Continuing with my line of thought that I started yesterday; it seems that things are just plain bad.
Just how bad is it?
The U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs in February vs. expectations for 206,000, continuing a recent trend of decent hiring activity. The unemployment rate held at 8.3%.
But America remains mired in the longest jobs recession since the Great Depression. It’s been 49 months since the U.S. hit peak employment in January 2008. And with nonfarm payrolls still 5.33 million below their old high, the jobs slump will continue for several more years.
The previous jobs recession record — 47 months — came during and after the comparatively mild 2001 recession, which saw unemployment climb to only 6.3%. The average job recovery time since 1980 is 29 months, not including the current slump.
The labor market won’t truly return to health until some 10 million positions are created to rehire all those who lost their jobs and to absorb new workers.
The longest jobs recession in decades coincides, not coincidentally, with the longest stretch of anemic economic performance on record.
U.S. gross domestic profit hasn’t risen 4% or more in any quarter since the first quarter of 2006. That’s by far the longest such stretch on record going back to 1950. The only other sizable sub-par stretch was a three-year span from late 2000 to mid-2003 during the prior recession and sluggish recovery.
I would advise you to go read the rest of that report, as it is quite a depressing read. Ace over at Ace of Spades HQ likes to call it DOOM. I simply look at it as grim reality. This reality was created by the Democrats, who sought to game the system during a time of prosperity. This should be a textbook example of why wealth redistribution simply does not work. Instead, the Democrats will use this as an excuse to try to push their green energy polices and why we all should have healthcare, at the taxpayer’s expense. All the while painting Republicans as racist, money grubbing, thugs who wish to keep the poor, black and disabled down.
Arguing it, in my opinion, is an exercise in futility anymore, because most Republicans are too stupid to know how to make the argument properly. Instead, Republicans come off sound cold, aloof, uncaring, and cold-hearted —- or simply, like Mitt Romney.
This all affects me in many ways. I would get into all of that, but because I do not want to be accused of being a whiner, I will not bother. Therefore, I will simply say this, this all was happening in Michigan, long before it began happening in the entire Country. Thanks to Jennifer Granholm’s inability to govern a state, we suffered long before the rest of the Country did. This is why I like to say, welcome to my world. Because this mess we are in now, has been my world, since about 2000. Admittedly, it got bad around here in about 2003 and after that, it was downhill around here. I have out of work since 2005; and part of that is my fault and part of it is not. My physical health is not in the best of shape either, my back and knees are hosed from years of trying to be superman, when I was working. It all catches up, as I have learned; there is not day that goes by when my back and knees are not in pain. The pain is just a part of life, of getting old, I suppose. I do not have any sort of healthcare insurance, so I live with the pain.
However, I simply refuse to see myself as a charity case. I refuse to take a handout from the Government. Social Security is out for me; hell, I have a friend in Ohio that I have known since childhood — we used to live across the street from one another in Southwest Detroit — and he has a legitimate heart condition and he has a lawyer fighting to get his social security. You want to talk about someone unfairly losing his or her career. My friend Joe, who I have known for an eternity, was a well-paid and very well skilled automotive mechanic. Let me state emphatically that the auto industry is much worse off without his skills. Anyhow, Joe was working in this area not far from where I live, at an automotive dealership. Joe ended up having to move to Ohio to be closer to his family. In the process of moving, he just happened to have a check up and that is when he discovered he had a heart condition. This might help you to understand why it is that I simply do not like dwelling on my own misfortune at all. This is simply because there are those out there, who have it much worse than I do.
The point I am making is this; if my friend Joe is having to lawyer to even get social security disability and he has a legitimate condition, what makes you think I could even remotely get it? I just cannot see myself trotting in and saying, “Hi, I have ADHD and I think I am entitled to social security.” I tried that once, after being pestered by my Mom about it and I tried that and it failed. I will not try that again. I felt like a fool. My point is, I do want to work, doing something that I can do, that will not end up screwing my knees and back up even worse than they already are now.
I have made three major mistakes in my life and I will always regret them. The first was thinking that I could go to Commercial Truck Driving School, on the State of Michigan’s dime no less and then think that I could just waltz into a local driving job. I know now that the commercial vehicle insurance industry just does not allow that to happen. The second mistake was getting a job that was related to the retail industry; retail stores suck and those who work in them are usually complete and useless assholes. Believe me when I tell you this; I know from experience. With the exception of my first job ever, every job I have ever tried work in, which was related to retail was a total disaster. I just do not have the personality for retail sales at all. The main reason for this is that, frankly, people can be just plain nasty. I could tell you horror stories of working in the retail business.
My third mistake was allowing my family to talk me into getting a job where they worked, that was major mistake. I believe the biggest reason I am where I am today is the result that mistake. I love my family, all of them; but I have tried working with them more than once and it was a disaster. Even when my job was not working around them, it ended up with me getting into with them, over something. Lesson learned there, never again.
Therefore, here I sit, writing, hoping that this will all turn around for the Country and me. Something tells me, I am going to be waiting for a very long time.
