A World of Hurt

Hundreds of auto dealerships are set to close in the next few months. They have been laid off by their parent auto corporation, Chrysler. GM is set to follow suit soon with a couple thousand dealership layoffs of its own. The auto industry is dying under the weight of its own importance; they made American cars which for most of the 20th century were all the rage. They guaranteed all of their workers, past and present, a lifetime entitlement to the spoils of American domination, everybody's piece was golden.

Well, times as we know them have changed drastically as to be almost unrecognizable. Stalwart industries are dropping like flies and the rest are hanging by a thread as the ranks of the unemployed just keep swelling. When will this all end? Nobody knows. For every person who is laid off starts a domino effect; its own ripple that continues to pluck people off the rolls as it travels down the line. Any person laid off is a person who stops or reduces consumption, is a person who has to layoff a caregiver, a gardener or a domestic helper, is a person who requires discounts, tax breaks, or some form of financial aid in order to survive, is a person who forces industry to not make that one car, that TV or any other consumer goods to sell to him/her, is a person who may foreclose on their house, and is most definitely a person who throws a wrench into the economic machinery.

Over 500,000 people a month are still being laid off. The resulting halt in economic activity due to each of those layoffs is staggering and that is before we even take into account all of the collateral damage. I wish President Obama could save us all but he can't; it seems the government has run out of steam when it comes to bailouts. Whatever we want to call it, the government blew its wad by saving the monetary system by propping up all of the banks. Institutional investors had to be made whole so that they would continue to purchase government debt; treasury bonds and the like.

All it is doing in the northeast lately is raining. Perhaps the heavens are crying for us all, this economic crisis is truly like no other. We are resorting to every man for himself tactics instead of putting our heads together. We can and must find better solutions.