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Is our Economy Really Improving?
We keep being sold a bill of goods that the US economy is improving and I'm not buying it and many people I've talked to aren't buying it either.
Ever since this God awful administration took office the average citizen is paying more and more for everything and getting paid less.
We are in inflationary times again in my book.
My fiancee gets a haircut and it costs $2 more. My makeup and his cosmetics have gone up $1-$1.50 each. Our car insurance with no accidents or tickets has increased $50 a month last year and $10 more per month this year.
Ever since Kroger, Safeway and Albertsons have bought out a large percentage of grocery chains nationwide, grocery prices have gone up 40-50%. This is downright price gouging. A box of cereal that costs $2.98 at Super Wal-Mart is $4.49 at these other stores. A bag of ice $1.59-$1.79 vs .98. Every item is priced $1-$2 more. This never used to be. People can't afford this.
I cannot afford to shop anywhere but Super Wal-Mart unless you live in an area where the major chains aren't greedy. And people who live in CA and large metro areas which are heavily union where Wal-Mart superstores can't get in are going broke on food. People are spending $50 more on $100 worth of groceries at these major chains over the lower priced cometition and just several years ago Albertsons was the low priced leader and didn't believe in club cards. Anyone who has to buy all their groceries in these rip off stores is getting robbed big time.
Major department stores seem much slower than they were 5 years ago.
Add outrageous gas prices which are FIXED to be higher in certain areas like the West Coast over Texas and the South, and credit card companies which have eliminated grace periods and charge late fees if you are one day late and who decrease your credit limit if you are 1 day late more than once and the average consumer is fucked.
This administration has fucked up the economy, given preference to the church which could mean the end of abortion and is running strip clubs out of business.
It's all about big business increasing profits where the average citizen has less and less disposable income. No wonder the clubs have slowed down. Small raises plus huge price increses on things we all buy regularly and there is no money left. Without the AVERAGE person having drastically increased disposable income there is no hope.
The government is not making health coverage for all a priority. Everything is about money for the rich.
Bush has GOT to be voted out of office and all conservatives eliminated or nothing will ever improve. I don't love any politicians but Republicans with their ties to religion and old fashioned values are the worst of 2 evils.
I can't be the only one who notices these things. :-[
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
Gas is 2.10 a Gallon in Saint Louis.
Ugh.
The local economy, at least, is shot. 2.10 is insane around here.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
Ummmm. I hate to point this out, but California has done the 'outrageous fuel price' thing to themselves. They require a fuel in their stations that is only used in California, hence it is only made on the west coast, hence it costs more to make it since the cost can't be distributed across the country.
I agree though, that OPEC has us on our knees. It sure would be nice if someone would pull all of our foreign aide from overseas and start to work on Hydrogen. Get that solved, then we wouldn't have to go to the F'in middle east.
But back on the subject, I see my business getting better and better, but on the other hand......we are getting ready to move our stuff to China anyway......so I don't really care. hehehehhe
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
GW would like us to believe our economy is improving.. :rolleyes:
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
Samart is right about California gasoline and it is even worse than he says. Not only are their islands with different types of gasoline, there is a winter gas and a summer gas which are not allowed to be commingled. Every gas tank at the refinery has to be drained each spring and fall completely before it can be filled with the other. Put "Arizona gas" in a California storage tank and you go to jail. Put summer gas in a tank with winter gas and you go to jail.
Add on top of that that the supply of additives to boost the oxygen in the gas are in short supply because it takes 5 years to get the permits to build a refinery (if they let you) and California can't have another refinery or electric generating plant, forgawdssake.
And Walmart's margin on merchandise is twice Albertsons.
see http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=ABS
and http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=WMT
Part of the difference is that the person running the cash register at Walmart costs half as much as the union guy at Albertson. I own stock in neither and have no axe to grind. I welcome Albertsons buying the 2 chains in new England--the current bozos are incompetent.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
You better damn well believe that you're going to hear George Dubya spouting off about the improved job numbers, what he won't be adding is the type of jobs being added, the stagnant wages of most americans (except not surprisingly corporate execs who are doing just fine thank you), the increase in health insurance costs, or the lack of security of those who do have jobs to name just a few.
