Saturday, June 13, 2009

Perhaps, Recovery is not the Plan

The American economy typically rallies quickly from an economic slowdown with the 1930s being the great exception. Roughly every five or six years things slow down, go in reverse, unemployment ticks up and the stock market swoons. This is not new. With these occasional disturbances, Americans have learned to live.

The reward for enduring the ups and downs of the economy and the stock market is the highest standard of living in the world and economic wealth that earlier generations never dreamed possible. Not bad. American poor have a higher standard of living than the wealthiest citizens of most countries in the world. Not bad.

But our new President, fresh from Law School and community organizing sees its differently. Somehow it hasn't worked out, in his view. It needs re-engineering and he is determined to be that engineer.

Obama, himself, has never worked in the private sector and has no idea what the life of anyone involved in that sector is like. He knows (and likes) only government and only government solutions. He doesn't seem to realize that his policies and those of the Congress will virtually guarantee that small businesses will be very, very reluctant to take on employees if and when recovery gets underway. The enormous mandates, taxes, new regulations and restrictions, new rights to ever-expanded lists of minorities (fat people now are a new minority group who face discrimination according to some),card check are all new costs to be imposed on businesses who have the temerity to hire employees.

Businesses have gotten the message. They know they are the target of this Administration. Obama does not like business and business people. He likes lawyers, politicians, and government careerists. Who, among the Obama entourage, has ever spent any serious time in the private sector (other than to take advantage of a prior political career)? No one. Business folks are not welcome in the Obama White House.

Businesses will find ways to economize on employees -- outsourcing, temping, just going without. Many businesses that would have thrived will never get off the ground. This will be the Obama legacy -- stagnation, high unemployment, and the potential for a fiscal collapse. Maybe economy recovery isn't really the Obama agenda...perhaps, he has something else in mind.