Comments on: The Jobs

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:32:46 +0000

It is apparently beyond the understanding of the pundits who get the attention of the political class that jobs are the keystone to the economy. Watching the so-called recovery from 2001 and not seeing any job increase made the result obvious. You don’t need an MBA or a PhD in economics to figure out that when two-thirds of the GDP is dependent on consumption, you had better take care of the consumers, and the best way of doing that is to keep them employed.

Fallenmonk, I have a cousin who is a long-haul trucker, and he has to park his truck when the price of diesel gets too high or he can’t make his expenses. Trucking is generally flat fee, not cost plus, and when the fee doesn’t cover expenses you’re screwed.

IT is not a friendly environment for middle-aged people, especially if they want to get paid for what they know.

By: fallenmonk

fallenmonk — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:41:54 +0000

Since I joined the ‘luckie duckies’ last week and have been engrossed in the situation from the inside I have discovered just how bad it really is. It is really ugly. There are not a lot of jobs to be had of any type. Though if you want to be a truck driver or work in a phone bank the odds look pretty good.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:53:49 +0000

Indeed, which is why monetarist “solutions” such as dumping a trillion dollars of freshly printed greenbacks into the market are just pushing on a string. It doesn’t matter that the banks have all this dough ready to lend out, if nobody has a job to pay back loans or is already overextended and can’t afford more loans. No loans = the money is just cluttering their vaults. Duh.

You need the money in the system to push on one end of the string. But all the pushing on a string ain’t gonna do diddly if you don’t have consumers pulling on the other end of the string. And if they don’t have jobs (or are fearing for the one they have), well, that’s friggin’ hard, huh?

– Badtux the Economics Penguin