The Economy

Our economy is in the drain. Thats for certain. We see a lot of accusations going about as to what has caused it...everything from subprime mortgages to people saving rather than spending. I have seen business owners complain that we are being selfish and not spending our money.

Here's the real truth. Back in the late 90's, there was a group of CEO's who began to blow hard into the bubble that was the company they were head of. I can cite one particular computer company that this happened to...after all, I knew several people who worked there. The board of trustees kicked the founder from his CEO job (I heard he was caught with a bag of naughty green stuff) and hired this other guy. Well, the other guy decided to double the size of the company. At first glance, it seemed to be working...after all, there was that silly Y2K scare, and everyone was purchasing a new computer.

Then, about mid-1999, the company began to go into free fall where stocks were concerned. The company began to make cuts....first by reducing employee incomes. It was odd, because one of the salesmen who worked there was selling just as many computers as before (if not more)...he was just making less doing it. Work harder, sell more, but make less money doing it. Next they fired their "Golden Boy" CEO...but they had to pay him millions of dollars in severence, as per his contract.

And this wasn't the only company that this happened to. Too late, the companies began to realize that they'd been had by a group of scam artists. A few of these "brilliant CEO's" had done this to several companies. They purposely drove the company into the ground so that they could get many years worth of salary in one fell swoop, and retire to the Cayman Islands where no law could reach them and take it back.

To make up for this, companies began to take advantage of the so-called free-trade agreements and began sending technical, and even phone employment, overseas to India. More and more people here in the United States were being laid off. They ended up fighting for jobs that made half the money, hoping that the sun would come out tomorrow.

Then the worst thing happened. The price of oil went up. The price of heating or cooling your house went up. The price of food went up...oh, they say it didn't, but I know very well that the price of my favorite pasta went from $.88 a pound up to $1.18.

Didn't those stimulus packages work? *cough cough* Getting our tax returns back early isn't that much of a deal, especially when we shouldn't have been paying it in the first place.

My buddy that made over $50 an hour? He moved in with his mother. The two of them are selling vitamins over the internet. And he's doing carpentry on the side to make a little extra cash. But they are going to have to move again...its too expensive where they live.

And I see it all over with people I know. A friend of mine, making $200,00 a year...job gone. My husband's step-sister and her husband...one job gone, the other making less money than before...they actually lost their house. In fact, I can name about three people who are fairing the same as they were 10 years ago. Only our truck-driver buddy seems to be doing better than before...he's thinking of purchasing a foreclosed home. Still not his dream of opening a sports bar in Montana, but...hey, everyone's dreams have been dashed as of late.

So this is where the United States of America stands, folks. We have no jobs. Where we do have jobs, we have half the money. Some of us are slaving just to try and keep the home we've got. We're trying not to use credit cards because the card companies are charging more...isn't that sweet of them. Taxes are still going up. Many of us have to resort to backyard gardening just to get some nutritious food on the table...because they otherwise can't afford it.

Politicians are trying to convince us that the free trade agreements have been good for the United States. That putting tarrifs back on goods from China, or labor from India, will be bad for the poor here.

Lets take that $10 toaster from China. Once upon a time, they were made here in America. By today's standard, an American made toaster might cost $50. How long did those toasters last? I think mom's lasted 10 years way back when. How long does a Chinese made toaster last? A year?

How about sending jobs to India. I've dealt with the India tele-workers twice. Once was one our answering machine...we could tell they were asking for the hubby, and they had left some phone number for us to call....but we couldn't tell what company they were from, we couldn't tell what they wanted, and...well, the phone number they left had no 1-*** in front of it, and the number wasn't a local one. I checked it against the two local area codes, and even both the 800 and 888 codes (when I get curious, I get detective-like) Who the heck were we suppose to call? Guess that company never got what they were asking for.

The second time, I called in to ask a simple question about my new phone. I was transferred immedietly back to the United States. And what was the point of sending the call to a tele-worker in India? What were they paying the guy for if he couldn't answer a simple question? At least one company here has started bringing back jobs from India because their customers are getting frustrated. Just because we both speak English doesn't mean we speak the same language.

Don't get me wrong...we have a friend from India. Beautiful person. But she's lived here most of her life. She knows American English as well as I do, and so do her parents.

But there you have it, America. Scam CEO's, jobs lost overseas, crap filling the stores, higher gas prices, higher food and other commodoty prices because of the higher gas prices, higher taxes and lower salaries... Blame the sub-prime mortgages all you want...I assure you, those people could afford their mortgages when they got them. Trickle down economics? Quit peeing on us and just pay us a living wage, allright?