At the peak of the bubble, the number of real estate agents exceeded the number of factory workers in the US. Everybody wanted to get rich the easy way. Many were trading paper assets in hedge funds, 401Ks, and plain old stocks while others wanted to flip homes as they got liar loans showing expected home appreciation as income. Entire country stopped producing value and started to buy low and sell high to a greater fool. And at last deflationary crash has started taking extreme asset valuations back to earth. Entire country cannot be employed in service sector jobs. We cannot survive giving haircuts to each other. There are essential inputs of life that must be produced one way or another and this recession or depression will not stop until we realign our priorities to produce value again.

Unemployment is a function of money supply. When the money supply deflates, as M3 is deflating nowadays, people cannot possibly be employed at levels that allow them to earn the monetary bubble level incomes. Google for "unemployment kondratieff wave" to see another way to look at unemployment: Count who is actually employed.

We cannot survive giving haircuts to each other.

You are absolutely correct. Or as I usually say, a nation of hamburger flippers and stock traders is in serious trouble.

The government cannot fix the problem by hiring government employees, as that will drive the country further in debt and continue to drag down the economy.

This country needs to get serious about encouraging business development in the U.S. We are in a global economy, and companies will move their production to places that are most advantageous to insure their own survival. Hostility and punitiveness toward business will only exacerbate the problem. Most of the government's actions after the financial meltdown have only had a depressing effect on the economy.

Instead of politicians that only seem to be happy when fighting over scraps for political advantage, we need to begin electing politicians that have the vision and ability to start changing the environment.

READ THE ARTICLE!!! Under manufacturing it says that industries are not hiring because they have invested in automation of the assembly lines. The article also talks about making existing employees work harder. These two problems are becoming entrenched. Companies are making money. Shareholders are happy. The stock market is going up, and regular people are not being hired. There is a good reason that the one trained professional that can always get a job today is the Software Engineer -- that is the new word for "highly trained computer programmer". Those people are being hired to write programs to enable automation -- machines to take jobs away from people. I work in the programming business so I see it every day. So why isn't anybody talking about this???????

These two problems are becoming entrenched.

Becoming more efficient is a problem? The tremendous gains in productivity over the past 100 years is the primary reason we enjoy such a high standard of living.

The short term problem is that we've moved into a global economy where American companies must compete with low cost producers from around the world. The U.S. needs to adapt to this environment and make sure that businesses that make products in the U.S. are encouraged and supported by our business environment.

If you think that mandating low productivity will solve any problem, get ready for a third world lifestyle.

Manufacturing world wide is shrinking as a percent of world GDP. It is going the way of farming. We want services more than stuff - Doctor visists, movies, cell phone apps, lawn care, massages etc. And that is fine.

The idea that government workers losing their jobs is necessarily a bad thing is based on fallacious reasoning. Firstly their salary is paid from taxes (at state and local level as this article is refering to). So that money is taken from someone else who would have spent it anyways. It doesn't matter if the .gov worker or the taxpayer was going to buy a suit, the suit was getting bought in any case. But the if the .gov worker is doing a needless job then him not working anymore is a good thing. His labor is now free to go somewhere that is actually desired in the marketplace. If he was doing something worthwhile, then that job will be replaced when we can afford it.

Try reading Frederic Bastiat's pamphlet on the fallacy of the broken window. Its free on the internet and as true today as it was when it was written in 1850.

The 'trough' of 2010 is not the real bottom according to historical records. As in the '29 Crash, the second bigger crash will occur in about 7 to 8 years later. Look to 2015 for the catastrophe, ie the bottom to fall out and the stuff hitting the fan.

The fake economy has been prop-up by government spending and artificial stimulus. The worse is still to come. Real estate prices will fall to 1990 levels. Those underwater mortgages will disappear into the abyss. Home flippers will commit suicide.

As long as there if free/unfair trade policies America will continue to decline. Fair trade now, tax every thing coming in to America as if it were made here. Double tax on American companies that off shored jobs and try to bring their China manufactured junk back into the states.....

Boss spent the Thanksgiving Holiday and weekend at Didney. Said you could hardly move around it was so crowded. Another went to Pidgeon / Dollywood last year and reported same thing. Ski resorts and beachhouse rentals are doing fine. From looking at the luxury and playland side of Amerika it is hardly noticable there is economic trouble. Didney and a half dozen other property owners have opened new 25 story resorts on the west coast of Oahu this year ! They even built 5 new lagoons so the kids can play in calm water ! The 747's and A380's in and out of Honolulu are as numerous as the taxi's lined up outside the terminal. We may not be making anything, can't pay our bills, can't pay for the wars or health care - but somebody is spending it on fun and luxuries !

