Sponsor-Whale and Ale
|
|
| |
Search by Artist or Event Name |
|
Our Suggestions:
|
 |
Archive
-
November, 2011
-
October, 2011
-
September, 2011
-
August, 2011
-
July, 2011
-
June, 2011
-
May, 2011
-
April, 2011
-
March, 2011
-
February, 2011
-
January, 2011
-
December, 2010
-
November, 2010
-
October, 2010
-
September, 2010
-
August, 2010
-
July, 2010
-
June, 2010
-
May, 2010
-
April, 2010
-
March, 2010
-
February, 2010
-
January, 2010
-
December, 2009
-
November, 2009
-
October, 2009
-
September, 2009
-
August, 2009
-
July, 2009
-
June, 2009
-
May, 2009
-
April, 2009
-
March, 2009
-
February, 2009
-
January, 2009
-
December, 2008
-
November, 2008
-
October, 2008
-
September, 2008
-
August, 2008
-
July, 2008
-
June, 2008
-
May, 2008
-
April, 2008
-
March, 2008
-
February, 2008
-
January, 2008
-
December, 2007
-
November, 2007
-
October, 2007
Home  At Length Will You Be Here After the Recession?
|
|
Will You Be Here After the Recession? |
PDF
|
| Print |
|
E-mail
|
|
Written by James Preston Allen
|
|
Monday, 28 September 2009 |
Will You Be Here After the Recession?
By James Preston Allen, Publisher
Understanding that San Pedro and the rest of the surrounding bay area, which bears its name, is the veritable doormat for the global economy isn’t the most satisfying of definitions by any means. The ports like to call themselves the “economic engines” for the region (what do they call it when the engine runs out of gas?). It is even a less glorious modifier when the global free trade is in global free fall mode––spiraling into what economists and politicians politely call “recession.”
You can hear how the economics is working, or not, on any given night here in the harbor communities if you just stop to listen. If the cranes are silent the unions aren’t pulling a night shift, and in recent months, there hasn’t been enough extra work for the part-time “casuals” to get more than a day of work here or there. This is, in part, is what our parents and grandparents warned us about when they told stories about “making-do” during the Great Depression. There is going to be a lot of “making-do” around here for a while.
Some of this attitude that we inherited from our elders is essentially about making AND doing, which is quite a bit different than going shopping at the mall or being on the Internet. Cyber-space isn’t the place to grow a garden or fix your washing machine. You can’t buy everything on eBay nor do you really want to. People actually like to touch and feel the things, smell and taste the vegetables at the farmer’s market or maybe try on the coat to see if it fits at a local store. We have in a very short period of time become the consumer culture that we have been sold and we make less and less of what we consume. Thank you Richard Nixon for opening up trade with China.
Things have gotten so bad that the ILWU has opened up a food bank to help those workers who aren’t making enough to put food on the table and I’d bet that the other social service non-profits are suffering under the burden of increased demand for shelter, food and clothing as well. It also is a sign of the times when both the Salvation Army thrift shop and the one-year old Starbucks both close within the same month in the downtown San Pedro business district. How bad does it have to get for a thrift shop to go out of business?
On the other hand, Starbucks closing about 800 locations nationwide is the result of its own miss-calculation of both the market and its diluted coffee’s brand name. In the end, when Starbucks closed its locations, the corporate office ordered all of the contents to be shredded! Not taken out and resold, but shredded. And we wonder why corporate America is losing money? I was told by one source recently in the recycling business that they have a contract with Wal-Mart to recycle all of the returned goods that customers brought back. These are products that perhaps have been slightly used or scratched or ended up being the wrong size. Who knows? But weekly they are trucked in to the yard and pulled out with a big claw, then crushed and recycled– never having been broken or broken-in.
All of this announces in a big way that the recession has finally hit Main Street at precisely the same time that Wall Street, who caused the crisis in the first place, has rebounded by some 35 percent––the Dow Jones is up! Well, I guess we all realized that if the federal government had pumped $700 billion into Main Street businesses –– just for starters –– the recession would now be over for most of us too. The right-wing Tea Baggers would be calling this more Obama socialism, but saving Wall Street from its own corruptions is some form of abrogated capitalism. I do wonder though how this crisis would have worked out if it had been done the other way around? I mean investing the bailout money at the bottom of the economy and letting the AIGs crumble from the top; it would have been a bit like the reverse free market.
The question at hand for most small businesses and consumers alike is how to weather this storm? It’s like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina with the levies breaking. You can either wait around on your rooftops, expecting the National Guard to save your ass -- thinking the President flying over in Air Force One means something -- or you can start paddling your way to dry ground. In fact, the metaphor of New Orleans is exactly where America is today. Every city and state is the victim of the same premise that allowed one of this nation’s oldest and most treasured cities to become flooded for lack of action and lack of preparation. The Big Easy still hasn’t fully recovered or been rebuilt. Thank you George Bush.
Should we expect more from the current administrations in Sacramento and Washington D.C.? Yes. And it’s going to take more than e-mailing your representatives and watching Fox News! Our direct forbearers didn’t wait for FDR to act. They organized their neighbors and formed unions who fought for certain economic and social reforms; then, elected new representatives. They demonstrated and agitated for many of the social reforms that we now take for granted, ––from the eight-hour day/40-hour work week to workers compensation, child labor laws and Social Security pensions. We should do no less today. But we forget or haven’t been educated to understand this history well.
The same accusations of “socialism” were used to demonize Roosevelt’s New Deal just as it is being used today against President Obama and health care reform.
The deal is if capitalism weren’t broke, nobody would be tryin’ to fix it!
|
|
|
Sponsor - Available Space
This space is available.
Box Size is 160x200.
Your ad could be here.
Call (310)519-1442
for more information.
|
Advertise with Us!
Deliver your message to thousands of readers every day.
Our readers are influential opinion makers, community activists, local business owners, and politicians.
Learn more about ads with our 2012 Ad and Publication Schedule.
Call our office at (310)519-1016
or email us for more information.
|
|
