Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- August 5, 2012

Survey: 40% of American Families Live Paycheck to Paycheck - Newsmax.com - Julie Crawshaw - August 3, 2012 - A new 60-page report from the Consumer Federation of America and the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards reveals that two in five American households—almost 40 percent—live paycheck to paycheck, with no savings, retirement account or emergency fund, The Fiscal Times reports.                    The number of families living this way has increased by 7 percent over the last 15 years, in no small part because of the recession.              Now, only 30 percent of Americans say they feel comfortable financially, and only one-third think they have enough saved to retire before age 65. In addition, the survey found that 51 percent of Americans feel behind on saving for retirement, a figure that has risen over the last decade and a half.



Only 24.6 Percent Of All Jobs In The United States Are Good Jobs - The American Dream Blog -  Do you want to know why it seems like good jobs are very rare in the United States today?  It is because good jobs are very rare in the United States today.  According to a paper that was just released by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, only 24.6 percent of all American jobs qualified as "good jobs" in 2010.  Over the past several decades, there has been increasing pressure on corporations to reduce expenses and increase corporate profits.  One of the biggest expenses that any corporation faces is labor.  Large corporations all over the globe are in an endless race to gain a competitive advantage by pushing labor costs as low as possible.  Sometimes this is done by using technology.  Computers, automation, robotics and other forms of technology have eliminated millions of jobs in the United States and those jobs are never coming back.  Millions of other jobs have been eliminated by offshoring.  In our globalized economy, American workers have been merged into one giant labor pool with everyone else.  That makes it very tempting for big corporations to move jobs from areas where workers are very expensive (such as the United States) to areas of the world where it is legal to pay slave labor wages.  When big corporations do this, corporate profits go up, but the number of good jobs in the United States goes down.  As a result, there is increased competition for the jobs that remain in the United States and this drives down wages.  Meanwhile, the cost of living just keeps going up.  So millions of American families have fallen into poverty in recent years, and millions of others have gone deep into debt in an attempt to survive.  This dynamic is absolutely shredding the middle class in the United States.                     So how exactly did the authors of the paper mentioned above come to the conclusion that only 24.6 percent of all jobs in the United States are good jobs?                         Well, they had three criteria for what a "good job" is....                        (#1) The job must pay at least $18.50 an hour.  According to the authors, that is the equivalent of the median hourly pay for American workers back in 1979 after you adjust for inflation.                    (#2) The job must provide access to employer-sponsored health insurance, and the employer must pay at least some portion of the cost of that insurance.                    (#3) The job must provide access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan.


Seasonal And Birth Death Adjustments Add 429,000 Statistical "Jobs" -  Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden's August 3, 2012 - Happy by the headline establishment survey print of 133,245 which says that the US "added" 163,000 jobs in July from 133,082 last month? Consider this: the number was based on a non seasonally adjusted July number of 132,868. This was a 1.248 million drop from the June print. So how did the smoothing work out to make a real plunge into an "adjusted" rise? Simple: the BLS "added" 377K jobs for seasonal purposes. This was the largest seasonal addition in the past decade for a July NFP print in the past decade, possibly ever, as the first chart below shows. But wait, there's more: the Birth Death adjustment, which adds to the NSA Print to get to the final number, was +52k. How does this compare to July 2011? It is about 1000% higher: the last B/D adjustment was a tiny +5K! In other words, of the 163,000 jobs "added", 429,000 was based on purely statistical fudging. Doesn't matter - the flashing red headline is good enough for the algos.

CHART OF THE DAY: The Scariest Jobs Chart EVER - Business Insider - Joe Weisenthal August 3, 2012 - With the unemployment rate ticking higher, and the pace of job creation still at a pathetically low rate (by historical standards), we're compelled to revisit this chart.                        It's put together every monthly by Bill McBride at Calculated Risk, and it shows the trajectory of job losses in all of the various post-WWII recessions. This current recession (and recovery) is the bright red line.                 As you can see, the downtrend was far worse than anything else we'd seen since WWII, and the rise is far more meager than anything else we had seen.

'Real' Unemployment Rate Shows Far More Jobless - CNBC - Jeff Cox - August 3, 2012 - ... The government's most widely publicized unemployment rate measures only those who are out of a job and currently looking for work. It does not count discouraged potential employees who have quit looking, nor those who are underemployed — wanting to work full-time but forced to work part-time.

