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2/18/2009
The morning after - try to look on the bright side?
I’m overwhelmingly bummed, worried, concerned, saddened about, disgusted and frustrated with, the budget solutions (here’s a helpful list of the $2.1B in tax increases) offered by Governor Doyle last week and last night. And the Dow is down - what? - over 2,000 points since President Obama took over?
I thought it might be helpful to raise up a little optimism.
A few weeks ago, a Sunday Journal Sentinel article got my attention.
Yes, the American economy is in the middle of difficult times. Government assistance is required to help lighten the load of recession. President Barack Obama has warned that business conditions probably will get worse before they get better. We agree. But we're still optimistic, as was nearly everyone we spoke with in preparing this editorial. Maybe it's just human nature or maybe wishful thinking - or maybe a little of both. But we agree that there are good reasons for this.
And the article goes on to detail 13 of those reasons. Wisconsinites are resilient. Efficient. Forward-thinking. We manufacture ideas. Great stuff to read on a bummer of a day.
Then there was the announcement in the Beloit Daily News: Wanted: Positive layoff experiences. Is that an oxmoron? Apparently the Daily News didn’t think so.
And how about this AP article? Unemployed use time for health, hobbies and family.Gosh, make lemons out of lemonade. Well, there are some lemons here, but mostly, folks are trying to look on the bright side of their circumstances.
FOND DU LAC, Wis. (AP) -- Jay Capelle would give anything to get back his factory job of 32 years. At the same time, he's grateful to have extra time on his hands these days to care for his ailing wife, stay in shape and work on a long-planned baseball documentary.
The unemployed are stressed out about unpaid bills, dashed retirement plans and the loss of workplace camaraderie. But many say life minus work also has its bittersweet upsides, including more time with family and friends, learning new skills, focusing on their health and pursuing hobbies.
An idled auto worker in Wisconsin cherishes extra time with his kids, and his guitar. A former communications worker in Virginia finds time for hiking as a distraction from the job search. But two jobless friends in North Carolina who've played plenty of golf together say enough is enough: they're ready again for the joy of earning a paycheck.
Yeah. Good stuff only goes so far.
I’m beginning to see meaty discussions of optimism on the economic front.
The January edition of Wisconsin Builder explains 5 reasons commercial contractors can be optimistic for 2009.
- Construction materials are cheaper
- Obama plans include rebuilding nation’s infrastructure
- More young workers are becoming available
- Push to green continues to gain steam
- Food prices sustain farm construction
And how about this - Manufacturing in U.S. isn’t dead
In January, 207,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs vanished in the largest one-month drop since October 1982. Factory activity is hovering at a 28-year low. Even before the recession, plants were hemorrhaging work to foreign competitors with cheap labor. And some companies were moving production overseas.
But manufacturing in the United States isn't dead or even dying. It's moving upscale, following the biggest profits and becoming more efficient.
The U.S. by far remains the world's leading manufacturer by value of goods produced. It hit a record $1.6 trillion in 2007 - nearly double the $811 billion in 1987. For every $1 of value produced in China's factories, America generates $2.50.
…. America makes things other countries can't. Today, "Made in USA" is more likely to be stamped on heavy equipment or the circuits that go inside other products. U.S. companies have shifted toward high-end manufacturing as the production of low-value goods moves overseas. This has resulted in lower prices for shoppers and higher profits for companies.
And renovations on the spa and pool at the Grand Geneva? Now, that's got to be optimism.
Compare all these thoughts with the massive tax increases proposed by Governor Doyle last night. Pretty sad. Nuts.
COMMENTS
I worked for 23 years for a utility company on a swing-shift. After all that time they decided to show me the door. The meanies canned my assistant as well!
In the ensuing years I was able to form my own company, and my assistant became a housing contractor - something he'd done on a part time basis for several years before. His comment was, "I'm glad they did it. I wouldn't have had the guts to quit myself."
While gut-wrenching, I just couldn't see letting a job setback get me down, make me a ward of the state, or make me give up on life. The adversity made me closer to my God, showed me how to stand on my own two feet, and got me a wife replacement (she left me for someone with a "real" job).
In the interim I've met many great people in business and government, and I don't work in the middle of the night anymore. My golf, however, has not improved! I'll work on that.
As for Diamond Jim Doyle, I don't know what to think. I suspect he'll do what his liberal rug-bugs in the Congress do and squander all the monetary relief on his pie-in-the-sky ideologies. It looks like he's now going into the health care insurance business for homosexuals who live together, and various other unnecessary spendathons. I predict we'll spend everything, borrow more money from the Transportation Fund, and then finish up by taxing the bejebbers out of everyone in Wisconsin - again!
Duke (Wed Feb 18 08:15:38 2009)
Duke's commentary here when seen in the light of cynicism and stripped of the Pollyanna and jingoisms says: "Why can't they be like me and pull themselves up by their own boot straps?" The condescension in such questions should be obvious but unfortunately is not.
In the loss of an individual job, the prospect of making due on unemployment until something else comes along may be wishful thinking. More than that the wishful thinking is accompanied by anxiety, not more time for golf or other hobbies.
When unemployment hits the working poor the options of golf and starting one's own company are hardly in the play book. That's what makes the response cynical. It makes the assumption that one has a substantial nest egg to become a "consultant" or some such until Uncle Louie finds you a spot as an office manager somewhere.
The point Jo makes is skewed on the manufacturing of high dollar goods in the United States. When those goods are war planes and land mines these "shovel
ready" enterprises, along with yachts and other pleasure craft, is more the manufacturing of consent (to borrow the phrase from Chomsky) than it is
building a base of manufacturing real goods for real people.
Lon Ponschock (Wed Feb 18 11:58:25 2009)
I'd say you, Lon, are the cynic. Why not admire Duke for his spirit and ambition instead of tearing him (and while you're at it, America) down?
Jo (Wed Feb 18 15:51:51 2009)
what is needed to end this annual farce on the budget is for wisconsin to amend the constitution to provide for a single subject provision concerning budget related matters thus ending omnibus state budgets once and for all and trimming the powers of the governor.
karl worth (Wed Feb 18 20:50:45 2009)
Hear hear Karl. I'm with you!
Jo (Thu Feb 19 12:13:15 2009)
Yes, Lon, you ARE the cynic. I'll never forget going to a "townhall" meeting, when I lived in metro Milwaukee, where all the native-born Americans (and I don't mean "Native" Americans, either; I mean whites) were whining about how hard they had it.
Up stood a foreign-born American. He'd arrived here with his entire wealth (some clothes) in a small suitcase. He roomed with relatives who'd got here earlier. His work experience started with flipping burgers--something too many people think is "beneath" them.
He saved relentlessly, bought a fast-food place. Then another. Then sold them, and by the time he was at the meeting, he owned 2 upscale restaurants and had his house in the suburbs. He said, in his still-broken English, "I am proof that anyone can make it in America." And he'd done it in less than 10 years.
If that isn't getting yourself going from the ground up, I don't know what is. Too many people WISH for things, but don't WILL to get them done.
And please, everyone, CALL Doyle and complain. Better yet, maybe a peaceful protest?
emily matthews (Thu Feb 19 10:03:36 2009)
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