Posted by
fiddler on Thursday, August 28, 2008 3:40:35 PM
Yes, I know that a lot of people have had their mortgages foreclosed (because they bought houses they couldn't afford). And I know that more people are unemployed now than one year ago (because the price of oil has hit the economy hard). But if I hear one more person whine that this country is in dire straits, or that the American Dream is dead because of 8 years of Republican control, I will scream!
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the US currently stands a 5.7% (
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm), not a great figure, but lower than the 6.6 figure cited by ABC in 2000 (
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/stories/s221296.htm) while Bill Clinton was still in the Oval Office. As other commentators have noted, a number of speakers at the Democratic Convention spoke about their tough climbs out of humble circumstances into prosperity and success, and the inference we were left to make is that the rest of us need government help (why? because we're not smart/lucky/hard-working enough?). But they did it. So now they want to help the rest of us poor slobs. Give me a break!
Another complaint I hear is about "stagnant" wages. But the NY Times in an article published just three days ago (
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/stories/s221296.htm) reported that while wages fell in 2001 and 2002 by nearly 10%. Now maybe my memory is a little sketchy, but I seem to remember that Bill Clinton was President until January 2001, and there was a recession underway at the time that George Bush took office. And don't forget the 9/11 attacks, which wreaked havoc with our economy in 2002. Since then, real income, according to the article, was up "significantly" in 2004 and 2005, and still rose in 2006, albeit more slowly. The point is that the jobless rate is still low, wages have not stagnated and tax rates are down.
Yes, we have some problems: a number of businesses are in trouble and unemployment has risen; the housing market is in bad shape. and prices are up. But you have to look at what is behind all of this. The housing market is hurting because of irresponsible lending practices that began, believe it or not, during the Clinton administration. Businesses are in trouble, and unemployment is up because of the cost of oil, and this is a crisis because of our government's failure over the past 35 years to come up with a sound energy policy, and because of Congress' failure to act now to increase supply while boosting efforts to develop alternative sources of energy (remember the promise of newly minted Speaker Pelosi just last year to produce a "comprehensive energy policy")?
Look, things could be better, but they could be a lot worse, and the worst thing voters could do this fall is to throw out the baby with the bathwater.