And talk about a double edged sword, that's what I see shopping at Wal-Mart as, while the cheap prices are nice, those low prices come with a price, namely low wages and lack of benefits for their employees, the use of sweat shops overseas to produce their cheap line of products, and their running the small mom and pop stores who can't compete with them out of business. LOL, that place is just evil.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
This is probably a huge mistake, but I came into this topic assuming we wanted an intelligent discussion of the economy. If this is merely another stupifying "George Bush was the fourth shooter on the grassy knoll and the ANTICHRIST" thread, then you all have my profuse, if somewhat facetious, apologies. You will also excuse me if I do not indulge in the inflation discussion, as that is rather a tangent.
The economy is, in fact, improving. Progress is still slow but steady enough to be heartening. I was most impressed by Comcast's offer for Disney. Sure, it didn't have a chance in hell. No cash in the deal whatsoever, nothing but stock options, but the ripple it sent through the business sector fueled quite a temporary spike. Everyone knew the offer was bogus, but people started thinking, "Gee. If Comcast is strong enough to make such a ballsy bid, then what's stopping us?". Expansion followed this publicity stunt, and I approved of it.
Unemployment statistics are down, but strangely enough, statistics on the employed or newly-created jobs don't seem to follow. Some politicos bandied these seeming contradictions into proof that Bush was sending thousands of unemployed off the rolls into squalor. BUT, for last quarter spending was up. If few new jobs were created and employment statistics were stagnant, then where was this discretionary income coming from? One needs a more informed look at the statistics to solve this puzzle. The staticians cull their numbers from only established businesses of a certain size. Small businesses or newly created businesses are not counted. So if Joe Schmoe's Carpet Cleaner's doubles in size from seven employees with benefits to thirteen employees with benefits, no one in Washington knows. The only way to tell is to check local spending habits. More people are definitely joining the ranks of the employed, but it is through the entrepeneurial spirit that drives most of America. They are starting their own businesses or being hired in smaller companies who are currently enjoying small expansionist steps.
The market is much like the jungle. The "great cycle of life" affects all, big or small. If one sector grows to big for the market, then it crashes until only those prepared for survival are left. Eventually, that sector will once again start to expand. This recession could have been predicted by any economist, as the market ALWAYS takes cyclic downturns and was waaaaaay overdue for one anyways. But every downturn is followed by an upswing, and I firmly believe that we are in the beginnings steps of an upswing.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
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Originally Posted by Lilith link=board=1;threadid=9116;start=msg108107#msg1081 07 date=1084328349
If few new jobs were created and employment statistics were stagnant, then where was this discretionary income coming from?
......one could argue that it is coming from people spending well beyond their means, thus the expanding consumer debt of many americans (which will one day come due BTW).
And you're never going to convince me he wasn't in that grassy knoll.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
One could argue that, but one would hopefully have the proper stats to back it up first. Speculation and political posturing are the devil as far as the economy is concerned.
**Edited because Richard did. So there.
I know for a fact that GW wasn't the fourth shooter. I was. By God, give credit where credit is due.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
Not to dispute the bulk of your comments Lillith, but they do a pretty good job of estimating births and deaths of firms. Also small businesses are quickly caught because the payroll survey is synchronized to unemployment compensation payments by employers. (not payments of claims)
The people who are not in the establishment survey are farm workers, those under 16, AND Independent Contractors like most dancers. Those people are in the houshold survey but that is a tiny fraction of the size of the establishment survey. Even so, adjusted for definitional differences they are quite comparable in the last 18 months.
The following link at BLS shows this:
http://stats.bls.gov/cps/ces_cps_trends.pdf
The recession was not predictable because if it had not been the shock to the economy of 9/11 there would only have been a near-recession. The date set by the NBER is before 9/11 solely because what happened before and what happened after were enough together to officially call it a recession. Before 9/11 only one of four measures used by NBER said recession. After, all did.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
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Originally Posted by Lilith link=board=1;threadid=9116;start=msg108142#msg1081 42 date=1084330827
One could argue that, but one would hopefully have the proper stats to back it up first. Speculation and political posturing are the devil as far as the economy is concerned.
Okay, even though you provided no stats for Joe Schmoe's Carpet Cleaning here goes, according to the Federal Reserve, America's consumer debt has topped $2 trillion for the first time, consumer bankruptcies also reached a record high of 1.6 million households in 2003, and when interest rates eventually rise the problem will get even worse.