Both real estate and finance were tied in with the real estate bubble. Bubbles burst and if your lucky, they should not show up again in the same sector for a while. Real estate's recovery will be very slow and very long--decades. Don't look for job growth here. Likewise with finance. Tighter credit, slower stock market will put a cap on job growth here. Manufacturing has seen a steady decline since the 1950s. The primary cause of this decline is automation. I wonder how many jobs have been eliminated just by the the introduction of the Ipad! Then there is the export of other manufacturing jobs. My guess is that many of these jobs brought back the U.S will likely be automated before they get here. Autos were probably tied to easy credit from taking out home equity lines. If you think about it, how many cars are needed in a mature market given typical replacement requirements. Car sales in this country were a bubble, too.

In the mid 1960's Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling asserted that the time was coming when automation would make it possible for 98% of the work to be done by 2% of the population. It would appear that his predictions are beginning to come to pass. We will have to find some role for the increasing numbers of people for whom the traditional economy has no use. If we do not do this, the old Christian adage will apply...

"The Devil finds work for idle hands!"

Anyone watch Sixty Minutes this past Sunday evening? When Steve Kroft spoke to several whistle blowers who tried to stop the financial meltdown? And then went to the DoJ and asked the hard questions?

Well I was just following up on that and found this post in the comment section:

The reason the Dept of Justice has not investigated Countrywide is that Nancy Pelosi's son Paul was a vice president of the mortgage company in the home office as soon as mommy got her job as Speaker of the House

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8601-18560_162-57336042-19.html?assetTypeId=41&blogId=&tag=accordionB;commentWrapper#ixzz1flYyovwB

OMG....I'm a Democrat and I WANT this followed up on! Spread the word. The only way we'll stop this criminal behavior is complete transparency!

This is what happens when an economic collapse destroys over 100,000 small businesses.

Small businesses are the largest employer in the U.S.

And it will take a decade to grow these small businesses again. And there is absolutely nothing that any politician is going to be able to do to speed that process.

.

Auto purchases are being delayed because the government (and by that I mean the White house)keeps telling everybody that will listen that we are just weeks away from a car that runs on batteries, just like your iPhone, and when you get it home will run everything from your dryer to your electric toothbrush. Of course those of us whose IQs are higher than the all battery range of the volt can see the emperor has no clothes. As to manufacturing, and automation replacing jobs, well, you ain't seen nothing yet! What jobs are not eliminated by new advances in chip technology will disappear as 3-d printing matures and replaces factories all together. But it isn't just manufacturing, all the support jobs, and retail jobs and ultimately everything else will go by the wayside. No more retail, very few personal services. It goes on and on.

Here, again, we see what happens when employers do not pay the poor commensurate with their contribution to the wealth being generated. The poor are not getting enough money in their paychecks to drive the recovery.

There are tons of jobs going unfilled out there because folks are too lazy to acquire skills demanded by the current market. I saw a local news show on a stopover in St Louis last week, where they said that city has 55,000 openings they can't fill in tech sales, tech service and repair, and health care admin processing.

And, by the way, robotics is the present and future in autos and other manufacturing in developed countries. The old manual assembly lines are going the way of the electric typewriter and hand calculator.

spider - I'm in IT and laid off. Let me explain it to you. See, tech is changing so fast it's amazing. One day you code in XYZ and the latest is ABC so you have to learn all over again. comanies will not train. Or the server software you have been working with has not been upgraded for 3 years and oppps - you get laid off.

So you think ya' just pick up a book and learn the new stuff? NOPE. One new certification can cost you 3-5K. Want to learn robotics? Fine but don't think that mechanical engineering degree is going to help. Go back and get your degree if freaking robotics and the software that runs them. Just take out more loans.

Starting to get it?

Spider

I'm 57 and the only reply to the many job applications I get is a polite refusal. They usually hire younger and less experienced (CHEAPER). So your saying I should drop 10-15K and 2 years to get turned down at a better paying high tech job?

Yes, you should take the cut and move on. That's what the market will bear. I did. Perhaps adding a 2nd job would help cover what you lost. Sorry, but supply and demand is at work here. Too many workers per opening equates to lower salaries.

How many jobs have the 250+/- millionaires in Congress created? They've been getting the Bush Tax cuts since 2003.

