I am hearing on the tv news and reading in the print media a concerted effort to convince people that the economy is in great shape, despite the horrendous price of gas.
Well, things might be jumping on Wall St, but I can tell you that in my own little corner of the world, Main St is hurting - bad. How do I know this? (Besides being robbed at the pump every day I mean)
I will explain after the jump...
As I have mentioned a number of times in comments I have made, my husband and I own an antique mall in the upstate area of South Carolina. We have been in business for ten years, not too shabby considering that we have been swimming against the tide for the last six years. Owning a small business is a challenge - there is no safety net if you fail. But - and this is what makes it worthwhile - you are your own boss, the captain of your own ship, commander of your own destiny, and so on.
Once upon a time, say prior to 2000, people had what we fondly remember as "discretionary income". This was money that people could actually spend however they wished to, whether they went shoe-shopping or just pissed it away. I spent alot of time in bookstores, back in those wonderful halcyon days...sales reps for large companies traversed the highways and byways of the upstate, and people with a home in the North Carolina mountains and a home in Florida came through the area several times a year, and they all bought antiques - lots of antiques - and life was good.
Fast forward (ugh)to 2006. The sales reps and two-home owners are gone - jobs eliminated or outsourced, 401ks history. This county, which was once dotted with textile mills and other industries, has almost no industry left. The only new industry is a plastics plant that has a huge contract with Wal-Mart and also with the military. The town our business is located in has a small private Presbyterian college and another private residential school, as well as being the home for the state home for the mentally retarded, so it could be worse - it is in other towns.
Our business has been slowing down ever since Bush and Cheney both went on tv in 2000 and assured everyone that the economy was in the toilet - which they began to do as soon as they were selected. It has progressively gotten worse over the last five years, and now it is at a dead halt. We are pondering austerity measures that hopefully will allow us to hang on through this very bad period. My husband is currently undergoing radiation treatments for prostate cancer, we have no insurance, and of course that's another diary for another day, although several people are already chronicling the disaster that is jokingly called our health care system. But, as bad as all that sounds, we are far better off than many people in our area.
Last Thursday, it began, a steady stream of people coming into our shop and trying to sell us - stuff. All kinds of stuff. For very little money - just a few bucks. I guess they needed to buy gas, or medicine, or some groceries. We didn't buy though - couldn't, due to our sales flatlining for the last several weeks. We sold a grand total of 37.00 yesterday - so when I hear or read about some fool prating that the economy is great, I am both furious and incredulous that anyone could be such a tool. I would invite these various and assorted noise machine tools to come and watch the parade of poor and newly-indigent as they pass through our doors with their used Corning Ware and other stuff that we can't/won't buy, and then tell me how great things are. I'd like for them to tell me how a 37.00 day is worth even staying open for. The poor - I mean formerly middle class - keep bringing their stuff in to sell us, and we have to keep saying no thanks, business is slow, we don't have any money.
Wait - I finally figured it out thanks to Faux News - the great economic figures all the noise machine guys are excited about are from the record profits of big oil - gee, I'm glad to know that someone out there is doing well.