Okay, I get pretty incensed when screwy opinions are passed off as facts. Rod is living in an alternate universe of wishful thinking. Not sure if he ever listens to NPR for real news, but here are several links that will burst his faux-optimistic bubble.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/12/03/pm-get-used-to-this-high-unemployment-rate/
First off, according to former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, many corporations used the recession as the excuse they've been looking for to ship good paying jobs overseas where they can pay less. Those jobs are NOT coming back. Even Mall*Wart and the discount stores don't rely so much on US buyers anymore and are making huge profits overseas where we've shipped our jobs to. So there's not much incentive to making sure Americans have a decent wage, which is about three times the minimum wage at the very least, to purchase their goods.
To quote him:
"The two American economies -- the Big Money economy and the Average Working Family economy -- will continue to diverge. Corporate profits will continue to rise, as will the stock market. But typical wages will go nowhere, joblessness will remain high, the ranks of the long-term unemployed will continue to rise, the housing recovery will remain stalled, and consumer confidence will sag.
"The big disconnect between corporate profits and jobs is likely to continue because America's big businesses are depending less and less on U.S. sales and U.S. workers. Their big profits are coming from two sources: (1) growing sales in China, India, and other fast-growing countries, and (2) slimmed-down US payrolls. "
Source: http://www.opednews.com/articles/New-Year-Predictions-The-by-Robert-Reich-101230-424.html
Yeah, $8 an hour employees of Dollar General (most probably part-time, no benefits) can afford a $100 piece of art. And I've got a piece of swampland to sell you, Rod.
The very rich are indeed getting richer. They live in a rarified universe and are most likely to patronize upscale galleries than they are to mingle with the riff-raff at the art shows. Who's buying the millions of foreclosed homes and flipping them for a 12-15 percent or more profit, sometimes with little more than cosmetic improvements? Investors! With cash up front.
NPR Morning Edition Jan 3, 2011
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=132613636&m=132613666
The stock market is not an indicator of how average Americans are doing. It is legalized gambling and you need to have money to play in that casino, and can afford to lose it when somebody cries wolf and the market takes a plunge. (See how financiers engineered stock market crashes in the past. This is also an illuminating view of the Federal Reserve, not just for conspiracy theorists: Zeitgeist Part III
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1693084887024293324#
Not sure whether you got a refinance from a legitimate company, Rod, or one patterned after the sub-prime mortgage market which engineered this huge Recession we are still in (stock market performance to the contrary.) NPR reported that banks are tightening credit for everyone. Sub-prime lenders, and "legitimate" lenders who resold mortgages in bits and pieces to overseas and domestic investors as mortgage-backed securities didn't care if you could repay the debt. It wasn't THEIR money. Thus the crash.
For a primer on the Recession:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/355/the-giant-pool-of-money
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/365/another-frightening-show-about-the-economy
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/390/return-to-the-giant-pool-of-money
The middle class is our real market, and the middle class is fast shrinking.
"There's class warfare, all right," Mr. [Warren] Buffett said, "but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html?_r=1
Unemployment figures don't include people who have given up looking for jobs, and self-employed people who are now under- or unemployed. They don't qualify for unemployment benefits. And getting re-employed after a year or two means a lot of catching up with bills. And for those who defaulted on homes or credit cards, etc. they may never get re-hired, since employers now do credit checks. They will probably never qualify for a home loan again, and may even be denied a rental home due to poor credit, since landlords also have access to your credit history. This relationship, which could make you unemployable, is the modern version of the Debtor's Prison.
So do a little research into reality, Rod, or else pass out rose-colored glasses to the rest of us.
--- In artshow_photo@yahoogroups.com, "Grinder" <grinder12000@...> wrote:
>
> And there is the problem - people feel wrongly cautious. Not saying they should throw caution to the wind but corporations are BURSTING with profits - companies are hiring back people (back) right and left. Dollar General just said they are hiring 6000 people this year.
>
>
> Rod
>
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