Hope, Change, and Unemployment
Well, that didn't take too bloody long, did it? Within 48 hours of the takers overpowering the producers at the polls, the following companies have announced layoffs:
Westinghouse, Research in Motion Limited, Lightyear Network Solutions, Providence Journal, Hawker Beechcraft, Boeing (30% of their management - gone), CVPH Medical Center, US Cellular, Momentive Performance Materials, Rocketdyne, Brake Parts, Vestas Wind Systems, Husqvarna, Center for Hospice New York, Bristol Meyers, OCE North America, Darden Restaurants, United Blood Services, Welch Allyn, Dana Holding Corp., Stryker, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Smith & Nephew, Abbott Labs, Covidien, Kinetic Concepts, St. Jude Medical, Hill Rom.
Among those companies announcing preliminary office and store closings within 48 hours after the election:
Caterpillar, Albrecht Sentry Foods, Target, Millennium Academy, KMart, The Andover Gift Shop, Grand Union Family Markets, Movie Scene, TE Connectivity (closing it's Greensboro plant with 620 layoffs expected), Fresh Market, AGC Glass North America, The Roses, Meanders Kitchen, Harley-Davidson, Townsend Booksellers.
Additionally, according to Human Events, the New York State Comptroller anticipates Wall Street layoffs to number approximately 10,000 by the end of the year. And just to add a little lagniappe to the mix, the Obama Interior Department has unveiled a plan to shut down 1.6 million acres of federal land to oil shale development. Think of it as energetically un-energetic.
I've seen some back slapping and mutual congratulations amongst a few of my brethren on the road now that their guy won the election. I can't help but look at the list of companies who are down sizing and notice those whose freight we carry. I wonder how many of these cheerful drivers just voted themselves out of a job? I wonder how many people look at the above list and notice the amount of cuts taking place in the medical industry. That can't be good.
No worries, though, because even as all reality breaks lose, Dear Leader is on the case. He announced today that his flexibility includes the inflexible demand that tax rates go up for the people who do the producing and the hiring, virtually ensuring still further layoffs and closures as businesses fight their government just to survive. "You know, at a time when our economy is still recovering from the great recession, our top priority has to be jobs and growth," said the President, even as pink slips rain upon hapless hopey changers across the land, from bureaucracy to shining bureaucracy.
"If we're serious about reducing the deficit," says the man who added almost $6 trillion to it in four years, "we have to combine spending cuts with revenue." Uh oh. "And that means asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more in taxes." Hear the moving vans yet? Because you see, the wealthiest, who make about 18 percent of the nation's income, also pay about 38 percent of the nation's taxes.
Question: Why so timid? If it isn't enough that the top 1 percent should pay 38 percent of the tax burden, how is paying "a little more in taxes" going to correct the imbalance? The President won, right? The people are on his side, correct? So why not hammer down, as we say on the CB? Gas on it, driver! Crank the rate back up to Jimmy Carter levels, with a top rate of 75 percent! As my grandfather used to say, "If you get your feet wet in the river, jump in!"
Claim your mandate, sir, and assume the mantle of Your Royal Fairness. Why cheat your legions of supporters from the pink slips and catastrophes they so earnestly desire? God knows the Republicans won't stand in your way, having lost first the election, and now their spine. Hell, they're even congratulating you on your victory, which, come to think of it, is like congratulating the burglar for ransacking your home. So go for the gusto and let 'em have it. Meanwhile, we'll just keep score on the ratio of hope to despair, of change to disaster, and of fundamental transformation to destruction, in the hope that when Americans have had enough there will still be enough of a country left to salvage.
- Comment (71)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (15)
Comments:
May '10
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
The list is even longer Dave when you include companies cancelling expansion plans and dividend payments. That all began today as well.
Dec '10
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
Mencken's definition of democracy is the background on my work computer now.
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
I'm not surprised, Trace. Is there a comprehensive list of those someplace, or is it still unfolding?
Jul '10
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
Gettin' while the gettin's good. I'm now selling out and looking for a government job.
Apr '12
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
Tax Hollywood.
May '10
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
Dave Carter
I'm not surprised, Trace. Is there a comprehensive list of those someplace, or is it still unfolding? · 4 minutes ago
Betcha lunch next time you're in the western Chicago suburbs that this is going to unfold for a while.
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
Nick Stuart
Dave Carter
I'm not surprised, Trace. Is there a comprehensive list of those someplace, or is it still unfolding? · 4 minutes ago
Betcha lunch next time you're in the western Chicago suburbs that this is going to unfold for a while. · 1 minute ago
You'd win that bet. But I'm still up for lunch.