For that count, the government releases a separate number called the "U-6," which provides a more complete tally of how many people really are out of work.               The numbers in some cases are startling.                Consider: Nevada's U-6 rate is 22.1 percent, up from just 7.6 percent in 2007. Economically troubled California has a 20.3 percent real rate, while Rhode Island is at 18.3 percent, more than double its 8.3 percent rate in 2007.                 Those numbers compare especially unfavorably to the national rate, high in itself at 14.9 percent though off its record peak of 17.2 percent in October 2009.


Friday’s Jobs Report: More Lies From “our” Big Brother - Paul Craig Roberts - August 4, 2012 -
In his report on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest jobs and unemployment report, statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) writes: “The July employment and unemployment numbers published today, August 3rd, were worthless and likely misleading. . . . Suspecting at one time that the jobs numbers were being rigged against him by his own Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), President Richard M. Nixon proposed a new approach to reporting the numbers. Although the proposed changes never were implemented, several decades later the BLS adopted reporting methods that were somewhat parallel to the late president’s thinking.”                   ...According to the BLS, there were 163,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs created in July. This figure is about 13,000 more jobs than is needed to keep pace with population growth. Therefore, the unemployment rate should have declined fractionally. Instead, the unemployment rate (U3) rose from 8.2% to 8.3%.              In case you missed the point, new jobs, a net figure, rose and so did the unemployment rate!                    Moreover, the alternative, but much less reported, jobs report from the Household Survey found that the economy lost 195,000 jobs in July.





Grantham: Investors Should Gird for Global Food Crisis - Newsmax.com - Nancy Stanley - August 3, 2012 - While the relentless drought affecting much of the United States has increased agricultural commodity prices, a larger force is at work and this is only the beginning of the price increases, according to Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of the global investment management firm GMO.                    We are “about five years into a chronic global food crisis that is unlikely to fade for many decades, at least until the global population has considerably declined from its likely peak of over 9 billion in 2050,” Grantham wrote in his quarterly letter to investors, CNBC reports......                 Grantham believes the main drivers of the crisis will be a spike in demand for food from an increasing global middle class, decreasing grain productivity, a tainted water supply, increasing fertilizer and fuel costs and climate change, according to CNBC.          Food production will need to increase 60 to 100 percent by 2050 in order to adequately feed the more than 9 billion people who will populate the Earth, he noted.                 “The portfolio investment implications are that investors should expect resource stocks—those with resources in the ground—to outperform over the next several decades as real prices of the resources rise,” Grantham wrote. “Farming and forestry, though, are at the top of the list. Serious long-term investors should have a very substantial overweighting in a resource package.”                 The drought that is afflicting more than half the country will drive up food prices, and losses could eventually rival the 1988 drought that cost $78 billion in today’s dollars...


Spike in Crop Prices May Signal 'Chronic Food Crisis' - CNBC - John Melloy - August 3, 2012 - ... In the last three months alone, wheat prices [WCV1  891.25    26.25  (+3.03%)   ] are up 41 percent, corn [CCV1  807.50    11.75  (+1.48%)   ] is up 29 percent and prices for soybeans [SCV1  1628.75    12.25  (+0.76%)   ] are up 17 percent.
 

CORN DEC2 - (For December Delivery) - (CCV1)

807.50     11.75  (+1.48%%)
Chicago Board of Trade

Ten States Where Young People Can’t Find Work - 24/7 Wall St. - July 23, 2012 - Unemployment in the United States has been a hot-button issue since the Great Recession left millions out of work. While the employment picture has begun to improve, albeit slowly, one group that still is in particular trouble is those aged 20 to 24 years old.                                  While unemployment rates rose during the recession, they shot up much more dramatically for the part of our population that had just graduated from college. In several states, the unemployment for young Americans is alarmingly high. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed historical unemployment data for the U.S. population aged 20 to 24 by state to identify the 10 states with the most unemployed young people.
Unemployment trends among young Americans tracks with national trends. Between 2009 and 2010, the national rate rose from 9.3% to 9.6%, while the rate for those 20 to 24 increased from 14.7% to 15.5%. Between 2010 and 2011, the national job market showed signs of recovery and the unemployment rate fell to 8.9%. In that same period, the rate for young adults fell to 14.6% — a rate still nearly double that of the country as a whole.                      Historically, things are as bad for young adults in these states as they have been in at least 29 years. Compared to 2001, when the nation was in the middle of its last major recession, the national unemployment rate was roughly the same as it was in 2011. However, the unemployment rate for 20 to 24 year olds was substantially higher. In nine of the states on our list, unemployment rates among this age group were higher than in 1981. In four cases, it is five percentage points higher.                      There appear to be several common trends among the states on our list. Those states with high unemployment among the young have some of the highest proportions of residents without at least a high school diploma. All of the top three states with high youth unemployment were among the 10 with the lowest percentage of 20 to 24 year olds with high school diplomas.                       These states are also, for the most part, extremely poor. Six of them have among the lowest median income in the country. Mississippi, which had the highest youth unemployment in the country in 2011, also had the lowest median income in the country in 2010, the most recent available year. As evidence of the extreme poverty in these states, many of these states have among the highest percentages of residents receiving food stamps. In Tennessee, for example, 17% of residents received food stamps in 2010, the second-highest proportion in the country.                    24/7 Wall St. reviewed historical unemployment figures for each of the 50 states provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to identify the ten states with highest unemployment rates in 2011 among residents 20 to 24. The BLS provides unemployment rates for a variety of age groups, including those aged 16 to 19. However, these ages were excluded because such a large percentage has yet to enter the job market. 24/7 Wall St. also examined overall unemployment rates for 2009, 2010 and 2011 from the BLS. Statistics on educational attainment, median income and poverty from the U.S. Census Bureau were also reviewed.

