My brother was laid off a year ago. He has gone into business for himself and is doing well. He has to drive long distances, but he now has TWO Birkenstock shoe stores and is doing very well. Ironically, I can't afford Birkenstock shoes (they start at around $100/pair for the crummy ones), but my brother is selling them hand-over-fist to yuppies and X-gens. If the economy is so bad, where are these buyers of premium shoes coming from?
I watched the local access channel here, and the local school system was touting its vocational-ed program. One of the students was talking about auto mechanics, and how a mechanic is no longer a mechanic, but a technician who must be computer-savvy as well as mechanically inclined. In other words, more education is needed to earn a living today.
There are opportunities out there...but the contract limited, job-definition union days likely are gone forever. The jobs reports lack stats from those who are making their way on their own just fine. DemocRats will exploit the appearance that things are perishing, that's their strategy. But when the truth outs, and I think it will, that DemocRat liberals couldn't care less about prosperity unless it benefits the millionaire limousine liberals like Kerry, Kennedy, Heinz, Castro, et. al., pause for thought will allow the race to tilt to the side favoring less government, generally, and national defense. And that side is with the President.
What would your friends like the administrations to do? This is a serious question as I would like to here some of their ideas/suggestions.
100,000 companies of, I believe, 100 employees or larger are included in the unemployment statistics while the vast majority of businesses are smaller than 100 employees and are not part of the equation. So the rate is faulty from the start. But that being said, the fact is not everyone can have their dream job or even maintain a job that they have a degree for. Life is fluid and if your stat is right in regards to the 20.3 months average unemployment then you are seeing the result of how endlessly extending federal unemployment benefits encourages people to continue a "paid vacation" while at the same time they fret about not finding exactly what they want. There is NO reason for one to be out of work for almost two years; you may have to take a paycut but that job still helps one maintain their dignity which is always important in the long run.
Whether people want to accept it or not this is a global market and will remain so for the rest of existing time. Tarriffs are not the answer - they alienate and should only be sparingly used in regards to other gov't's federal sunsidizing of entire industries and even then we must be careful. Oh, by the way, Pat Buchanan can go pound sand!
Do they really think it's the job of the president to maintain their standard of living?
Seems to me that if job loss was that big an issue, then Dick Gephardt would have had a better showing in the primaries. It was his major policy focus and he was endorsed by unions from the beginning, yet he lost badly and dropped out early on.