JOB QUALITY

The recent Philly Fed Index's traumatic eighteen point drop into the negativity-sphere has frightened many economists pummeling plenty from the professionally optimistic cadres into carefully parsed wait-and-see parlance but it seems clear they were caught by genuine stunning surprise-- Over the last five years the bloodied State of Ohio has seen 200,000 quality manufacturing jobs vaporized-- That's forty-thousand per year on average-- The State of Michigan watched as 30,000 jobs dissolved last year a fact made only more painful by recent announcements by what's left of corporate leadership behind America's Big Three in the automotive industry that layoffs, buyouts and plant shutdowns would escalate--Ford alone offered 75,000 union workers a buyout plan while at least initially promising 10,000 unprotected white collar workers from the managerial sector simple layoffs though further reports indicated that a buyout plan was being discussed/devised for those sadly affected--Union workers with high seniority will not hit the ground with as much financial discomfort and insecurity as the younger workers who for the near future and most probably quite farther out will have to compete for less quality jobs requiring lesser skills with fewer and fewer benefits-- This scenario is not particularly rosy and in fact will usher in a large wave of stark anxiety adding to the exploding gloom surrounding the mega-downturn in the Housing/ Finance/Construction sectors and the extant fear of collapse-- Why would anyone run out and buy an SUV currently??-- Why did they choose not to build a better mousetrap??-- The Japanese did and now the way is paved for Toyota to win our market??-- Too much time on golf links and not enough time on the assembly floor??-- Why weren't the Auto executives up to speed on the oil/gasoline crises enveloping the entire global economy??-- Currently it ain't but the most precious commodity/resource on the planet-- Writers like Klare, Deffeyes, Roberts, Goodstein, Simmons and Kunstler have been warning the public for years in books, on television and weblogs and any number of forums the Big Three Ceo's obviously tuned out-- Clearly the leaderless political parties were too busy driving their SUV's to fundraising galas and politically correct photo-ops to pay any critical attention to the anemia beginning to affect the lifeblood of the world economic system-- The dumbing down of culture, the downsizing of quality job skills/opportunity and the scaling back and outsourcing of our children's future has occurred deliberately below the radar of our elected officials-- The Political Elite is immune to accountability-- As long as their fundraising abilities remain stellar the media will more than happily collaborate with their re-election campaigns-- The continuing misguided mis-designed mis-reported mal-executed Bush/Neocon nightmare in Iraq drives the Government further into monstrous mega-debt degrading our economic(as well as political) options with complete and arrogant denial of how severe the disastrous effects of this mad folly will fiscally impact both our near term and long range prospects-- We reap what they sow-- Vote the Bastards out!!!!!!!--