Here's a link for you:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp...nguage=printer
......and maybe there was a fifth shooter then because by god I know he had to be there.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
Presidents control the economy the way a surfer controls a wave, namely not at all. He/she just tries to ride it, and when things go well, it sometimes looks like control.
On the back page of last week's issue of TIME magazine, there was a column that makes the same point in very clear detail.
-Ww
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
Ww, true as that may be, it is far easier to shut your eyes, stick your fingers in your ears and shout how every ill in the world is Bush's fault.
Monty, the BLS points out in conjunction with my statements that unemployment is down, productivity is up and wages are increasing. So why the sour assessment?
http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.us.htm
In addition, quoted from the site for NAICS:
"The present system requires detailed information on an establishment's activity for correct coding. This information is now only collected for 4.2 million establishments included in the economic censuses. Codes are assigned by BLS, SSA, and IRS on much less information. This may lead to erroneous coding or an increase in uncoded establishments. For example, Census has found over the past few years that the number of uncoded new establishments received from administrative sources has increased significantly."
That same page points out that it gains its information from surveys (ARS) sent to businesses with more than 50 employees once yearly, which need only report 1/3 of it's holdings once yearly for a three year period. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees are added to the statistics only after IRS files have been submitted. Thus last quarter's unemployment statistics would not match up with currently available employment statistics, and most certainly every job filled is not being properly counted.
http://www.census.gov/epcd/naics/issues3
Richard, 1.6 million households out of approximately 130 million households is not a significant number. You're talking about perhaps 1.5% of Americans. While unwise spending may account for a portion of consumer spending increases, a healthier job outlook and increased wages undoubtably also added their fair share. I'll have to look for it, but I do believe that a fellow named Jonathan Sachs recently published something with the BLS that strongly indicates that the first year after bankruptcy finds a household in better financial circumstances than the year before.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
I too have my questions about the economy.
I don't think for the majority of americans, it is getting better. It might be for some minority, but definately not for the majority.
I have cut back on spending, and I am banking a lot more in savings.
The old rules certainly don't apply anymore.
Worse is, we are doing it to ourselves. Some idiot will go on about how we are loosing american jobs and then drive down to walmart to buy chinese towels.
The republicans and the democrats are BOTH just as bad these days in my book. If your household income is more than 50K a year, the dems consider you "rich" even though most would consider that lower middle class.
A "college education" doesn't get one as far anymore. In fact, going to college under some circumstances can be financially foolish. (Take computer science degree's these days - not a lot of demand for those. And it seems the more educated one gets - M.S., Ph.D - the less likely you can get a job!)
We are not in a free market. It is continously manipulated by global corporations, pulling in H1-Bs, L-1s, and desiring cheap illegal workers. Yea, lets have an amnesty for all the people who snuck into the country. There are parts of California you won't even recognize as being the US.
It is not all bad, if you are in the right financial circles, but these days, those circles are getting smaller.
I am playing it financially conservative these days.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
Quote:
Presidents control the economy the way a surfer controls a wave, namely not at all. He/she just tries to ride it, and when things go well, it sometimes looks like control.
While I can't agree 100% with this comment, it is true in the short term. Presidents can set fanancial investment and tax policies. However, it takes YEARS for these policy changes to trickle their way into corporate boardrooms, to get corporate decisions made and implemented in response to those policies. The fact that "Benedict Arnold" corporations are moving facilities overseas now has absolutely nothing to do with current financial and tax policies, but financial and tax policies which were put into effect 5 years ago.
In regard to the California situation, the basic fundamental economic change which has occurred is that California is now receiving about an equal amount of federal tax dollars back as California residents paid in initially, due to republican control of the US congress and the inability of democratic California congressmen to still vote their state pork barrel appropriations. This is opposed to 5 years ago when California was 'subsidized' by federal tax money paid by residents of other states.
However, rather than reduce public spending as a result, California politicians decided to keep spending and raise taxes. This in turn caused many businesses and reasonably high earning individuals to leave the state, which in turn increased the tax burden on remaining businesses and reasonably high earning individuals even more.
