I'd just gotten home last night and started eating when the doorbell rang. Sal Esparza, a Barstow guy who does landscaping was offering me the installation of 7 tons of decorative rock for $400. I've been needing to get it done, and doing it myself would cost about the same. So, Sal, a skinny Chicano with a big Dodge Truck, four kids and a wife and a mobile home who's been busy as hell for the last six or seven years now can pay for the truck and maybe buy food for another week...and, I get to feel lucky. For a minute .
About 10.1 million people were unemployed in October, the most since the fall of 1983. More people have jobs 25 years later, since the population has grown, but it's still a staggering jobless figure. With employers slashing jobs every month so far this year, some 1.2 million positions have disappeared, more than half in the past three months alone. That portends a sad holiday buying season for retailers, not to mention troubled Americans without jobs.
What amazes me is that the administration did all sorts of ideological and practical backflips to get Wall Street feeling chipper, albeit unsuccesfully. But, the auto makers may be gone sooner than later. While I'm not to concerned about Bill Ford, Bob Nardelli and the guy from GM are in danger of having to knock on doors in the evening, begging for work to feed their families, I am concerned about everyone else in the industry. Things are going south on so many fronts...To paraphrase the Chief's line from Men of Honor, "I don't know why the hell anybody would want to be president..."
Couple of thoughts strike me: jobs and tax credits. Give people a tax credit for new cars made in the US equivalent to the cost of operation per year. Puts money back in pockets but is tied to purchasing where there are already taxes in place. Another approach would be to put interest on consumer loans and credit cards back into the mix for deduction time. Just a thought.
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