From: Steve Grammont (islander@midmaine.com)
Date: Tue Oct 19 2004 - 17:17:26 PDT
Royce,
>I am in the RV rental business (semi-retired) and I just checked my 3rd
>quarter. Even with the high prices of gasoline, my rentals up through
>the 3rd quarter equal my rentals through the 4th quarter last year. My
>deduction is that business is better than the Dems and Liberals want us
>to know.
I'm in the manufacturing sector of the Northeast and live in the same
environment. Things are not any better, though not worse, than they were
last year. The rest of the economic indicators seem to show this as the
average situation country wide. The worst might be over, but the 700
good paying jobs that left over the last 3 years (all shipped overseas)
in a county of 17,000 are not coming back. Nor is there anything to
replace them. Similar stories in neighboring counties. In one town,
where a major factor shut down, I can now pick up a house for about 1/2
to 1/4 of what it was worth 3-4 years ago. And when I drive through I
see more for sale signs than I care to think about.
And to Joe,
>Unemployment is the lowest it has been since the eighties, and economic
>growth is the highest it has been since Reagan's second term. As a
>percentage of gross domestic product, the deficit is lower than at any time
>during the cold war.
Anybody can play with these numbers, which is exactly why I never use
them. The jobless number does not include people that have given up on
looking for jobs, which by some accounts is at an all time record high.
The employment statistics also do not account for underemployment and
wage reductions. Since most of the layoffs are happening in
manufacturing and high tech, but major source of employment is from
retail and service sector... not hard to see why this matters.
Especially when costs of things, especially health care, are going
through the roof.
>Thank you, mainstream media, for keeping the American electorate informed.
>An informed electorate can make informed decisions for the good of the
>country.
I agree that the electorate is horribly informed by the mass media. But
I'm sure you and I have a completely different take on how they are being
mislead. As for me, I look around with my own two eyes to see how things
are going. They are OK, and I think things have pretty much bottomed
out, but I don't see things recovering in a way that should be celebrated.
Steve
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