Also, California state policies do indeed carry a high price tag. Unconditional support for unionized businesses and political jockeying to prevent non-union competition from getting a foothold in the state definitely is responsible for higher grocery prices, higher department store prices etc. Super strict rules in regard to environmental issues also carry a price, be it specially formulated gasoline or expensive natural gas generated electricity. And California business, individual and sales tax rates increase the price of every single item sold in the state, no matter what the source.
Hydrogen fuel is, in total, less energy efficient and more polluting than gasoline. However, the pollution takes place where the hydrogen is manufactured, not in the tailpipe of a car with a hydrogen engine. Thus a big push for hydrogen vehicles in California will vastly increase the use of Midwest coal fired electrical generators and chemical plants, and vastly increase the pollution in the Midwest and Northeast, while cleaning up only California's air.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
Lillith,
I think you meant to things said by others rather than me. I provided no downbeat assessment.
The classification assessment you referenced is not addressing whether people working are being counted as working, but whether they are being counted correctly as working in the industry they really are. The study refers to whether an establishment is classified as a bar or a restaurant. Put in one category or the other and the BLS supersector is the same.
It is always an everywhere true that the pieces of data collected are less reliable than the higher level tallies. Reported as a bar worker, or as a restaurant worker, you are still an "accomodations and food service worker" and still a worker. The data has a margin of error in the details far beyond the error in the total. The numbers are biased in any direction only to the extent companies are failing to pay taxes to a greater extent than they failed to pay taxes before.
PS Mel is completely right about hydrogen. H is only made with electricity. Electricity is only made with water power, diverted from being used directly or more fossil fuel. It takes 3 units (BTU's) of fuel to make one unit of electricity to make the hydrogen from water. It may be in a handier form and less poluting as used, but hydrogen is not free or cheap as water. Now if you could put your thinking cap on an invent a workable coldfusion or perpetual motion device we can talk about hydrogen making sense. Right now it is like saying we can use solar power in space to do it and forgetting you have to move billions of gallons of water into space to start with.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
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Originally Posted by Melonie link=board=1;threadid=9116;start=msg108297#msg1082 97 date=1084359937
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Presidents control the economy the way a surfer controls a wave, namely not at all. He/she just tries to ride it, and when things go well, it sometimes looks like control.
1 - While I can't agree 100% with this comment, it is true in the short term.
2 - Presidents can set fanancial investment and tax policies. However, it takes YEARS for these policy changes to trickle their way into corporate boardrooms, to get corporate decisions made and implemented in response to those policies.
3 - The fact that "Benedict Arnold" corporations are moving facilities overseas now has absolutely nothing to do with current financial and tax policies, but financial and tax policies which were put into effect 5 years ago.
1 - Well, I would not claim anything more than "sound bite validity" for it; the point (one I often make and the one made by the TIME magazine piece I mentioned) is that the fact that the current state of the economy is the single biggest factor in most people's evaluation of a president is pretty nuts and introduces a large irrational force into US politics. (The only exception might be times of major war abroad.)
2 - I agree that there is a long lag time. (Btw, did you know that over 90% of the jobs lost during W's current term in office went during the first year, when it is hard to imagine that there was any direct connection to his economic policies.) However and more importantly, the President's power to influence the economy is extremely limited even considering the lag for various reasons: First of all, although the Federal budget is the single largest component of the national economy, it is still a small part of the total. Second, the President's influence on Federal economic policy is quite limited; much of it is legally mandated (interest payments on the debt for example) plus the Federal Reserve and the Congress have as much or more power than the President re the economic activities of the government. Third, the US economy is strongly influenced by outside forces, the world economy, which the President does not control, of course. Fourth, and maybe most important, no one understands the economy well enough to reliably predict the long term general economic consequences of any given Federal financial action or policy, so even if the Pres had more economic power, it wouldn't actually put him in control.
3 - Imo, the growing exodus of jobs from the US and other First World countries into poor Third World economies is primarily the result of natural market forces and not that of any government policy. It is well known that the First World dominates world consumption to an insane and probably unsustainable degree. For example, roughly 12 % of the world's total population accounts for over 60% of all private consumption; the 5% of the world's population living in the US uses over 25% of all fossil fuel energy resources; Americans use the biological productivity of more than 4 times as much land as the world average per capita. Etc. In this sort of situation, it is inevitable that people in the world's poor economies are going to provide more affordable labor than those in the rich ones, and this will directly create market pressure to move jobs from wealthy populations to impoverished ones.