Oct '10
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
I'm thinking, if Boehner isn't run out of town on a rail by the House GOP (which is my first choice), then he should double-down on Obama's desire to tax the rich and push for a 70% tax on income over $1,000,000. Forget the piddling few percentage points on the +$250k. Make Obama put his money where his mouth is. Make it a tax hike that can be laid ONLY at Obama's feet.
Oct '12
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
That's bad enough. what worse are the huge number of young people who won't have a hope of finding a job, especially the poor and needy.
Feb '11
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
Great idea, but the present GOP leadership has all the political sense of Todd Akin without the charm.
Long ago democrat Senate majority leader George Mitchell forced Bush 41 to put in writing that he was violating his no new taxes pledge.
And Bush 41 did it, not understanding or not caring about the long term damage to the GOP that continues to this day. That's the sort of leadership the Republican party is saddled with. Alas.
Jun '10
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
There's a natural consequence to this kind of folly. Voluntary payment of taxes only occurs when the rates are perceived as fair and equitable. When tax rates become confiscatory, tax cheating becomes an obsession as it has in socialist Europe. People will hide their money faster than a kulak can turn a pig into ground sausage.
There's a corollary to this condition. An overly regulated or controlled economy spawns black markets. It was estimated by the CIA in the mid '70's that nearly half the Soviet economy was run on the black market. The more a state grabs, the more the people will resist. This is a natural, spontaneous, and completely organic solution known as capitalism.
Dave, you're gonna have to paint that truck black and run at night. On back roads. For cash. Such is the future.
Edited on November 10, 2012 at 4:17amJul '11
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
I've been thinking of the positive Dave. Had Romney won we'd have had twenty years of prosperity but nearly no addressing of our lethal contagions( Medicare, lack of responsibility, entitlements, SS, Medicaid, bloated government etc.). So we'll have it all fail and have to deal with some of the reasons sooner. Furthermore, we'll get to deal with the problems with some guy more conservative than Romney who grew up watching John Wayne and a country half full of patriots instead of folks completely indoctrinated by socialists from the cradle.
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
Well, it all seems rather inevitable now, so why not face it squarely, right? Personally, I think your hair clouds your decision making, not to mention your line of sight...
Nov '11
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
Evil corporations! They should all be nationalized. First order of business of the new Secretary of Business.
Mar '11
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
I bet the titles for the MSM articles on next month's jobs report contain the word "unexpectedly."
The gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return.
Sep '12
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
I have three questions for every poor sap who gets fired in the next year because of Obama's re-election:
(1) Did you vote for Obama?
If yes, (2) are you happy now that you got the entirely predictable result of re-electing Obama?
If no, (3) will you listen next time?
Edited on November 10, 2012 at 4:36amMay '10
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
I haven't seen a story about it, but many companies will not reveal their 2013 plans until they report December quarter earnings in Jan/Feb. One company I follow announced that their Board had made the decision on Wednesday.
The dividend decision is straightforward. It is more tax efficient for companies to buy their own stock with excess cash than to subject their shareholders to higher tax rates. But for those that live on that income it can very disruptive.
More damaging is the decision to pull away from investment and growth. From where I sit it feels as though companies are moving into a fetal position.
The liberal orthodoxy that insists that raising taxes on those making $250K+ will not harm the economy could only be concocted by academics and bureaucrats -- people that only interact with the real world as consumers.
Dave Carter
I'm not surprised, Trace. Is there a comprehensive list of those someplace, or is it still unfolding? · 48 minutes ago
Feb '12
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
Dave,
You said: "Hell they're even congratulating you on your victory which, come to think of it, is like congratulating the burglar for ransacking your home."
That is almost exactly what I've been saying about these damned "congratulations." Such subservience is the mark of fools.
Mar '11
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
Xennady
Great idea, but the present GOP leadership has all the political sense of Todd Akin without the charm.
I don't think it would matter anyway. Obama proved he was rotten for the economy, and the man running against him had a proven record in know how and what gets companies going. And voters chose the hipster demigod that couldn't balance a checkbook by a margin of 3+ million votes. We're back in the days of FDR, where a charismatic cult leader just has to say things like "Hope! Change! Forward!", and then proceed to hose things up. And a majority love him anyway.
Sep '11
Re: Hope, Change, and Unemployment
I guess we'll find out the truth about Benghazi now, too...