4. North Carolina
> Unemployment rate ages 20-24: 19.6%%
> Total unemployment rate: 10.5%
> Total no. unemployed ages 20-24: 93,000
> Pct. less than high school diploma: 18.3%
Last year, the unemployment rate for people aged 20 to 24 was five percentage points higher in North Carolina than the nationwide rate of 14.6%. Between 2007 and 2011, the proportion of North Carolinians in this age group who were unemployed more than doubled, rising from 8.3% to 19.6% over four years. This increase of 11.3 percentage points was the second highest among all states in the country for that period. The number of unemployed young workers in that age range rose by roughly 58,000 statewide at that time. In order to better prepare young adults for work, North Carolina, along with Tennessee and four other states, joined the Pathways to Prosperity Network.
           

Just Open Up Your Eyes And Look - 65 Signs That The Economic Collapse Is Already Happening - The Economic Collapse Blog - Micheal Snyder - August 1, 2012 - Do you want to know when the "economic collapse" is going to happen?  Just open up your eyes and take a look.  The "economic collapse" is already happening all around us.  So many people talk about the coming economic collapse as if it is some massively hyped event that they will be able to point to on the calendar, and a lot of writers spend a lot of time speculating about exactly when it will happen.  But as I have written about before, the economic collapse is not a single event.  The economic collapse has been happening, it is happening right now, and it will be getting a lot worse.  Yes, there will be moments of great crisis.  We saw one of those "waves" back in 2008 and another "wave" is rapidly approaching.  But all of the waves are part of a process that is continually unfolding.  Over the past 40 years, the United States and Europe have piled up the greatest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and now a tremendous amount of pain is heading our way.  Economic conditions in the United States and Europe have already deteriorated badly and they are going to continue to deteriorate.  Nothing is going to stop what is coming.                     But many people are still in denial about our economic decline.  Some people still believe that everything is going to be just fine.  Way too often I get comments on my site that go something like this....                    "I just don't know what you are talking about.  Where I live everything is just fine.  The malls are packed, the restaurants are full and everybody I know is going on vacation this summer.  Personally, I am doing great.  I just bought a 60 inch television and a new boat.  Every year all the 'doom and gloom' types such as yourself proclaim that an economic collapse is right around the corner but it never happens.  And you know what?  It is not going to happen.  Those in charge know what they are doing and America has the greatest economy on earth.  We have overcome challenges before and we will be able to handle whatever comes this time.  Your lack of faith in America and in the American people astounds me.  Everything is going to be just fine, so why don't you just *************************************."
You get the idea.               I definitely understand that most Americans are terribly self-involved these days, but when I read comments like this I am once again amazed at just how delusional some people can be.                    Why can't people just open their eyes and look at the evidence of economic collapse that is all around us?                      Yes, there are wealthy enclaves all over the country where things may seem better than ever, but that is not the reality for most Americans.                     All over the country, our infrastructure is in shambles.              All over the country, our once proud cities are being transformed into hellholes.                 All over the country, formerly middle class families are living in their cars.                        There are dozens and dozens of economic statistics that clearly show that we are in the midst of a long-term economic decline.  I have listed 65 of them below, but I could have easily doubled or tripled the size of the list.                 I simply do not understand how anyone can believe that things are "great" or that the U.S. economy is going to be "just fine".
We are living through a complete and total economic nightmare, and hopefully we can get more Americans to wake up from their entertainment-induced comas so that they can begin to understand exactly what is happening to this country. (Follow the Link to the 65 Reasons)


G Edward Griffin Creature From Jekyll Island Second Look at the Federal Reserve

The World Wide Hound - God Bless America

As we approach the 75,000th unique visitor to the Hickory Hound, I show you the map below of the last 500 people to visit this site. You will see the broad reach of the Hound courtesy of the World Wide Web. Whether you agree or disagree with the message, thanks for visiting.

