Herman
Cain
Read Herman's bio and previous columns
April 7, 2008
Congratulations
Negative Thinkers; Now What?
“Workers’ pink slips
stacked ever higher in March as jittery employers slashed 80,000 jobs,
the most in five years, and the national unemployment rate climbed to
5.1 percent.” – Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press, April 5, 2008.
The mainstream media, Democratic leaders in Congress, Hillary Clinton
and Barack Obama, and negative economic elites have talked employers
into an “employment recession”. More than nine months of recession
obsession has caused jittery employers to slash 230,000 jobs in the
first three months of 2008.
Even though the national economy is not in a technical recession of two
consecutive quarters of negative Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, it
may not be far behind these three consecutive months of negative job
growth.
Some of the negative job growth is undoubtedly due to issues in the
housing, construction, mortgage and transportation industries. But this
writer believes that a major portion of the job losses are due to media
pessimism, and employers who have swallowed the negative outlook and
have hesitated to fill existing jobs or new positions.
Thanks, negative thinkers. Now what?
As
expected, Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton has blamed
the Bush Administration while offering no solutions other than more
government handouts. Barack Obama has suggested that we need another
pitiful stimulus package. It’s pitiful because if people actually get
those checks for a few hundred dollars, it might be enough to cover the
increase in their annual gasoline and energy bills due to the increase
of the price of oil.
None of those spewing hot air about the problems are offering any real
solutions, which begin with making the existing tax rates permanent,
reducing regulatory restrictions on oil exploration and refining on
domestic territory, and replacing our archaic tax code, which is driving
jobs and businesses out of this country like a rocket booster.
In
other words, their answer to “Now what?” is “We don’t know”.
The mainstream media is genetically negative. Democrats are negative
purely for potential gains in political power. The so-called economic
elites – economists and analysts who work for investment and banking
firms – are negative because they want to be the first to predict bad
news.
All of these constituencies of negativity know that most of the public
are clueless to the realities of a free market system, and the economic
impact of the world supply and demand of oil. The clueless part of the
public is waiting for an economic messiah, a new federal Department of
Happy or a new stimulus package from la-la land.
My
outlook for the future of the economy is in the day-to-day hard work of
regular folk working to pay their bills, reduce their debt, save for
their future, run their businesses and every once in a while take a
little time off to enjoy some of the fruits of their labor.
They are not the negative thinkers. They are the ones that find new
jobs, create new businesses and constantly look for new opportunities in
the greatest country in the world.
They are the ones who want government to get out of the way.
Those are my folk. “We be” the positive thinkers.
© 2008 North Star
Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
Click here to talk to our writers and
editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.
To e-mail feedback
about this column,
click here. If you enjoy this writer's
work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry
it.
This is Column # HC107.
Request
permission to publish here.
|