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Apparently, my friend who just got laid off imagined the whole thing
Posted By katie allison granju
“You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession,” he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. “We may have a recession; we haven’t had one yet.”
“We have sort of become a nation of whiners,” he said. “You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline” despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.
“We’ve never been more dominant; we’ve never had more natural advantages than we have today,” he said. “We have benefited greatly” from the globalization of the economy in the last 30 years.
Mr. Gramm said the constant drubbing of the media on the economy’s problems is one reason people have lost confidence. Various surveys show that consumer confidence has fallen precipitously this year to the lowest levels in two to three decades, with most analysts attributing that to record high gasoline prices over $4 a gallon and big drops in the value of homes, which are consumers’ biggest assets.
“Misery sells newspapers,” Mr. Gramm said. “Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day.”
Jul 10th, 2008
“Beating the reigning champ Spider-Man 3, The Dark Knight set box-office records this weekend, bringing in a more than $155 million from the widest opening ever - 4,366 theaters.”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/movies/news/bal-te.to.batman21jul21,0,5897440.story
Does this sound like a nation in a recession?
You decide.
My wife just got laid off too, but I do not attribute this to a recession. Maybe it is because of big business sending US jobs overseas, or in the case of GM, high oil prices forcing them to cut the gas guzzler form production.
There’s a very good reason big business is sending US jobs overseas, and it’s not the cost of labor. The cost of labor in the overall scheme of things is a minor item on most big company income statements. Take a look at them and see for yourself if you don’t believe me….
The biggest reason they go overseas is because the U.S. has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, one of the most dysfunctional legal systems around which allows them to be sued for just about anything and everything (McDonald’s coffee ring a bell?), a dizzying array of conflicting state, local and federal regulations, abusive and inflexible union demands, and the list goes on and on.
People keep complaining about jobs going overseas and assume it’s some big conspiracy by evil CEOs when in fact it’s a completely rational decision driven by the hostile business environment we’ve created here in the U.S.
And let’s not forget that through our 401(k) plans and other investments, it is increasingly us - the average Joe - who is the ultimate owner and responsible party for these sorts of bottom line decisions. Corporations are not nameless, faceless entities: they are owned by the thousands of shareholders (you and me) who demand that every drop of profit be squeezed out of every dollar of revenue or we’re screaming for the CEO’s head on a platter.
Want jobs to come back to the U.S.? Then look at your own responsibilities for the situation we’re in. Push your representatives to lower corporate tax rates, reform the tort system, streamline regulations, pass right to work laws, and so on.
The problem we have in this country is that anyone who recognizes economic reality and pushes for these changes is labeled “evil” and “being for big business and against the working man” by the very same people who are gnashing their teeth and complaining the loudest about the jobs going overseas.
How many jobs have to leave the country before people stop being hoodwinked by simplistic political slogans about the “evils of big business”?