Since tax cuts don't create jobs, what's the point. Seems like reducing debt is more important. Over 10 years, the tax cuts add $3.7 Trillion to the debt. Imagine the current debt at $11.3 Trillion and in 10 years, $8.6 Trillion just by eliminating tax cuts for the wealthy.

Show me the data that proves the tax cuts create jobs.

spider-737231

Your post is crap. Blame the lazy? Maybe the jobs you said you saw are not well paid or no pay (tech sales at 100% commission). Maybe the jobs aren't where people are. Maybe you're lying. With "eyes in New York, Southern California, Atlanta, Kansas City, Reno, and Sunnyvale, there are no such surpluses of unfilled jobs.

Give us a link or reference... "I was driving down the highway" coming from you doesn't cut it.

Michael is right. We've given the "job creators"all the tax breaks they want. We've gutted government regulations and don't even enforce the ones we have. The GOP has been telling us that this is the way to create jobs. How can this story be true? Speaker Boner, Senator Mitch "Turtle" McConnell, where are the jobs?

Absolutely, a plutocracy has gathered a huge portion of this country's wealth, and use it to solidify their positon at the expense of the middle and lower classes. The jobs they create are insufficient in number and income (or taken overseas) to sustain the middle class. This situation needs to be addressed legislatively, but isn't dealt with because a powerful few are allowed to buy influence (literally, write their own laws). If this country does not provide work for its citizenry, fewer here will be able to purchase that which is produced-- and the economic spiral downward will worsen for the majority of the people. Yes, we should (for starters) raise taxes on the wealthy, remove incentives for outsourcing jobs, overturn the Citizens United ruling and get big money out of politics, save Social Security by removing the contribution cap, and reinstate Glass-Steagall style regulations on the financial sector.

In 2003 I was working as an IT contractor in Virginia. The majority of the workers at the facility where I worked were laid off and H1-B visa holders were brought in to take all the positions. I guess I was spared since I was pretty senior and not even a full employee of the company. They wanted me to train several of them because the H1-B visa holders didn't know what they were supposed to. I refused and quickly left to eventually work for the government. I figured it was maybe the last job that you have to be a citizen to hold. Afterward, I found out the government let way more people in on H1-B visas than the quotas allowed for several years.

I have several degrees including an MBA. But my respect for most management of US corporations went completely away after that. They've sold our country and its citizens out for 10 cents on the dollar. What a nice way to reward the people that have gotten an education and been working hard.

Also, I'm still not making as much money as I was 10 years ago.

G-Dog- Great post, great points. Well said.

Michael - Apparently you prefer to spew political rhetoric to demonstrate that your views are correct rather than attempt to understand what is going on in the economy.

This is the Harvard Business School approach:

1. Capital investiture is BAD! You must pay taxes on it, it wears out and it constantly needs upgrading.

2. Employees are BAD! You must pay health care, pensions and raises.

3. Products are BAD! There are product liability suits, recalls, and service!

So the perfect company has no facilities, no products and no employees... INFINITE profits!!!

Can anybody tell me what is wrong with this picture?

Hint: nobody will pay for nothing!

We have to address the issue of automation. Robotic assembly lines, and web-site driven services are taking away jobs and very effeciently producing goods and services with few human workers. I know, I work in the IT industry. The basic issue we as a nation need to address is: What kind of a society do we want? How can we generate full employment if we automate everything? Do we want this? Should we reduce the work week? Should we tax technology investment and remove payroll taxes (I favor this), should we outright ban automation in certian industries? Technology is changing our world faster than we can imagine.

UrbnPrsn...hhmmm most web sites have a warehouse attached to them or use drop shipping from a manufacturer, for a retailer I used to work for it expands and contracts warehouse personnel based on the season but generally speaking has hundreds of people who do packing, order picking, etc. since there are limits to how automated the warehouse portion can get...somethings a person has to pick up and move. A website doesn't do much other than let someone know you order something it doesn't set off a giant robotic assembly line, maybe portions of it are relatively automated but not as much as you might think.

As for the H1B Visas, this is a bit of a problem but most are coming from IT Service companies who promise the world for a low cost and as it turns out most companies who are using large amounts of outsourcing are finding that their are all sorts of costs that weren't considered and in generally actually paying more to have 10 new people who don't know what they are doing, can't speak the native language, nod politely yes when they should be noting they have no idea how to use the technology present, etc. wasted time, poor communication, lack of an understanding of how businesses work, companies who are outsourcing are finding out that outsourced IT services is costing them more than having well educated Americans with experience doing the work.

