A Robust Economy???

The Economy: A Reality Test

A lot of words get bandied about rather indiscriminately and because they come from “approved” sources ie. the government, we tend to take them as highly credible—or at least the majority of us do.

That’s mistake number one.

Let me cite an example: One of our favorite euphemism’s heard towards year end has been the inscrutable use by the media of the terms “robust economy.” Robust economy sounds extraordinarily dandy but before you go out to celebrate, ask yourself precisely what does that mean?

If you look at the performance of economies emerging from previous recessions, you would have to say that this is the worst example of a buoyant economy in the last 75 years! So the use of the word “robust economy” begins to come into question. Maybe, you ask yourself, there is another perhaps more obscure meaning…

You might elect to the numbers defining this economy, per se. We are told that more jobs have been created in these last few months than at the beginning of his administration. Well, that was true. Job creation during Bush’s first years was virtually non-existant. So, anything looked better in the second half than the first…

We are told about jobs being created at over 200,000 a month—not a big deal when compared to what Clinton managed through-out most of his administration. But let’s just set that fact aside for a moment, and ask ourselves the really hard question. What do these numbers really mean?. Well, for one, we don’t really know because the government fails to explain them in sufficient detail. One might wonder whether they might represent a different category of job, minimum wage positions, even part-time jobs? If we push a little further, we might posit the possibility that these could be jobs created to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after Katrina…

We don’t know the answer to that but according to the statistics, the NYT reported that all of the jobs created were filled by immigrant labor. What does that tell you? It should tell you that those jobs are part-time, low paying jobs; jobs that do not replace the higher quality, higher paying jobs that seem to have fled our shores.

Yet another article in a serious newspaper tells our government pundits more of what they don’t want to hear. This article reported that the jobs coming on the scene were just sufficient to fulfill the needs of new workers joining the work force. Ugh! Foiled again!

If all of these reports and articles are true, then it seems to this author that we, the public, are being fed a lot of hype! As the truth is being swept under the rug…

Okay, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. Let’s take another look. Perhaps we should view the economic performance from the point of view of the unemployment numbers. According to the pundits, those numbers are hovering in the low six percent of the total work force. So, again, let’s man our probe and see what kind of reality underlies those numbers. And don’t be surprised if we come up with another revelation…

Why? Those numbers reflect only those who are still collecting benefits; they do not reflect those whose benefits have been used up or who have simply given up the job search!

What’s a good numbers massager to do?

Speak to any American manufacturer about the economy and ask them how they are doing? Most will admit freely that they can’t compete with the Wal-Mart model that forces suppliers to pay its workers minimum wages and no benefits in order to compete.

It is becoming increasingly clear that if we continue to leave the Wal-Mart model intact , more and more better paying jobs will be fleeing our shores and fall under the misleading rubric of “off-shoring.”

But over the longer term, it seems that only one of two outcomes will prevail. Either we will stay with the Wal-Mart model which will contribute to America’s economic suicide or we’ll revive manufacturing by erecting the kind of trade barriers that will allow American industry to survive. In the meantime, we will continue to be deluged by half-truths promulgated by the media in seeking to curry favor with the government. In any event, most of us will not be the wiser because the media seems to have some problem with elucidating the truth.
Again, boys and girls, we seem to be desperately on our own!

The Owl Grabber

www.lesaaron.blogspot.com