There are many disturbing things happening in our society. How disturbing could things be you might ask?
Let's see:
Amid War, Troops See Safety in Re-enlisting
Myers was frustrated. Three tours in the war zone, living in bombed-out shacks and taking cold showers. Krissy, his soon-to-be wife, at home missing him. What was he doing here? They teach you to do a job, he thought, then they don't let you do it. Myers decided he was getting out.
Then he came home and got married, and Krissy got pregnant. His father helped him put together a resume, and he checked Monster.com for job prospects. But there was no call for people trained to work with lasers and small arms.
Myers looked around at what the military had provided them -- a two-story home at the foot of magnificent Mt. Rainier, a comfortable income, healthcare so complete that he pays more in vet bills for Louie the dog than for doctor visits.
In the Air Force, he is a rising star with a job he is proud of. Out of it, he is just another guy with a high school diploma. [snip]
Career counselors and officers monitor soldiers who become eligible, pointing out the challenges of leaving the military's cosseted universe that provides everything from first-run movies for $1 to free prescription drugs.
"We ask them: 'Where are you going to live when you get out? Do you know how much it costs to set up a kitchen? Did you save any money?' " said Best. "The bottom line is, what are they going to do five years from now to put food on the table?"
An excellent question, wouldn't you say? A question made that much more disturbing by the fact that five years from now Mr. Myers will still be a man with a family to care for and no useful skills to offer the outside world.
As a result of those efforts, the Army has retained 48,666 soldiers so far this year -- 120% of its goal of 40,446. That exceeds reenlistment levels that were 108% of the Army's target last year and 107% in 2004.
That's a lot of soldiers who took a look at their prospects outside the military and found there was nothing there for them.
As the economic desert continues to grow these young men and women are finding themselves caught in an economic trap. A trap where leaving the service sometimes results in being billed for equipment lost or life saving services rendered while in the military's employ...
Flipping this rock over we find a different side of the US where Bake Sales Go Strictly Black Tie
How much would you ante up for a private poetry reading by the stars of the television hit "Desperate Housewives," a walk-on role in a Will Ferrell movie or tickets to the "American Idol" finale, offered by Idol judge Randy Jackson?
These were some of the items up for auction recently at fundraisers held by a few of Los Angeles' most elite private schools, where one-of-a-kind gifts elicit furious bidding wars among parents already paying sky-high tuition. [snip]
Many Southern California schools have lifted the traditional rummage sale to high art. Their goal is to acquire auction items that are rarely accessible to the general public, such as private lessons from professional athletes or musicians, walk-on speaking roles in television shows and movies, lunch with celebrities (usually including several friends), VIP invitations for the Academy and Grammy awards and even U.S. Senate gallery seats for special events.
Such fundraising is in sharp contrast to the more modest efforts of most public and many private schools, which, lacking celebrity connections and high-end bidders, are often much smaller in scale.
In as much as we're all supposedly in this together, it's obvious by the very existence of these private institutions that a certain segment of the population lives in a much different world. It is a world of power, privilege and celebrity that is totally divorced from the reality 99% of US citizens experience everyday.
If you've ever wondered why the people in government as well as the people in charge of the world's largest corporations seem so disconnected from the average person's version of reality...the answer is it starts at the cradle.
In as much as this administration is on track to piss through five trillion dollars since taking office you have to wonder why our public schools aren't fully funded?
One can't help but wonder if the situation would be different if there were no such thing as private schools.
What other social institution is capable of providing a meeting place where every member is on the same footing? How devastating is it to our society when the powerful use their wealth to shelter their children from the suffering they cause?
Which brings us to
UAW's President Facing Tough Choices in Grim Times
General Motors Corp., Ford and, to a lesser degree, DaimlerChrysler all face swollen union payrolls, idle factories and soaring healthcare and pension costs. Gettelfinger and his UAW sit in the cross hairs of the Big Three's aim to cut employee and retiree costs as a way to survive.
UAW officials and automakers have long faced each other as adversaries. But as American carmakers see their hold on the domestic market shrinking, the union's influence has been slipping as well. Labor is now wrestling with frustrations among its rank-and-file members who are angry at both the automakers and the union leadership.
This comes at a time when the UAW, its membership roll declining, has found itself unable to organize workers at U.S. plants operated by foreign car companies.
A generation ago, things were vastly different. In the mid-1960s, American automakers controlled 95% of the U.S. market and sales of imports were a statistical blip. But foreign brands, led by Toyota Motor Corp., steadily won converts with innovative designs, better fuel economy and a reputation for reliability. By 2005, foreign makes accounted for 43% of U.S. car sales, while the Big Three's share shriveled to 57%.
