Classic Rant #339 (September 23, 2010): The Recession Is Over (!) (?)

I am glad that people in the know in the financial world have declared that the recession is over.

The 2007-2009 recession, which wiped out 7.3 million jobs, cut 4.1 percent from economic output and cost Americans 21 percent of their net worth, marked the longest slump since the Great Depression.

Obviously, these "experts" must know something that most of us don't, because for the life of me, I can't understand why they believe the recession is over--and more to the point, has been over for about a year.

I have no idea why they think it is over. Obviously, they rate different indicators against the norm, and I guess if you base everything on statistics, well maybe the recession is over.

But statistics alone can't make an argument that the recession is over, not in my mind, anyway.

Heck, perhaps I am ignorant, but the recession isn't over--and it isn't going to be over for a long, long time.

We have double-digit unemployment percentages, and there are people who have been out of work for four or five years, and they aren't even counted anymore in the statistics. Thus, you can bet that unemployment is actually in the high teens.

You have people who are employed, but under employed. Many of them have been out of work for months, and had to take lesser jobs just to put food on the table and be able to keep their homes and pay their bills.

You have people, like my daughter, who graduated college and can't find much of anything out there. The great promises were there during her four years of school, but when it came time to deliver, well, the job wasn't there. She is working, but she is not really doing what she went to school for and her hours amount to a part-time job.

And for those of us who are working, I don't see salaries rising. Mine certainly hasn't, not for nearly four years.

But prices continue to climb. Have you looked at your grocery bill lately?

The Middle Class is getting pummeled right now, but the "experts" say that we are out of the recession, and have been for many months.

It's reminds me of when I was out of work for a year and a half in the 1990s, after the stock market crash and ensuing problems in real estate on the East Coast.

I couldn't get arrested. I applied for over 800 jobs, I was on radio and TV offering my services, I even gave out my resume at our local train station.

I went to the county's employment office pretty regularly. One day I went for a visit, and the counselor who was working with me told me, "One day you are going to be a millionaire, but right now, I don't have any jobs for you."

Yep, right.

These "experts" talk out of the sides of their mouths because they don't know what being unemployed is.

It means you lose your dignity, you lose your very reason for existing.

These idiots have jobs--heck, even our President said that the job picture is brightening.

Yes, and he would work in McDonald's and make seven dollars an hour if he had to, I'll bet.

The only thing most Americans can do in the current situation is that on Election Day in November, vote out all of the incumbents who are running to retain their positions.

I don't care what party they are in--Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative, it really doesn't matter. Get rid of all of them. They haven't improved our lives while they are in their cushy positions, so why should we give them our support with our votes?

Get rid of all of them. I doubt any will have to go to the unemployment office, but failure may teach them that life isn't run by statistics.

It is run by people, and people are hurting bad right now.