Spider, health care administration is a bubble, as soon as those on the take from the insurance industry are retired or imprisoned, Particularly Pelosi, Ried, and Shelby, and the government realizes that this track puts the sovereignty of the country at stake by developing a 200 trillion dollar deficit in the next 30 years, we'll go national healthcare with workers paid a salary and equipment bought from the lowest bidder. Big pharma will exit, and the lawyers will follow them out the door.

Time to say no More: You are correct. But leading up to this I have been talking to IT types for 25 years already baout the lack of standardization in the industry. The Engineers, the code writers, everyone in the business is trying to secure a market share by making thir software or hardware non standard with everyone elses. A total childlike approach to an industry. The result is exactky as you describe and it is killing the IT industry. You spend 4 years and beau coup thousands getting a skill with a "skill life expectancy" of 10 years or less. Then you are supposed to work wages that will not pay off before you have to reinvest time and money and do it again. Fail to make that expenditure and you are tossed out. In the end, we do not need to have 100 or 1,000 diff coding languages to make two different cell phones work. Who are the IT geniouses doing this to the industry ?

Bluelake Thank Obummer and his pro business rhetoric. The racial quotas Obummer is talking about. Cutting import tariffs from South Korea, Australia and New Zealand or haven't you noticed. Forbidding Boeing from opening a new plant in South Carolina, giving $500,000,000 to a Finish car company to compete with electric cars. Paying the unions $3 billion out of federal budget, losing $3.9 billion from over 30 failed renewable energy projects.

There are 1 million legal immigrants a year. There are 4 million college grads, high school grads and 1 million high school drop outs. That means that 6 million jobs are needed every year. Obummer doesn't know it and can't get the economy to provide those jobs. He never hired a person in his life!

He went from college to law school to a tiny lawyers office to work as a researcher to a groomed state senate seat to a groomed fed senator seat. Where did he ever get experience running a business much less a country?

The article tells you. Corporations are profitable because they are investing in automation and robotics, and because they are squeezing more work out of their current employees instead of hiring. The stock market is up, and the shareholders (read the rich) are happy. It doesn't really matter to capitalism if there is a large pool of people who cannot find a job, in fact that is good because it holds down the cost of labor. This direction is not sustainable because you need consumers with money to buy things made by corporations, but then again, robots need spare parts..........

thebook...

Get your head out of your posterior. YOU and everyone else sent the jobs overseas when you bought the imported junk.

It started in the 50's and 60's when the Japanese started making those transistor radios. They made them so well, they even copied the mistakes. But we bought them because they were cheaper than the American made RCA's, Motorolas etc.

Then the heavy industries started going overseas. That steel from Korea was so much cheaper than the stuff made in Bethlehem PA.. but it saved a couple of bucks at the expense of American workers jobs.

The textiles went to first Mexico then China.. furniture to China.. electronics to China... toys to China...

But everyone saved a few pennies at the register. Life was good.. it wasn't MY job that was lost.. it was the guy down the block.. it must suck to be him..

The fruit of the seeds we've sown is bitter indeed.

well said. But it is important to note that COMPANIES started producing junk overseas, and I don't think Americans' proclivity to cheaper merchandise was the catalyst in the beginning. However, now it is. And until we refuse to purchase toxic, shoddy crap from China, things will continue to be the same. I'm amazed at how many people don't realize that nearly everything is made overseas. One thing's for sure: America has gotten fat, dumb and lazy. And we're all paying the ultimate price now.

Dexter... initially, the companies tried to compete. RCA, Motorola, Zenith, tried and untimately capitulated to NEC, Sony, Panasonic... BEFORE they became household names.

I bought one of the last American Made TV's, a Curtis Mathes, before they too outsourced manufacturing to NEC.

American made products CAN be found if you look. I do so as much as possible, and to be honest the prices are if not better at least comparable to imported products. AND I know I'm keeping my neighbor, wherever in this country they live, employed.

I know I'm doing my part to help Americans stay employed.

This is what happens when you follow the MBA drones. Their mentality is one about the next quarter. What happens next year is irrelevant because he will have collected his bonus or over-boosted contract rate and moved on to his next gig by then leaving the mess for someone else to fix.

These guys lack for original ideas but they sure know how to scam people and look out for #1.

Americans are NOT fat, dumb, and lazy, especially not the young. Young people I know are working very hard at their jobs, because they know they are lucky to have them. Corporations and government are the problem. Corporations view human workers as problematic, and are striving to replace humans with robots and web applications. Government is stuck in the belief that what is good for corporations is good for humans. We all need to ask the question, What do we want for the humans of the world? How do we make corporations serve the needs of the humans (specifically the 99%).