The World Wide Hound

Messages - August 3, 2012

Just wanted to take a minute and tell ya'll how much I love you and how you enrich my life. In this complicated, busy world we are running around, trying to make a living, straighten out our messed up politics, take care of our people, and trying to build a better tomorrow. I'm good with that, but also don't forget to love each other just as we are and thank God for the people we've had the good fortune to spend our lives with. Peace, love and good health to all. - Harry Hipps



I went and put some flowers on my Grandmother and Grandfather's grave on Tuesday. My grandmother would have been 98 years old this past Monday. She passed away on August 6th last year, one week after her 97th birthday. I didn't get to see her the day she died. That bothered me. It still bothers me. I spent all of those years with her in the same house. I was willing to see it to the end, but wasn't afforded that.

Some of the self absorbed losers in this world will think it was weird living with your grandmother. But, my grandmother was always there for me and I tried to be there for her. Sure, we got on one another's nerves sometimes, but that is what families do.

She always tried to instill in me to be an honorable person and to help people and she sure helped me. Some people say, you need to look out for number one. My grandmother always paid it forward and it is my obligation to do the same. People said that it was nice that I went and put those flowers on Mammaw's grave. I told them it was an obligation. They said it wasn't an obligation, but it was. It was an obligation of love. Miss you Mammaw. I truly hope you have the peace in heaven that we have never been afforded here on earth. - James Thomas Shell

Tent on Union Square finished by Friday - No "Big Top" among the 12 name finalists

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: August 2, 2012
Contact: Dana Kaminske
Communications Specialist
828-261-2289
dkaminske@hickorync.gov

The structure on Union Square in downtown Hickory nears completion

HICKORY – The structure on Union Square in downtown Hickory nears completion with the final panels being hung.

The panels began being hung on Wednesday morning, August 1, and should be completed on Friday, August 3. The final touches will be made to the custom-designed structure, such as adding new tables and chairs and testing the lighting with the panels. Lighting and upgraded security cameras have been installed. The last piece to finish the structure will be to name it.

The name for the structure has been narrowed to the top 12 names from 360 submissions by the community. A committee, made up of individuals from various organizations, businesses, and age groups from within the community voted on the final name. The name will be announced, as well as the winner who created the name, at an upcoming grand opening event to be announced soon.

The top 12 names for the structure are:
COMET – (community, outdoor, market, event, tent)
Hickory Station Pavilion
Market Pavilion
Piedmont Pavilion
Randy Ingold Pavillion
The Canopy
The Hickory Pavilion
The Hub – (Hickory's Undiscovered Best)
The Pavilion
The Sails (on the Square)
Union Square Pavilion
Whistle Square

The outdoor furniture is being made by Timmerman Manufacturing, a local furniture company that specializes in wrought iron fabrications. Highly-skilled artisans fabricate each piece of furniture by hand. After each piece is constructed it is carefully inspected and cleaned by removing all of the dirt, grease, and scale. The piece is then etched to provide a superior surface for the paint to adhere. Every item made is painted with an electrostatic painting system that causes paint to flow evenly and uniformly around each piece.

The panels were designed using AutoCAD in conjunction with a fabric design software called MPanel. MPanel allowed the company, Leighweight Manufacturing, to draw the panels in 3D. The software takes the 3D shape and flattens the fabric panel out. It then creates a pattern from those pieces. Panels were cut using a computer cutting machine. The panels were welded together using a high frequency welding machine (RF), which basically melts the layers of fabric together. From start to finish each panel took about 12 hours to complete, this does not include the assembly of the hardware to the panels.

The panels are made of a fabric material that is a high performance coated PVC textile, 702 PVC Coated Fabric, White Translucent, 22oz/sq/yd with a weldable PVDF topcoat, made by a company called Ferrari, using their precontraint technology. This technology has allowed them to get a thicker coating than in more traditional structural textiles. The ultra white coloration allows for very uniform light transmission and blockage of harmful ultra-violet rays. All cable pocketing is re-enforced with a double layer and bracket sections made much thicker for strength with a high heat fabric weld process. The edge cables were galvanized aircraft cable with a clear PVC coating, stainless steel threaded end fittings. The membrane and clamp plates, the metal hardware, were all made from ASTM A572 Gr.50 steel and had a hot dipped galvanized finish. All tensioning hardware is stainless steel. The high tension of the panels is evident in the size and quality of metal components required to attach the panels to the structure.

