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Friday, September 9, 2011

New Jobs? At What Cost?

After almost nineteen years in the restaurant business, the last two in which she co-managed a restaurant of 120 employees, our younger daughter was laid off this week. And are there any new jobs out there in the marketplace for her?  According to The Washington Post:
The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims rose by 2,000 to 414,000 for the week ending Sept. 3. The department said last week that no net jobs were created in August.
(picture courtesy of CBS News)

Last night's speech, in which President Obama said "PASS THIS BILL"  (the $447 billion American Jobs Act proposal) more times than I bothered to count, was disappointing and disingenuous.  In less than 45 seconds:



From this site:
Essentially, the jobs plan is an IOU from a president and lawmakers who may not even be in office down the road when the bills come due. Today’s Congress cannot bind a later one for future spending. A future Congress could simply reverse it.

Currently, roughly all federal taxes and other revenues are consumed in spending on various federal benefit programs, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, food stamps, farm subsidies and other social-assistance programs and payments on the national debt. Pretty much everything else is done on credit with borrowed money.

So there is no guarantee that programs that clearly will increase annual deficits in the near term will be paid for in the long term.
The Los Angeles Times this morning said that Obama
... then provided a joint session of Congress with a broadly ambitious list of goals that sounded to many people very much like a lot more spending, like, say, the $787 billion economic stimulus bill of 2009 that didn't stimulate much of anything except that national debt.
I am so disheartened for my daughter Heidy.  She is a hard worker and I have been told by many of her co-workers that she rules fairly and with a velvet hammer.  Hopefully, she can obtain another position she likes and in which she will prosper.

My thoughts are with all those seeking work.

"It's recession when your neighbor loses his job, it's a depression when you lose your own."  Harry S. Truman

4 comments:

  1. Nancy, I do realize that these are very difficult times, and that a lot of politics is political theater.

    I did study economics as an undergrad, so here's an economic opinion. The 2009 stimulus package was actually not well-targeted to jobs - about 1/3 of it was tax cuts that don't help us. Many economists think that it was too small in total, so that it staved off an even worse economy, but now has lost gas completely (hence your daughter losing her job).

    We also have the greatest income inequality in 100 years - not enough ordinary people have $ to spend, and the rich keep theirs in bank accounts. Tax hikes for the wealthy and spending those would help, but not likely in this Congress.

    The depressing thing about the newer Obama plan is that has an even higher proportion of tax cuts, and it's not big enough either.

    And if you want to get really worried, Europe is in a worse pickle with the Euro - so on their own, they can cause another depression for the world.

    But if all we do is austerity (spending cuts on poor and middle classes), I'm afraid that your daughter's chances of finding a job will be even worse.

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  2. I am so sorry to hear about your Daughter! My Sister's Husband was laid off recently too and he is trying to find a job! I am of the belief that the stimulus money isn't doing anything to help the little people! I would love to be wrong:)

    Hope she finds a job, sounds like a good employee deserving of one! HUGS and PRAYERS!

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  3. Sorry to hear about your daughter. I pray someone is smart enough to hire her.

    Obama needs to replace speeches with action.

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  4. Nancy, you're right about Obama's speech...nothing seems to be progressing, or moving forward. I don't know where we're seeing results. I am sorry for your daughter. I've seen some of the best let go. And that's a shame...our loss.

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