UrbnPrsn,

Corporations view human workers as problematic, and are striving to replace humans with robots and web applications.

Right up until they need those humans to buy their products and services.

How do we make corporations serve the needs of the humans (specifically the 99%)?

Critical question. I suppose that is found in the realm of capital gains tax incentives... establishing lower capital gains taxes on sales of stock issued by businesses which outsource the least. Taxing an individual's gains on thier stock (like Capstone Turbine Corp - CPST) much lower than a tax rate on major outsourcing businesses (such as Cognizant Technology Solutions - CTSH).

The real reason Americans started buying foreign products is because American companies gave up on quality. Why buy American at higher prices when it's quality is no better than the cheaper foreign goods?

Exactly. When viewed through "half full" glasses, lower employment in the U.S. hurts our "consumption based" economy, which lowers the value of the dollar even further, which makes me more competitive with Indian programmers.

Awesome. Thanks.

Sam Sam Sam

In case you didn't know American corporations refused to retrain highly intelligent people for the software industry and preferred to hire foreigners instead. So a lot of jobs in America were unfilled because corporations would not hire Americans in America.

Folks aren't to lazy to acquire the skills needed. Business itself isn't willing to retrain competent individuals. They expect people to retrain on their own which many do. Even when someone retrains at their own expense, they still stand a good chance of not being hired.

Where are all these jobs you are talking about. Minimum wage at McDonalds?

Sam

oops. didn't read your post carefully. Sorry!

Manufacturing output numbers are skewed because we export expensive jumbo jets and military hardware. It costs a lot, but doesn't translate to a lot of jobs. Those Boeing, Lockheed etc jobs are mostly evil, union jobs, by the way. It takes a lot of TVs, DVD players, and tennis shoes to equal one fighter jet in value, but it takes fewer workers to build the fighters.

We've lost 40,000 factories in the last decade. You can try to sugar coat that with red kool aid if you want to.

This is nothing like the industrial revolution. We're exporting jobs because Chinese workers make 25 cents an hour. Period.

The low skilled jobs have disappeared, but the low skilled Americans are still here and they're not going away, ever. You better do something about those folks because that's your dreaded communist revolution staring you in the face.

Peter... we often agree and sometime disagree..

Yes, we have great total dollar exports. But how many people do YOU know that recently bought a Catterpillar bulldozer, a Boeing 777 Dreamliner, or maybe an F-16? Yes, we have high dollar exports of a HIGHLY specialized and limited market. What we are lacking is a CONSUMER manufacturing base. THAT'S where the jobs are.

Look at the number of employees required to make enough shirts to equal the dollar amount of a F-16 and you'll see where I'm coming from.

I've said it before and I'll say it many times in the future.

No nation can survive as a CONSUMer nation peddling the products of another nation. Only PRODUCER nations survive and thrive. America has transitioned into a consumer nation.

I'm hoping it's not too late to turn that around.... but I'm very fearful it is.

Newt is the poster boy for what is wrong with this country. If he's elected POTUS I fear for everyone. Not because he's a Republican but because he has NOTHING in common with the common man. He's rich, fat and happy. Why would he care about the middle class? Rich politicians never do.

Well said Obamanation supporter. I do not think Newt is in charge of the country, but blame anybody but our incompetent leader. My God you people are amazing. No its the Tea Party, or Newt , or anybody but the President. Watch what happens in a year. Jobs went elsewhere because you probably drive a foreign car, buy foreign oil and our corporate tax rate is the highest of all countries.

Gingrich is a "climber". He was an "insurgent" back in 1984. Now, he is just another corrupt fat cat lobbyist in D.C.

Anyone who votes for this waste of flesh is blind as a bat and dumb as a hammer.

I agree. So many of my friends dropped out from being engineers (productive value-adding citizens) to be real estate agents with the hope of working half as hard and making twice the money. Now they're struggling to become engineers once more because their jobs have gone away and their skills are obsolete.

Now they're struggling to become engineers once more because their jobs have gone away and their skills are obsolete.

Yeah along with 5 million other people, in about 5 years they won't have any openings in that field either.

It's almost as good as Bush's "jobless recovery".

touche!

We only hate communists if they live in Cuba.

GVC... at least I'm not alone.

No nation can survive as a CONSUMER nation. Only PORODUCER nations survive.

