I grew up reading comic books wanting to be a superhero. Comics taught me that those who speak the truth are heroes, all the rest are liars.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Things That Keep Me Up At Night

No it's not the latte I had at 3PM, or the reoccurring nightmare where red spiders jump out of my computer screen whenever I accidently blog into a GOP site...
In a piece titled "Forget Iran, Americans Should be Hysterical About This; Nuking the Economy," Paul Craig Roberts (Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration) reveals that the newly revised data show that "Job growth over the last five years is the weakest on record. The US economy came up more than 7 million jobs short of keeping up with population growth."
His conclusion? "If you are worried about terrorists, you don't know what worry is." Specific grim facts about the state of jobs in the US during the 21st century (so far):
Communications equipment lost 43% of its workforce
Semiconductors and electronic components lost 37% of its workforce
The workforce in computers and electronic products declined 30%Electrical equipment and appliances lost 25% of its employees
The workforce in motor vehicles and parts declined 12%Furniture and related products lost 17% of its jobs
Apparel manufacturers lost almost half of the work force
Employment in textile mills declined 43%Paper and paper products lost one-fifth of its jobs
The work force in plastics and rubber products declined by 15%Manufacturers of beverages and tobacco products experienced a 7% shrinkage in jobs
The information sector lost 17% of its jobs,
Telecommunications work force declining by 25%
Wholesale and retail trade lost jobs
Accounting and bookkeeping employment shrank by 4%.
Computer systems design and related lost 9% of its jobs
Managerial and supervisory jobs dwindled by 209,000 over the 5 years
Whoo, I'm depressed. I seen this up close and personally and given the above figures, most of us have or will shortly be one of these statistics. Not a pretty picture. Hard to imagine anyone can sleep through his alarm.

No comments: