As the news media daily stresses the terrible financial situation in which our federal government finds itself, an article appeared that gave real meaning to the huge losses being incurred by Washington. The focus of the report was on our national mail service, commonly referred to as the United States Post Office.
The news was all bad.
Consider these facts: the USPO has approximately 31,000 post offices /locations; there are 600,000 people employed by the USPO; there are approximately 218,000 vehicles owned by the USPO; and there are over 200 federal statutes that govern the functioning of this very visible government agency.
The worst new was that for the fiscal year 2010, the USPO operated at a $8,500,000,000.00 loss. That figure again, in more readable form, is a lost of $8.5 Billion.
One of the glaring negative reports found in the article was the statistic that almost 10% of the USPO locations generated annual sales of less than $27,500.00.
As our government leaders (and that term, leaders, is used very loosely) spar over how to begin balancing the federal budget and how much more, if any, to increase the authorized federal debt, our USPO executives are considering closing some 3000 locations and terminating some "significant" but undefined number of positions and restricting the current daily deliveries to rural areas and eliminating all Saturday operations. Of course these above described contemplated acts would impact the USPO operations and hopefully diminish its expenses. However, achieving even one location shut-down or even a slight employee lay off would be a major political incident and be subject to much in the way of delay and backroom negotiations.
Without a huge showing of guts by our political leaders and by our government agency executives coupled with a willingness by ordinary American citizens to accept less in the way of government benefits, this USPO problem as well as all other Washington financial problems will continue to fester. The potential outcome is a terrible economic failure in the America.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
USA UNEMPLOYMENT - A NEW STANDARD?
More bad news has come out of Washington on the issue of Americans being unemployed. The number of out-of-work Americans has again gone up and the number of new jobs is low and terrible.
As has become sadly common, the announced new weekly claims for unemployment benefits were again in the 410,000 - 420,000 range; newly filled jobs for the whole month of June numbered only 18,000; and the government defined and government calculated national unemployment rate is now at 9.2%. Almost all Americans know that this 9.2% figure is low and not realistic. Pouring a little salt in the job market wounds, Washington reports that the new job figures for April and May had been erroneously calculated and those figures were in fact 44,000 lower than had been reported.
So how bad is this 9.2% figure when compared to other nations? This listing may help give an answer. Reported unemployment: Spain - 21.3%
Greece - 16.2%
Ireland - 14.1%
Portugal - 12.4%
France - 9.1%
Italy - 8.2%
England - 7.7%
Germany -6.6%
Japan - 4.5%
A conclusion that comes to mind is that there is a new standard and a new accepted figure for unemployment in our nation. That figure is between 9.0% and 10.0%. Japan's unemployment rate is a wishful but unrealistic dream and rates of Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain are unacceptable. So this means that as long as our national leaders and our business/industrial leaders keep unemployment at an "official" rate of less than 10% then the American economy should remain viable but stagnant. The obvious concerns are how long will Americans tolerate a stagnant economy; how will we afford to care for the unemployed "needy"; and how can we curtail and lower the national debt.
The bottom line is that for the USA to address and remedy these problems it faces the economy must improve; huge numbers of new, private jobs need to be created and filled; and the debt must be lowered. A healthy, growing free economy is an answer but so is socialism and massive tax increases.
Choose your remedy.
As has become sadly common, the announced new weekly claims for unemployment benefits were again in the 410,000 - 420,000 range; newly filled jobs for the whole month of June numbered only 18,000; and the government defined and government calculated national unemployment rate is now at 9.2%. Almost all Americans know that this 9.2% figure is low and not realistic. Pouring a little salt in the job market wounds, Washington reports that the new job figures for April and May had been erroneously calculated and those figures were in fact 44,000 lower than had been reported.
So how bad is this 9.2% figure when compared to other nations? This listing may help give an answer. Reported unemployment: Spain - 21.3%
Greece - 16.2%
Ireland - 14.1%
Portugal - 12.4%
France - 9.1%
Italy - 8.2%
England - 7.7%
Germany -6.6%
Japan - 4.5%
A conclusion that comes to mind is that there is a new standard and a new accepted figure for unemployment in our nation. That figure is between 9.0% and 10.0%. Japan's unemployment rate is a wishful but unrealistic dream and rates of Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain are unacceptable. So this means that as long as our national leaders and our business/industrial leaders keep unemployment at an "official" rate of less than 10% then the American economy should remain viable but stagnant. The obvious concerns are how long will Americans tolerate a stagnant economy; how will we afford to care for the unemployed "needy"; and how can we curtail and lower the national debt.
The bottom line is that for the USA to address and remedy these problems it faces the economy must improve; huge numbers of new, private jobs need to be created and filled; and the debt must be lowered. A healthy, growing free economy is an answer but so is socialism and massive tax increases.
Choose your remedy.
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