Merry Christmas and a Happy Recession!

The day after Christmas is traditionally observed as Boxing Day in Canada and England, but here in the USA its "Return Day". Store brace for shoppers eager to return gifts of the wrong size, color or just plain wrong! This Boxing Day retailers are also hoping for a rush of buyers. The season was low, even for those analysts who expected it to be an off year. Slow retail sales will undoubtedly add to the economic indicators that show our country sliding into a recession and that is not good news for anyone.

I was listening to the radio this morning and heard a business pundit talking about "Brand China" and how it may be suffering because of the numerous product recalls and the general perception of Chinese made goods being poor quality. No sh*t Sherlock? Brand China in my book already means "piece of crap" and unfortunately it’s impossible to get away from. So what does this have to do with recession? Well, since the US no longer has many manufacturing jobs, we are more vulnerable than ever to economic swings affecting the lower Middle Class. Service jobs, which is about all the lower Middle Class has left, are volatile and can be slashed at the drop of a balance sheet. The old manufacturing jobs were more difficult to eliminate, both because of unions and the major investment in infrastructure they represented. Companies might cut back, but they were very unlikely to just shut down a factory, since that would mean a major asset would be idle. Not so for the cash register at Burger Barn. Besides, you can always install self-service and drop a few more warm bodies from the payroll.

If I sound cynical, then I have succeeded. I am cynical, especially when it comes to our economy. We have been living in a fools paradise for the past 7 years and perhaps longer. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting mired in the refuse left behind by the rich. Big business has been gutting the economy at the expense of the future in quest of the "good quarter". Why? CEOs get astronomical sums for heading a company that has a good quarter and sees its stock price rise. The problem is it’s all short term stuff. I would venture to say few if any CEOs or boards for that matter have any sort of long term plan for their businesses. They are concerned only with get in, make a bundle and get the heck out before the stock slides. That kind of thinking is what tanked Enron, and it is still happening in board rooms across America.

What’s the point of the rant? Well it’s a combination of letting off steam and sending a warning. The warning is something that would be better headed from an economist with lots of letters after his name, however, they seem content to watch from the sidelines and comment, so here goes.

Our country is headed down the sewer pipe. We have successfully crippled our once great manufacturing might and we are outsourcing not only our manufacturing but our inventiveness. Unless we intend to be a nation of poor burger flippers we must begin brining jobs and manufacturing back home. We cannot count on the wealthy class to trickle any of their wealth down to us, they will just move to Dubai or whatever new trust fund playground appears in the world and leave us with the refuse of their looting. We must reinstate progressive taxation and even the playing field, provide universal health care and reexamine out policies toward foreign investment and trade. We cannot become isolationist, but we should not just sell off our country to the highest bidder.

So as you prepare to return that defective DVD player you received, or think about why the seams in your new shirt unraveled before you washed it the first time, remember the old addage. "The bitter taste of poor quality lingers long after the sweet aroma of low price." In other words, bargains come at a price, and for us, that price may be our economy.