Looking for Relief

The Front Page Headline in last Saturday’s Print Edition of the St. Petersburg Times reads as follows:

Unpaid realty taxes soar

The article by Times Staff Writer Will Van Sant goes on to say “The surge is unprecedented and the reasons are clear: A slumbering real estate market, stagnant wages, growing unemployment and the rising cost of energy, goods and services.”

In Florida the tax bills are sent out in November and due on April 1^st. If not paid before June 1^st they are advertised as delinquent and go up for auction. The bidder bids the percentage of interest that they will be charging the homeowner. The lowest bid gets to hold the paper on the property and the Homeowner has two years to pay the principle plus interest.

Two related articles on the front page under this Headline were about rising foreclosures in the Tampa Bay area (and people filing Chapter 13 Bankruptcy) and more Floridians turning to food stamps for help (up 21% from last year).

Last week I read that unemployment had risen from 5% in April to 5.5% in May. And so far the month of June is above the predicted rate. But these figures are actually below the real unemployment numbers. They don’t take into account the number of High School and College grads who will not be able to find work. They are technically not unemployed as many of them were never employed. A Catch 22.

Then there are the members of the Armed Forces who are returning from military service to no available jobs. Their only option is to re-enlist. The theory is that even a shit job in the military is better than no job at all.

Add to this the number of individuals that are under employed. This is a common practice in the service industries, where employees get close to minimum wage. Their hours get cut to a minimum, but they cannot claim unemployment compensation because they still have a job.

Last fall a friend wrote to me saying that it looks like we we’re heading into a recession. I disagreed saying that we were in a recession and heading into a depression. All of the leading economic indicators are proving me to be correct.

A few weeks ago another friend stated that this economic downturn was orchestrated by the Bush Administration to keep our thoughts on things other than the War in Iraq. Judging from recent Newspaper Headlines; it’s working.

The Beach Bum