How bad will misery index have to get?
By the end of the Jimmy Carter administration the media had developed a new measuring tool called the 'misery index' to calculate the general attitude of Americans toward the country.
For the last few months I have been watching the new administration and must admit I have been afraid we are heading for a repeat of the Carter administration and the 'misery index' might very well surface again. The only thing preventing this might be the media's love affair with the president.
As of late I find myself looking at the possibilities of a 'Jimmy Carter II' and am now considering that the best case scenario. In other words I hope it only gets that bad and we can recover from it like we did back then.
We are watching a runaway liberal train with a completely novice engineer at the controls and Congress providing wide open track in front of him. The government is attempting to take control of the finance industry, the auto industry, the health care industry and who knows what else? The same people who gave us 'homeownership is everyone's right' which basically started our economic ball rolling down hill are now wanting more control over some of our countries largest industries.
The higher seats of control in our government are made up of career politicians and attorneys who have never managed any type of business in their lives. The vast majority has never had to turn a profit nor made a tough business decision. What they are experienced at is taking massive amounts of tax revenue which we are all forced to contribute under penalty of law and spending it how they see fit ... often with incredibly wasteful results.
Aside from defending the United States of America with our military I can't think of one enterprise the government is involved in that is efficient, productive or even close to well run.
A recent report mentioned that government had hired something like 20,000 new employees at an average salary of $75,000. I guess Obama's stimulus is at least working in one industry. Unfortunately it is an industry where the employees produce absolutely nothing.
Marc Thomsen
Elk Grove Village