Business as Usual

Yesterday I received an Email from a friend who lives on Treasure Island. I said to myself “What the hell, I Blogged about this topic more than two months ago”. Before sending a flaming email, I checked and I hadn’t.

When I write a Blog I first write it in MS Word. While going through my files I found that I have 8 unfinished Blogs; one dating back to last October. What usually happens is I start writing at night (when I am pleasantly intoxicated) and plan to finish the next morning or afternoon. But occasionally the next morning I get a new divine inspiration for a Blog and pigeon hole the previously partially written Blog. Being the good procrastinator that I am; sometime weeks or months go by before completion. In most cases time is not of the essence.

I started to write a Blog early last February and for some unknown reason never finished it. I was to be titled Trickling Up II - Addendum Part III. It concerned possible alternatives to the government’s master plan, of the allocation of our tax dollars, to get the US economy back on track.

But then I read the following article in the business section of The Saint Petersburg Times and had planned to plagiarize (adopt and adapt) some of the ideas written by readers of the newspaper.

I don’t know if the newspaper’s staff listed them by relevance; but the first was the best idea:

Put America first

Patriotic retirement: There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force … pay them $1 million apiece severance with stipulations.
They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings — unemployment fixed.
They buy new American cars. Forty million cars ordered — auto industry fixed.
They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage — housing crisis fixed.

David Otterson,
Largo

Add to this my friend’s (“Indiana (Indy) Bob” - He probably got his nickname from the household dog) concept that all people that can (more than a million families), should give, their children a tax free gift of $12,500 with the stipulation that they spent it and not hoard it.

These are both very sound ideas, but neither will fly in today’s society.

Our business as usual Congress and the people who have the ability to give their children a tax free gift, both travel to a beat of a different drum. After all, they will long gone before the full impact of the bailout effects the next generation.

The Beach Bum

Desperate Times

Today I read some alarming facts and figures about the Florida County in which I currently reside.

First is the unemployment rate. On December 31st it was at 10.9%. On February 28th it was 12.6%. The available County work force is less than 65 thousand (30% of the County’s residents are age 65 or older and retired). In addition twenty three percent of the people that are employed work out of County.

The County’s largest employer is Wal-Mart (2 Super Wal-Mart stores, a distribution center and a Sam’s Club). Wal-Mart recently laid off many of its part-time employees and cut hours of some full-time employees during the last two months. Our newest National Retailer, Kohl’s, has already cut back on its staff.

I’m not really sure, but I don’t think that the Unemployment figures included people that are unemployed and not collecting unemployment compensation. If so, this would increase the unemployment percentage as stated above.

Second is the housing market. Back in 2004/2005 there was a housing boom in this County. It drove up the prices of the existing homes. This wasn’t unique to the County, it was happening throughout the US.

Many of the new (construction) homes still lie vacant and they no longer have sales agents on duty in the model homes, just a number to call for a showing. I doubt that the phone rings very often.

In our zip code (probably the largest residential zip code in the County) there are 490 single family homes listed on Realtor.com, of these 450 are Bank owned. In addition realtytrac.com lists 1137 in pre-foreclosure and another 240 as Sheriff Sales (unpaid property taxes). I would guessitmate that this is more than 40% (if not 50%) of the single family dwellings in this zip code.

Third is the small business crisis. Last year (2008), 47 small businesses closed in our County. Some were franchises. In addition, some businesses, with multiple locations, have consolidated. The shopping centers have many “For Lease” signs in the vacant storefronts. The place where I got my Chicago Hot Dogs and Italian Beef Sandwiches has been closed for 8 months. When your sales do not cover the cost of your rent and utilities; you close (I wish they would have warned me – I would have bought their Vienna Franks supply).

And finally a not so shocking statistic, but nonetheless alarming. In 2008, County applications for concealed weapons permits had increase by 28% over the last year. In December alone, it was a 21% increase over the previous December. I haven’t seen the figures or the first two months of 2009 yet, but I’m sure that the numbers are escalating. It’s a Fear Factor, when people are desperate they will do desperate things. One has to be prepared for the worst case scenario.

The Beach Bum