-Ww
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
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It is not all bad, if you are in the right financial circles, but these days, those circles are getting smaller.
This is strictly dependent on where you're standing ! I'll agree that in certain areas, economic conditions have not returned to levels they enjoyed 5 years ago. Also, given current political and economic conditions, it's highly unlikely that they're going to in the near future. On the other hand, different areas of the US are improving quite a lot. As the most extreme examples, I'd cite California versus Texas. Whether or not one connects tha fact that California is a heavily democratic state which is now in the minority in regard to political power, while texas is Dubya's home state and heavily republican, with economic conditions in these areas is entirely coincidental LOL.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
If you judge the economy the way it is usually judged, eg. the total output of goods and services, then it is improving rather sharply. Jobs are a lagging indicator, meaning that job growth doesn't happen right away, which is why profits increase sharply in a rebound. But what most of you are complaining about are the fundamental changes that have been taking place for years, namely that we've become more service and technology oriented, and that business in every area (even the SC business) has become more competitive. Our job growth is in nimble smaller firms while the big sluggish ones continue to lay off. But when a thousand smaller firms hire 3 people each, it doesn't generate the headlines the way a 2,000 person layoff does. All of which means that it takes more education to earn a deccent living. The days of high school graduates earning $100,000+ a year from their union job is over. Our society, in fact the entire world, is bifurcating into haves and have-nots, with education the main determining factor. And that isn't going to change regardless of who is president.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
If Bush were anywhere near as smart as you are, Lilith, I might have a modicum of respect for him. He isn't, and I don't.
Whether or not he is really at the helm of the nation's economy, he represents the attitude and policies of those who DO attempt to control the economy, to the extent that having him as a figurehead allows them to go ahead with measures that may or may not be beneficial in the long term.
I despise both Republican and Democratic politicians (not the voters, which include many close personal friends, family members, and SW members), but right now I despise the Republican politicians more, and not only because they have embroiled us in a war which has not kept the price of gasoline from rising 25% in a few short months, and is earning us the contempt of the world we are economically tied to.
On a more personal level, if George W. Bush, his retired daddy, and his brother Jeb (where's Joe Bob?) had his way, none of the members of SW would be making a dime, at least not in strip clubs. All those cute little state and local laws which dictate that grinding on guys' laps is to be considered prostitution would be strictly enforced, even in the extremely doubtful scenario that they would allow ANY kind of publicly available erotic entertainment.
And if all children are 'allowed' to pray in school, since the remaining 17 hours of the day aren't nearly enough, perhaps a new wave of piety will sweep the land, and future Americans will spend their money on 'morally' appropriate venues of entertainment.
All kinds of contradictory statistics are available, but I don't believe the economy is improving--too many people are pissed off with good reason, including most dancers I know--and even if it is, the rapidly rising price of gas will bring any possible mild, if not obviously apparent, upward trend to a screeching halt.
The eradication of the middle class, by far the most dangerous economic trend, continues apace.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
Quote:
On a more personal level, if George W. Bush, his retired daddy, and his brother Jeb (where's Joe Bob?) had his way, none of the members of SW would be making a dime, at least not in strip clubs. All those cute little state and local laws which dictate that grinding on guys' laps is to be considered prostitution would be strictly enforced, even in the extremely doubtful scenario that they would allow ANY kind of publicly available erotic entertainment.
Have you been to Texas or Florida clubs lately ? Yes, there are indeed stricter ordinances in force. Yes, the "action" in the main club room is pretty tame. But there is a great deal of money to be made in the VIP/Champagne room, if dancers are willing to provide what customers are willing to pay for. There's a big difference between passing a new law and obeying a new law and enforcing a new law ! And when the penalty for dancing too close to a customer is legally the same as the penalty for prostitution, dancers have little additional to lose and a whole lot to gain by giving customers what they want in the VIP/Champagne room.
