2009 Economy

2009 Economy

Our economy hurts. Its no secret we’re all feeling some sort of hit from the economy. These are painful and unforgiving times pertaining to the ability to save money or even stay afloat in paying bills. Gasoline prices spiking as they did during the past eight years served as the first domino in a domino effect that reached all area’s of the economy. As gasoline prices spiked, it caused the rapid increase of raised prices for just about everything from groceries to building materials used to build new homes. The price of automotive fuel soaring led to job cuts and forced others out of jobs. Independent truck drivers all over the nation were forced to park their expensive investments because the fuel to run them was just too expensive to keep up with. A great many of these truck drivers actually sold their trucks and trailers. Each owner operator is considered a business. This being said, that means fuel prices were the reason for businesses being forced to go out of business. Everything you touch on a daily basis was on a truck at one time or another. This includes your food, everything needed to build your home or place that you work, the clothes on your back, your vehicle and much more. Without trucks this country would come to a catastrophic stop.

Here in the Great Lakes area of America, numerous large corporations are laying off large numbers of employees. Places like Toro, Caterpillar, Cummins and more. Other places like a group of small book stores have actually gone out of business. These occurrences are not isolated, they are wide spread. Every time this happens a part of financial America dies forever. With each of these occurrences the number of people losing jobs increases the unemployment in our country and at the same time reduces the amount of jobs available. People who have jobs must do everything they can to keep their job, because if you lose it, … it could be gone for a long time if not for good. Looking for a second job is very difficult because of the ever increasing amount of people becoming unemployed. Every time a large corporation lays off hundreds, or even thousands of people these ratio’s tip even farther toward hardship and reducing the chances of getting a second job gets even stronger because the number of unemployed keeps growing.

I’ve heard people are using credit cards to pay some monthly bills. Although it sounds like a good idea at the time of desperation, it is not the answer at all. This is simply moving numbers around (robbing Peter to pay Paul). Using a credit card to pay a monthly bill doesn’t actually clear you of that payment. Sure, you paid one bill by doing this, but now the amount of that bill is on your credit card plus interest. You didn’t gain anything at all, the fact is you lost. These are ideal times to put the credit cards aside unless you are in a situation comfortable enough to maintain the commitment involved without worsening your finances.

Bailouts. Something I strongly question. Lets look at the money our Government is throwing around. 911 caused our government to shell out large amounts of money. The hurricanes that hit America caused our Government to shell out more money. The expenses of our wars we are involved in is costing unthinkable amounts of money. On more than one occasion our country was blanketed with civilians receiving stimulus checks. Now, our Government is shelling out money in the forms of bailouts. Massive bailouts! Our country is spending money like a teenager with a credit card. Keep in mind this is a country with debt before all this started happening. Where is all this money coming from? Are we printing money that means nothing in financial value? It used to be that for every dollar in circulation, there was gold in storage to back up the value of that American dollar. Does this even hold true anymore?

Banks, the automotive industry and many more are turning to the Government to receive bailouts. We’re talking about financial figures that are absolutely astronomical. I feel before turning to our Government for bailout money, the business in question should be looking at the people in the company to cut some expenses. I’m not talking about the plant workers or other blue collar workers either. I’m talking about company Presidents and C.E.O.’s. These are desk people who don’t get their hands dirty but yet suck up some of the biggest wages known. Many of these positions earn some very unrealistic incomes while the average employee may be living almost paycheck to paycheck and struggling through life. This is no way to run a business that you want to be a successful one. Some C.E.O.’s earn the kind of money they could never possibly spend, so why are they being paid that much. For lack of a better description, … such people are tapeworms intercepting input to a empty stomach. There is no reason for this.  Like I said, … if you want a business to be successful, you have to control things like this.

Reporter Joseph Toth
Washington Micro Bank BBS