Foreign automakers also opened 27 North American plants -- employing 134,000 workers -- but most are nonunion. By last year the UAW's membership had fallen to 557,000 from 1.5 million in the 1970s.
To try to turn things around, GM, whose North American operations bleed cash at the rate of $13 million a day, will lay off 30,000 hourly workers and close 12 plants. Ford, which reported a $1.2-billion loss for the first quarter of this year, plans to close 14 plants and other facilities.
Decades of management decisions to cut corners, cost reduce and ignore the desires of the US auto buying market have come home to roost and it's the dedicated worker that is paying the price.
More disturbing is the inability of the UAW to organize the domestic facilities of foreign competitors.
What this says is workers are scared. They'd rather accept lower wages and poor benefits if it means they might keep their jobs. What these people fail to recognize is the higher salary paid to union workers is what drives the purchase of the foreign products.
When these higher wages dry up so will sales of all foreign products because there will be a lot less money circulating through the economy.
This will also shrink the pool of products the US has to export. It may not shrink much but every little bit...
Let's take a quick dash behind the NYT firewall for words of wisdom from my hero, `The Shrill One'
Um, wasn't the stock market supposed to bounce back after Wednesday's big drop?
We shouldn't read too much into a couple of days' movements in stock prices. But it seems that investors are suddenly feeling uneasy about the state of the economy. They should be; the puzzle is why they haven't been uneasy all along.
The rise in stock prices that began last fall was essentially based on the belief that the U.S. economy can defy gravity -- that both individuals and the nation as a whole can spend more than their income, not on a temporary basis, but more or less indefinitely.
To be fair, for a while the data seemed to confirm that belief. In 2005, the trade deficit passed $700 billion, yet the dollar actually rose against the euro and the yen. Housing prices soared, yet houses kept selling. The price of gasoline neared $3 a gallon, yet consumers kept buying both gas and other items, even though they had to borrow to keep spending (the personal savings rate went negative for the first time since the 1930's.)
Over the last few weeks, however, gravity seems to have started reasserting itself. [snip]
I can't resist pointing out that the Bush administration's response to the squeeze on working families has been, you guessed it, to accuse the news media of biased reporting.
On May 10 the White House issued a press release titled "Setting the Record Straight: The New York Times Continues to Ignore America's Economic Progress." The release attacked The Times for asserting that paychecks weren't keeping up with fixed costs like medical care and gasoline. The White House declared, "But average hourly earnings have risen 3.8 percent over the past 12 months, their largest increase in nearly five years."
On Wednesday Treasury Secretary John Snow repeated that boast before a House committee. However, Representative Barney Frank was ready. He asked whether the number was adjusted for inflation; after flailing about, Mr. Snow admitted, sheepishly, that it wasn't. In fact, nearly all of the wage increase was negated by higher prices.
In my own opinion we have an economy that's being held up by that old engineering favorite, a device known as `skyhooks'. Our sky-high economy has nothing underneath it.
Take away the financial presto chango of ever more creative mortgage instruments, add in the negative national savings rate along with the tumbling housing market and we have a nation that is bleeding from it's financial eye sockets.
The help wanted listings are pitiful. Prices are rising rapidly...just where is this wonderful economy they keep telling us about?
Now that game seems to be coming to an end. We're going to have to find other ways to make a living -- in particular, we're going to have to start selling goods and services, not just I.O.U.'s, to the rest of the world, and/or replace imports with domestic production. And adjusting to that new way of making a living will take time.
Will we have that time? Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, contends that what's happening in the housing market is "a very orderly and moderate kind of cooling." Maybe he's right. But if he isn't, the stock market drop of the last two days will be remembered as the start of a serious economic slowdown.
Is this going to end up like a dog hitting the end of its leash at a full run? Even the promised `soft landing' holds dire consequences for those already stretched to the limit.
34 million citizens living below the poverty line, 46 million without health insurance, the real average wage dropping like a rock, a phenomenon that isn't readily apparent because what they steal from you they keep for themselves...so the mean income rises while your paycheck shrinks.
Given not just the corruption but the general lack of action/concern coming from our government, is there a political solution to our failing economy? Is it possible to fix our badly broken nation at the ballot box...do we have the years necessary to even attempt this?
The indicators show that our slide into financial oblivion may already be underway. This nation will be a very different place in November 2006 and maybe completely unrecognizable by 2008.
Remember, civilization is only nine meals deep.
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner