Posted on 11/30/2001 1:47:00 AM PST by JohnHuang2
"Someone said that Wall Street fell; but we were so poor we couldn't tell."
Those lyrics from a once-popular country song are appropriate this week for millions of Americans because on Monday the nation was "officially" told our economy is in a recession.
Most of us couldn't tell any difference one way or the other after the "official" announcement.
It wasn't as if hundreds of thousands of people laid off since last summer needed the National Bureau of Economic Research economists to tell them the country was in a recession; it wasn't as if the real estate, travel, airlines, manufacturing and retail industries needed to be "told" the country was in a recession; it wasn't as if the dozens of online firms that went belly-up within the past year needed to be told. And so on.
But now that we are "officially" in a recession, what does it mean for the average Joe and Jane? Probably not much, sad to say.
Oh, we're being told by the administration and official Washington to spend more money, but we're being told that even as more of us lose jobs everyday.
Lawmakers are considering temporary tax cuts for those of us still working so we'll spend that "extra" money on something besides their salaries and other fat government programs for a change. But no one is talking about permanently cutting those taxes so we can permanently stay out of recession.
A few years ago, when the economy was still riding high on a wave of overspeculation and bloated stock values, "leading" economists were criticizing Americans for spending too much and saving too little. Now that tough times are here and we want to save more for a rainy day, the same boneheads are asking us to blow our wads on anything and everything we can get our hands on – whether we need what it is we're being asked to buy or not.
Now that Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has finally lowered interest rates to a reasonable level, I'll be damned if I'm going to go out and buy a new home or car – I'm going to refinance what I've got, lower my debt burden, then bank the difference.
And let's get real about tax cuts – taxes have been too high for too long in the first place. They ought to be cut, and cut for good. I think it stinks big time that it took a recession to even get our taxes cut. What does that tell you about the greedy charlatans on Capitol Hill?
Also, why is it that no matter how many industries suffer, government is never one of them? Have you ever noticed that no matter how many people lose their jobs, congressmen and most bureaucrats – who are public employees – never do?
In the private sector, when the economy goes south, companies scale back operations, cut employees, close divisions, shut down plants or locations and trim their budgets. Government never does any of these things – how many staffers working for congressmen have lost their jobs "due to a worsening economy?"
Why is it that during a recession our "leaders" ask everyone but themselves to "make sacrifices?"
Tens of millions of people have been laid off since this new recession "officially" began, and will no doubt have trouble paying their bills this winter, let alone provide Christmas for their families. My guess is not a single lawmaker or ranking bureaucrat will suffer similarly.
There are some good people in government who are as angry about all of this hypocrisy as I am, but unfortunately they are underpowered and out-voiced by their more numerous statist colleagues. That means, of course, that these few good people are going to be unable to make the hypocrisy go away.
OK, so our nation is "officially" in a recession. The hypocrisy of our officialdom is still so bad I can't tell any difference.
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