Catawba County Unemployment Rate hits 15.6%

Now maybe people will see that it all goes together. This is just like the Great Depression, where people forgot how to do business. We have to start producing things. Here is the link to the Hickory Daily Record article entitled Area jobless rate nears 16%.

My critiques of the bureaucracy and the people have been meant to sound a warning of the path that we have headed down. I knew it was too late to not feel the pain of the bad economic decisions made on personal and public levels, but I was hoping that we would get back on the right path. I don't care about credit and there are no accolades that go along with doom and gloom. The only thing I want is for things to get better.

I would like to commend the local city and county government for running a fiscally tight ship. They really do deserve credit for that foresight. I hope that they will soon get on board with me in condemning the reckless spending, fraudulent reasoning, and utter incompetence of Washington and Raleigh. If we play footsie with these people, then we will get treated like the management of the corporations that thought they were taking the easy road.

As a nation and a state, things aren't going to get better until we get back on a common sense, fiscally responsible path. Y'all can come join the Responsible Movement now or when things completely collapse, but I will guarantee you that if you choose to go down the reckless path that you will soon be back. What has happened over the last couple of years and especially since I really dove into all of this last September, is that many feelings that I have had since I was a youth have been re-enforced.

1) It seems we cannot get anything done as a nation until it becomes a crisis - I sure wish that we could change that mindset, but I fear that until we get back to what the founders envisioned that we will always be in crisis management mode. First, Congress doesn't deserve a penny until they get this ship righted. Everyone in the government needs to take a 10% to 25% salary cut. When the government gets back in the black then they get back to their current salary. We need to insist on term limits. It isn't fair to place them on some positions and not on others. This needs to happen in elected and unelected positions.

2) No one accepts a crisis until it personally affects them - I like the saying about what is the difference between a recession and a depression. A recession is when my neighbor loses his job and a depression is when I lose my job.

We can all see that the economy has slowed down. Some would like to say that this is psychological, but folks it isn't. Some of you think it is a problem of the mind, because you aren't in crisis mode, because you still have your job or maybe you are retired, but in some way you are the ones detached from reality. Your 401-k or IRA values aren't going to come back until this country gets back on the right track. I don't say any of this to insult you, I say it to try to kick you into crisis mode. It is time for action.

We are in the after effects of a debt bubble that has burst. It is irresponsible to keep trying to re-inflate that bubble. It is time to quit using debt until we get our personal and public houses in order. Think about it logically. Can you borrow your way out of debt. If you are $50,000 in debt and you borrow $50,000 are you out of debt? No you are $100,000 in debt. But, some people in our bureaucracy seem to believe that we can borrow our way out of debt.

3) People belly-ache, but they always take the path of least resistance - If you want to see a change, then you are going to have to become personally involved. If you look under the Problems and Solutions forum, you will see a link to all of our local officials addresses and e-mails. Please let them know that you are alive. Most of them don't even think you exist.

The Hound says: Rise and shine folks. It is time to wake up. We do get the government that we deserve, because we are supposed to be the government and we have abrogated our duty and responsibility. We have sought an insecure path to security and that is what has led us to where we are now. 19% of the adults in this area don't have a high school education. This is a burden to our community. Crime is on the rise and it isn't the best and the brightest of us that are perpetrating these offenses. It's time that we realize that from top to bottom, we are reaping what we have sown.

How do we change this? By becoming selfless. By realizing that a lot of thankless unpaid work is going to have to happen to turn things around. One person committing one good deed can lead to others doing the same and that is when we will turn this thing around. Please, we must do everything we personally can to turn things around. Please realize that we, as individuals, can sow seed that will bare good fruit.

Please write letters to our Government Leaders. Tell them whatever is on your mind about our local situation. Here is a link to those addresses:
Hickory Regional National and Local Representatives Address List
State House Representative List
State Senator List
Contact for Hickory Government
Contact Catawba County Board of Commissioners