Where Have All The Jobs Gone?

The number one question in the country today is where are the jobs? Well, there aren’t many and I’ll tell you why. In my opinion, one of our biggest problems is that we as a country have moved to a financial system where we only make money off of money. Many years ago we were based on being a productive system. We made, built or produced things. All kinds of things and we did it better than anyone else in the world. “Made In America,” really meant something.

Then we moved into being a creative system. We decided we would invent, create and design things, but let the rest of the world make, build or produce them. This was fine for a while as we transitioned from one kind of job to different kinds of jobs.

Now we have moved into being a financial system. We just make money off of money. We don’t build, make or produce hardly anything so there are fewer and fewer jobs. Most decisions in this country are being made by Wall Street, financial institutions and large corporations. These people and companies don’t make, build or produce anything. They don’t even come up with ideas of new things to make, build or produce. We were better off in the days of the robber barons than today because they at least produced jobs and products.

The stock market is nothing more than high stakes gambling. I’m sure it didn’t start out that way but it has certainly evolved to that. At one time a person invested (bought stock in a company) because they thought it was a good company and maybe they could make some money along with the company. If the company did well so did the investor, or at least didn’t lose money.

Now, the value of stock can change in a heartbeat, not because of something the company did, but because of something totally unrelated in another part of world. Also brokerage companies play little games that the investor knows nothing about. Buying short is one, like they did a couple of years ago which helped bring on the mortgage crisis.

There was a time when Wall Street and Main Street intersected, but no longer. Main Street is like that once thriving small town that is now dying on the vine after it got by-passed by the Interstate highway.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for capitalism. It’s still the best system in the world but it totally depends on us to keep buying stuff. That was alright as long as we were making most of it. That has changed and now we are seeing the results of that change.

Isn’t it ironic that the headlines scream about high un-employment, gas and food prices going through the roof, and how sad the economy is while the largest corporations enjoy some of their highest profits ever and the giant financial firms are handing out major bonuses? It is not capitalism that is ruing our country, it is corporatism.


Stay tuned for future adventures.