GCV: That may be the BEST comment I've ever seen on a MSNBC message board. Kudos. Spot on.

Taxes can mean better jobs, if a CEO gets taxed at 80% is he going to pay himself an extra 20 million dollars (and 4 million for all his trouble) or is he going to give more of that to his workers or reinvest it into the business?

To knightofdespair: Your statement is right. Former President Eisenhower understood this, and that is why he had 2% unemployment. It is a hard sell to the corporate board to say, "Oh, I just paid 50% of our net profit to the government". It is better to hire 20 people and ride off their salaries as an expense - no taxes, and say to the board, "We just hired 20 people, and we are growing the company". President Eisenhower knew from experience that you need incentives for the company executives to spend their money. Best incentive in the world is to threaten to tax them.

Well some of it would certainly end up as higher taxes and pay down some overdue bills, but more of it goes to what should a corporation in the United States be for? Should it be for short sighted profit at any cost and environment wrecking greed or should it provide some benefit for the workers and the community out there doing the actual work and providing the land, resources, and protection for these companies to operate?

I for one am tired of a country where a guy steals $50 to feed his family and goes to jail for 5 years and his neighbor who steals $40 million gets a small SEC fine.

I'm not a MBA but have lived long enough to see the general decline of our economy. It seems to me that it almost always comes back to the greed of the companies. How many businesses over the past 30 years just closed up shop rather than upgrade their equipment and pollution devices? The bottom line was if the CEO and stockholders weren't getting X amount of dollars they would just run what they had (equipment and workers) into the ground and move on.

Yes a business has to make a profit but when the profit is so excessive that they would rather leave the country than lose it...something is wrong with our society. It became the throw away society... throwing away our workers and our production.

My gut feeling is if these CEO's want to produce in a country where pollution and exploitation is rampant they should also live there. Take their families and live in what they have created. The way to do this tax them 'til they squeal.

I want to know when we are going to start pulling this country back up. When are we going to start hiring American workers (not people here on a work visa) to shore up our fading infrastructure. When are we going to go back and redo the electrical lines that leave people without electricity for days and sometimes months? When are we finally going to have some kind of efficient passenger rail system running coast to coast, north to south. When is every major city going to have an efficient interconnected way for people to get to work, go to the doctor, do our errands so we can leave our cars home or not even own one? When are the streets going to be plentiful enough that road rage is a thing of the past.

We need to start here and move on to many things I didn't even start to mention. We need to buy all the materials in America made by Americans. We need for our contractors and workers to understand that house they are building needs to be the very best they can build because they may live in it. Quit cutting corners and giving us shoddy goods.

Am I just being naive or is this a part of a solution?

and then

Bye bye have fun living on $900 a month for the next 30 pain filled years that you can't work and will slowly watch your entire paycheck go to pay for drugs and housing (and nothing else).

When was the last time YOU demanded American made products at the checkout?

The Republicans are the ones that cowtow to every business interest. I suppose you think we would be better off with morons like Bush in charge?

Its hard to get good help these days. If the electorate votes for individuals who do not understand the economy, and cannot work with their collegues due to strong ideological positions, then the nations problems will not be solved.

We may be going to a third world economy, but thats not the corporate "plan' . The world has changed dramatically and corporations have much more foreign competition to deal with. To stay competitive globally, they cannnot throw around money like they used to. If they want to survive, they do need to control costs.

MtMike...

Well said sir. People have forgotten the values of self reliance. And they've forgotten about concern for their neighbors.

When Americans continue to purchase foreign made products over American made products, in the hope of saving a few pennies at the register, and forgetting they're putting their neighbor out of work, we'll continue the downward spiral we're on. And those complaining will forget that they bought the foreign made product that put their neighbor out of work.

America is it's own worst enemy. We want everything, as long as it's cheaper than the American made, we'll buy it.

Americans are no different than the citizensin any other country. We do have one big problem and that is the American People have decided not to participate in voting. If the American People would get out to vote we would see all kinds of changes for the whole country.

The job market is bad and will stay bad for some time to come. Businesses large and small are waiting to see what more changes the Government, lead by Obama the Savior has for them. They are being assaulted by the Federal Government from all sides. Want more jobs? If so repea lall of the new regulations put into his place by the Obama Bunch and you will see things movingin all directions.

Blah blah blah...personal responsibility. How about the personal responsibility of cleaning up the oil spills...completely. How about the responsibility of the bankers the mortgage companies Wall Street?

When are these mouth pieces going to pay attention to personal responsibility?