Will Normal Ever Be Normal Again?

With all previous depressions and recessions it was our automotive and housing/construction industries that pulled us out. Providing jobs, taxes and wealth that spread out and trickled throughout the economic structure of our nation.

With the housing collapse, and the bubble bursting with all of the foreclosed homes hitting the market, it will be a long time coming before the housing/construction industry is providing any real impact to the economy. With unemployment staying steady at a national average of 10.2% for the last five months of 2009 and looking to stay that way into the first quarter of 2010, the automotive industry took a huge hit, with many dealerships closing and many manufacturers restructuring closing plants and laying-off many production workers. Many 2009 models still sit on car lots with the 2010 models being out for 4 months already. Almost all dealerships are offering below invoice deals on the 2009 models just to move them.

With a true national debt of close to 50 trillion dollars, that equates to close to a half million dollars for every American household. Due to our government's profligate spending, we are the most indebted nation in the history of man!

My dad always told me that I would know I was old when I could play the "I remember when game". Well on February 1^st I will turn 50, a half century old, and there is a lot that I can play the "I remember when game" with. But I do remember in the 1980's, if you had a beef with your employer, or just did not like your job, you could quit and replace it with-in a couple of days, sometimes even the very next day.

Job's were plentiful, jobs of all types. You would look in the classified section of the paper and see 3-6 pages of classified ads. Not today! You are lucky if you see a ¼ to ½ page of classified ads.

Today, construction/automotive/manufacturing will not pull us out of the depths of the downward spiral that we have fallen on. With the national debt we have the days of stimulus, bail-outs, and government help should be over, if we continue borrowing money our nation will just fall as a once recognized power.

Normal we were use to is over, the normal that we need to become use to has to be, or otherwise we will be the fault of our own demise.

To pull us out of this we will have to become the foremost technology based again. There was a time when the radios and televisions and electronics were all discovered and manufactured in this country. So that needs to be a beginning, the new concepts in computers, cell phones, mobile devices, programming, and all other technology advancements need to be discovered and "MANUFACTURED" here in this country. No more selling our patent's overseas, no more taking our manufacturing overseas.

We use to be the foremost in medical and pharmaceutical advancements. We need to be again! We need not rely upon pharmaceutical companies overseas sending us there discoveries and vaccines. We need the discoveries and vaccines discovered and manufactured here.

Alternative energy - we need to work on getting away from fossil fuels NOW. Not 10 years from now, but in the very near future. Oil and fossil fuels will drive our nation broke, not to mention the environmental effects. We have seen over the last 2 years on the stock market how volatile the price of a barrel of oil can be and the affect it can have on our economy. Getting an alternative source of energy should be at the top of the list.

Science, medicine, engineering, computers, and technology these are going to be the driving force that will pull us back out of the tunnel we are in and place us back up on top, and bring things back to normal. Normal as we remember, then construction/housing/automotive will rebound.

But we also need to learn from our mistakes, as we rebound we need to keep our discoveries, our manufacturing OURS! Not ship them off or sell them off to other countries, as we did in the past. Like I said earlier most all radios, televisions and electronics were made here in the USA, can you name one television brand still made here or owned by a US company?

It is and will be in our hands if normal will be normal again. It's up to you, what part will you play?

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Copyright © Frank J. Ball Sr.

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