The economy is booming we're told. It's the best ever, the
president assures us. Of course economics is hardly an exact science. Or some
would argue it is no science at all. Even many of the markers, statistics and
concepts used to illustrate and explain it are in many cases subjective.
I drive around and see a lot of 'Help Wanted' signs and
indeed a lot of people seem to be upbeat about the economy. The stock market
has certainly climbed to unprecedented levels.
But does this really mean the economy is booming?
It depends on who you talk to. It also depends on what aspect
of the economy you are referring to.
There are markers and statistics associated with finance that
indicate a boom is taking place. Again, just look at the stock market. The
investor class is making a lot of money... but is it real money? It becomes
real if it's withdrawn but as long as it's left in the market it can disappear
tomorrow. There is a type of wealth there but interestingly not many are eager
to grab it. Why? Because that would mean missing out on making more. And of
course in other instances their financial agreements have bound them to certain
terms and withdrawal means paying large penalties.
And interestingly if everyone starts to withdraw their money,
the whole system collapses and the money that seems to be there.... suddenly
it's not.
They feel good about their money and this translates into a
willingness to take risks, to take out loans, to play with equity and have some
work done. In other cases they might expand their business and take on another
employee.
So it's trickle down, right? Not exactly. While there are
'Help Wanted' signs all about what are the jobs being offered? Unless you're in
a certain class of White Collar jobs, it's going to mean part time and
temporary work. For the working class, one job isn't enough. In some cases two
aren't enough. And the jobs they get are ever desperate to squeeze them for
every last penny including what are often serious abuses of their time.
Statistically speaking wage growth is pretty flat and that's
something you won't hear a lot about in the news cycle. Some companies have
been raising their starting wage but this is in part an effort to stave off and
anticipate a rise in the minimum wage. So wages have gone up a little, but are still
failing to keep pace with inflation. But when the $11 an hour job is only for
15-25 hours, it doesn't really help as the worker now has to find another job
to make ends meet.
There are jobs out there but they're all the same, and
they're almost all dead-ends. There are some real problems with the younger
generations, the Millennials and now generation Z. There's a poor work ethic to
be sure and a lack of engagement. I know the owner of one local pizza shop who
laments that he can't get anyone decent to work for him. He's had a 'Help
Wanted' sign up for months.
But what's the problem? Is it just the ethics of the younger
generation? That may play a part but it's more complicated than that. If you actually
talk to the people who quit working at his shop, they'll tell you. The pay is
poor, even wholly insufficient and the hours are difficult. They're not only
difficult in the sense of weekends and close-open shifts but difficult in that
they don't facilitate the finding of another job which they are forced to get
in order to pay their bills. Basically from their perspective he's throwing
crumbs at them and then schedules them according to his needs and makes their
lives impossible.
Now wait a minute, shouldn't they as employees be serving the
employer's needs? Yes, but it goes both ways and if he's got them for 4 hour
shifts, five or six days a week, they can't financially survive nor can they
find other work. This is especially true if the shifts are 11am to 3pm or 3pm
to 7pm. It's difficult to find another job that will accommodate those hours.
He's lost most of his employees and with the wages he pays,
he can't get anyone beyond the teen and twenty-something age group.... the very
group he wants to avoid. He has two supervisors that are in their 40's and 50's
and they're not paid very well either. However, they're given reasonably steady
(but still part time) hours, they live nearby, the jobs are 'second' jobs for
the family and though the pay is inadequate the stability is worth something.
That said, his best supervisor (the woman who had worked for him for close to
ten years) quit and went to work for Wal-Mart. That's saying something.
Now, it would be a mistake to use the local pizza parlour as
an example for the US economy but I don't think it's that atypical of the small
business blue collar sector. Others will of course disagree.
So what's the problem? Well, the owner is doing great. He's
fixing up his house and planning for retirement. He's making money hand over
fist and he's hardly even there as the pizza shop is a side job for him. He
invests some time to be sure and yet when he is there he's often in his office
working his white collar job by phone and computer. He really only has to
intervene when something goes wrong. He often will work Friday and Saturday
evenings when it's extra busy, just to interact with the public and make sure
things run smoothly. He's not a lazy man to be sure and yet his cold heart
cannot understand what's happening with his people and why they seem to loathe
him.
He's willing to hire but it's not working out. The people at
the bottom are not 'feeling' the boom. To them it's something beyond their
scope. What could be a bit of trickle down (if I want to be charitable and give
a nod to the largely bogus concept) is blocked by a wall of greed.... not even
deliberate greed. I don't think the owner even sees it or understands it but in
the end, that's what it is.
A great deal more could be said about inflation and the way
in which such figures are manipulated. My wife and I always chuckle when we
hear about inflation being low or flat. Right, we say. I can walk over to my
old desk and pull out my notebooks from ten and fifteen years ago. Monthly
bills that were once $30 are now $200 and it's not because we're doing anything
different. Some bills like our natural gas bill have come down, but only to
where they might have been ten years ago. Now my kids have grown and certainly
eat more than they used to, and thus our grocery bill has gone up but so have
the prices. My wife can attest to that.
It reminds me of the debates over Sequestration. If the
process 'kicked in' the Pentagon budget was going undergo massive cuts we were
told. The truth is the cuts were only going back to 2005 and 2006 levels which
were already leaps and bounds above what the budget had been in 2001. Is there
a reduction? Yes, but does it really tell the whole story? Not by a long shot.
The linked article is about homelessness and we've seen it
rise even in our area. This is not the type of place where you see people
sleeping on the sidewalks. That sort of thing is rare in a small town. The
local police are bored as it is and won't stand for it. However there is a
great deal of homelessness. People are moving about, sleeping here and there
and in some cases living in abandoned houses. In the summer there are people
who camp... but it's not recreational. They're camping out because they don't
have a place to live and they're not staying in the official campgrounds which
cost money. There are other places you can go but of course there are no
facilities.
These people either save up enough to secure some indoor
living in the winter, they find someone who will put them up, or they head
south where it might remain tolerable to sleep in a tent. Here it is
mid-November and we're already having nights in the teens (Fahrenheit) and so
it's way too cold for people trying to camp. The snow also makes it a little
difficult.
And of course that means the homeless population slowly
drifts both south and west. California has a very temperate climate and thus I
can remember back in the 1980's there were homeless people everywhere
especially in the downtown areas of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
There are economic markers that indicate the economy is doing
well and yet the article reveals something of the real economy, the economy not
reflected in the stock market or unemployment statistics, the latter of which
are often misleading.
A lot of things changed in the wake of the 2008 financial
crisis. Certain quarters of the economy eventually picked up but others never
recovered and the so-called 'recovery' was not a real restoration but a
paradigm-shift. The working class continues to be decimated and the gulf
between rich and poor continues to grow at rates that alarm some sociologists,
historians and economists. A lot of people are falling not just down into a
lower economic bracket, but off a cliff. And there's a younger generation
coming up that is filled with cynicism and even despair.
Social unrest is in the wind and thus the ruling class is
doing all it can to erect the foundations of a police state. From the
militarisation of local police to the rather aggressive censorship campaign,
the powers that be are making their moves to clamp down on potential trouble.
And of course it's big business as many stand to make a lot of money in
facilitating the new regime, the new phase of the post-2001 American Empire
project.