This is about clubs LOOKING "clean", not about clubs actually BEING "clean". If anything, the conservative crusade results in clubs becoming "dirtier" than ever, because there is no longer any legal middle ground between total obedience to the zero contact ordinance and outright prostitution.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
An excellent point, Melonie. One which my friend 'Indian' is well aware of. Indian is a DJ with twenty-some years working in the most upscale clubs in Florida. He tried to tell the Longwood (a town right next to Orlando which had the best area strip clubs) city council that making nude dancing illegal would open the door to much greater degrees of physical contact in VIP rooms. Some of these clubs didn't even have VIP rooms, the girls didn't need to grind to make serious cash..
Naturally they paid no attention to him whatsoever and passed their ordinance. To hard-line conservatives wishing to police public morals, such as the Bushes gleefully ally themselves with, he would be labelled a degenerate swine and a pimp, just as in their eyes dancers are whores without any moral or ethical values.
Now, of course, there is a lot more going on in Orlando VIP rooms, in an ironic twist on the bible-beaters' legislation. And in Tampa they have long since given up on making the girls dance on stools six feet away from the customers.
But my point remains--if they REALLY had their way, we would all be out of business. Strippers and others in the industry should think very hard about who they support, and how helpful those people would be to our continued income, if any, if they were allowed full reign.
The fact that legislation which equates strippers with prostitutes can sometimes inadvertantly help strippers make more money, especially if they knuckle under to pressure and do engage in minor acts of prostitution, is not at all comforting to me.
The rest of Florida might be a good place for strippers to be, but if this year's Bike Week was any indication, the more affluent working-class men who can afford to drive Harleys are NOT spending money. The vast majority of dancers in every club in town made way less money than last year, though Race Week was not as bad.
Much as I despise Republican politicians for their more frequent and more serious attempts to police American morals, some Democrats have 'seen the light', and have been jumping on the holy-rolling bandwagon.
The Governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, has been actively seeking to crack down on strip clubs throughout the state (rumor has it she caught her husband in one), and recently severe legislation has made it virtually impossible for Detroit dancers to make money. These laws ARE being enforced. And the surrounding areas'clubs are next in line.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
Jobs are still being lost. I suspect that upon analysis the jobs being created pay less than the manufacturing jobs lost.
I've been a republican for the last ten to 12 years. I thinak the republican party has a philosophical death wich on social security and medicare... and therefore they deserve to lose. My rationale is simple.
When the people over 40 wake up and realize that their 401k's are way down from the stock market, that their employer is dcropping the defineced beneift plan or that the new job doesn't have one, and that many new jobs have very bad health insurance.
Certainly anyone over 50 shouldn't vote republican in this next election. I'm going to need social security as my other sources of income are fixed with no increases. The company I worked for hasn't increased pension beneifts for those already retired in ten years and it used to do that.
I really think Kerry will make a mess on the war on terror, but wall street needs to be sent a message.
The change to globalization was incurred without a plan on how to transition, which is typical of wall street. They are "efficent" only as it comes to making short term profit with little thought to long term effects. Well I hope they get a long term effect in this next election.
To be fair there is a fundamental shift in the world economny happening that is hitting all of us and Bush probably doesn't have a clue about it. Twenty years ago when just thinking
about the future I had imagined that the advent of robots about now would pub alot of people out of work. Instead we have massive
outsourcing... but the robots are about ten years away I think.
The race to get higher and higher degrees and crendials and society designations is ridiculous. It is occuring just to screen people out who aren't joining in to get those credentials. The credentials over a college degree are really quite useless in day to day job
functions. Some companies realize this and only hire bachelors degrees people. But the race is on for fewer and fewer jobs.
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
OH come on guys IT IS Getting better..
For the millionaires that have stocks in these companys anyways..
I have noticed this.. lately me and my husband have been trying more and more harder just to get by.. 3 years ago he was makin 80k easily... *not bad for ks..* then it trickles to 70.. then 60.. now 50... BUT the food.. rent... EVERYthing has gone up!!! I hope this changes.. becuase i would hate to see it getting worse
Edit: the main reson for his pay going down is because he keeps getting layed off.. then they replace him with someone thats out of the country for less then half the cost...
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Re:Is our Economy Really Improving?
Tragic, well said. The rich get richer while the poor get poorer.
I didnt get ANY financial aid because my parents "made too much money" Here's the kicker: COMBINED last year, my parents made $75,000 because my father was laid off... Go figure... Too much money my ASS.