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With an election coming up later this year we have been hearing a lot about the economy and unemployment from the liberals. They say the economy is terrible and unemployment is rampant and cite government statistics to prove it. There is only one thing wrong with doing that. It so happens that there are two sets of statistics put forth by the Labor Department. The statistics that liberals have been using consists of data that are about two years old by the time they are released and since employment statistics are a "lagging indicator" (not showing an increase until after an economic upturn or downturn) a downward figure in these data indicates a reaction to the economic policies of the previous Clinton administration. Also, the figures the liberals are using do not include people who are self-employed. Look at the bottom of the following web page to get an idea of how many that is:
http://www.osha.gov/dcsp/smallbusiness/
I am a senior citizen and among other things to add to my retirement income I drive a van to deliver small freight shipments from Atlanta, Georgia, to wherever they need to go. By the time the Clinton administration left office things were looking kinda bleak, to say the least. It was obvious that I wasn't the only one hurting because there were also a lot fewer big trucks on the highway and a lots and lots of big trucks on the used truck lots because owners could not make the payments. 9-11 only made things worse and a lot of independent owners went out of business. The truck lots were flooded with repossessed trucks.
The point I want to make in telling you about this is to show you a picture of the almost 2-block long warehouse dock where I work. About half of the warehouse is behind you in this picture but it looks the same as what you see here. This picture was taken on Thursday, March 18, 2004 at about 11 AM. Most of the freight has already left the docks for early morning deliveries and there is still lots of freight to be moved. A couple of years ago is was almost like a morgue in here.
The point is that if this much freight is being moved most businesses are NOT in bad shape. In fact they have to be doing pretty darned well. Maybe not all, but certainly most are. Early Monday mornings in here are now so crowded that it is sometimes almost impossible to walk around.
To add another item to this I would like you to pay attention to the taillights and clearance lights on the big trucks and trailers the next time you are out on the highway. Note how many of them have LED (light emitting diode) lighting (they're the ones with several small points of light in each lens instead of one large one). Sometimes 40-50% of the trucks I see out on the highways have those LED lights. About 3 years ago at the end of the Clinton Administration, that number was just about zero. That means those with the LED lights are new rigs, bought since President Bush took office, and no company, or independent contractor, is going to out and spend from $70,000 to over $200,000 per unit unless they are sure that business is good enough, and the future appears to be bright enough, to support making a decision involving that kind of money. Folks, no matter what you hear the liberals saying about the economy, it is NOT in bad shape. In fact it is doing pretty darned well and the evidence of that is all around you for you to see for yourself.
One more thing. The other night I was out on the highway and was listening to a radio program for truckers. Trucking company, after trucking company, after trucking company was advertising for drivers. Almost all were offering sign-on bonuses and generous full benefit packages. Maybe being a trucker isn't what someone who is unemployed wants to do but it isn't true that there isn't any work to be had. If you are willing to drive a company owned truck over the road you can make $40,000 to $70,000 per year. If you own your own truck one company is offering single drivers $120,000/yr, and team drivers $220,000/yr base salary. Draw your own conclusions.
The Democrats have been so far out in left field, so utterly wrong about the state of the economy and employment conditions, that we simply cannot afford to have them making decisions that effect our personal lives in an economic sense.
The Democrats have been TOTALLY wrong about employment and the economy,and I do mean totally! Having been wrong about the overall economy they are now saying that none of the new jobs are upper income jobs. That's not true either. You can do the research for yourself if you wish. Employment statistics in a myriad of formats for both the national and state by state arenas are available at: http://www.bls.gov/
I'm Tracy Baker, George's son. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I work for a custom audio/video installation company that empoys fewer than 10 people and we're construction contractors.
In the past year (2003), we were all afraid of losing our jobs due to the poor economy, and more specifically the downturn in the stock market, at the time. Most of our business depends on people's disposable income, you see, as what we do is something akin to really expensive A/V toys. As in any downward economic trend (or even an economic climate where people feel is bad when it really isn't), ours is one of the first businesses to suffer from it.
So far in 2004, we're better than we've ever expected. We're scheduling jobs 6 to 8 weeks out. We're having to turn away some clients. Things are so good, in fact, that we're better than 2 months ahead of our business plan for the year (in terms of paying off debt). We've started to receive monthly bonuses and our profit sharing plans haven't seen these types of contributions since the end of 1999.
Business is very, very good indeed!
Also, a friend of mine, a dry wall construction contractor who works on skyscrapers in Miami, FL. says that he cannot keep up with business, either. He doesn't have enough employees to fill his existing jobs, and he's having trouble finding people to make up the difference. He's worried what he'll do if some of his proposals get accepted -- because there's just not enough people looking for work in his area.
The moral: Don't pay too much heed to the number of lost jobs that have happened during the Bush Presidency. You know, the ones liberal like to spout off about to point out how bad it is.
The important numbers are the the ones that point out the difference between the number of jobs there were when President Bush took office and the number of jobs there are NOW. The difference, you see, is very small.
Also, as of this month, May 2004, the unemployment rate is lower the average unemployment of the 1970's, 1980's and even the 1990's (when then President Clinton claimed we had "full employment").