs and in February the country lost an additional 63,000. So far for 2008 we are in the hole for 85,000 jobs. The politicians and their advisers are still debating whether the term “recession” is appropriate for the times. Don’t you think it’s time to move beyond what to call “it” and start doing something about “it”?

Today there was testimony before Congress discussing suggestions as to how the country can turn around the trend. I listened as long as I could but once I found myself yelling at the television I went to the grocery market. Maybe that wasn’t the best place to go! Jobs are vanishing faster than Houdini could get out of handcuffs and prices are soaring faster than a rocket launch. The price of a dozen eggs is 50% higher than four months ago.

And, now we talk about the stimulus package. I certainly understand that the government has moved as quickly on this as anything the size of a dinosaur can move but “the check is in the mail” isn’t going to pay this month’s electric bill. By the time the check arrives chances are we will definitely need the money to pay the ever rising gas prices, just so the ones of us who still have a job can get to work.

Okay, so enough of the gloom and doom. It’s everywhere and I certainly don’t need to discuss it further. It just seems to me that while the government, the present administration, is so hell bent on getting the FISA bill passed so they can jump on any telephone call immediately and are not willing to waste a moment getting a warrant that they could have jumped on the current economic situation with the same zeal.

Of course, when all the jobs have vanished and we can’t pay our phone bills… well, who are they going to listen to?