Sleeping about money leads to having no money!

... And sleeping about the Economy leads to having no economy!

Did y'all see what happened yesterday morning when the Bot systems took over Wall Street?

Flood of Errant Trades Is a Black Eye for Wall Street - New York Times - NATHANIEL POPPER - August 1, 2012 - An automated stock trading program suddenly flooded the market with millions of trades Wednesday morning, spreading turmoil across Wall Street and drawing renewed attention to the fragility and instability of the nation’s stock markets.....             While the broad stock indexes quickly recovered and ended the day slightly down, it was the latest black eye for the financial markets. The runaway trading suggests that regulators have not been able to keep up with electronic programs that increasingly dominate the supercharged market and have helped undermine investor confidence in stocks.....                  Traders on Wednesday said that a rogue algorithm repeatedly bought and sold millions of shares of companies like RadioShack, Best Buy, Bank of America and American Airlines, sending trading volume surging. While the trading firm involved blamed a “technology issue,” the company and regulators were still trying to understand what went wrong.


Terminator or the Dark Knight Rises?


Latest Market Glitch Shows 'Trading Out of Control' - CNBC - Jeff Cox - August 1, 2012 - Wednesday morning's stock snafu had a familiar ring to it — mysterious volume in trades that simply could not have been made by a human comes surging out of nowhere, causing brief but acute market mayhem.....                   By now, many players on trading floors have gotten used to the disruptions that can come from the highly automated new world of high-frequency trading. But that doesn't mean they like it.....                      "This algorithmic trading is kind of out of control," Phil Silverman, managing partner at Kingsview Capital, said as officials at the New York Stock Exchange tried to make sense of what happened. "It seriously hurts investor confidence."

The Fed will print up more Monopoly Money once they decide who they want for President. Actually, I think they have already chosen.

Fed Holds Off on New Steps to Stimulate US Economy - Reuters through CNBC - August 1, 2012 - The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said the U.S. economic recovery had lost momentum so far this year, but stopped short of offering new monetary stimulus even as it signaled further bond buys could be in store.....                         Fed officials described the economy as having "decelerated somewhat,'' and reiterated their disappointment with the slow pace of progress in bringing down the nation's 8.2 percent jobless rate........                     The central bank, which disappointed market expectations by not extending further into the future its guidance for low rates until late 2014, nevertheless showed it was prepared to do more to support an ailing economy.


Who does the Fed answer to?



75% Of Americans Believe The Fed Should Be Audited – Why It Won’t Happen - Gold and Silver Blog - July 30, 2012 - Most Americans under 30 have a strange sense of unease that something is very wrong with the way things are going in America. If you are 60 or older and can remember with nostalgia how life in America was prior to the days of blatant and corrupt crony capitalism, you know for sure we are heading in a very wrong direction at an accelerating pace.                    I can remember the days when the average worker could support his family without putting his wife to work, without having to give up on having children, without having to worry about banks going under, without having to worry about an implosion of the financial system and without the expectation that the government would provide handouts to solve every little one of life's problems.                  Gradually, it has begun to dawn on the average American of all ages that the Federal Reserve may be at the heart of the nation's financial problems. Much has been written about this, but two graphs sum up the situation quite nicely. Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the value of the dollar has declined to a fraction of what it was once worth and since the abandonment of the gold standard, government debt has reached levels that are no longer sustainable without further debasement of the paper dollar. The American public is beginning to connect the dots.

And then there is our Petroleum based Economy


Gas Prices Post Rare, Steep Rise in July - Wall Street Journal - July 31, 2012 - If it seems like the price of gasoline is rising quickly and at an odd time of year, that is because it is true. The average price of a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. rose 5.1% or 17 cents to $3.50 per gallon today according to auto and travel group AAA.             This marks the first monthly increase since March and the largest July increase in at least a dozen years. The average price of gas in July was $3.42 a gallon. This was the third-highest average price for July ever recorded. AAA began keeping the fuel-price data in 2000.....                             National average gas prices rose for 26 days in July after hitting a low for the summer of about $3.33 a gallon on July 2.

And the LIBOR scandal

US senator asks NY Fed for more answers about Libor scandal - Reuters - August 2, 2012 - A U.S. senator on Wednesday asked the New York Federal Reserve to explain further the actions it took to address possible manipulation by big banks of the Libor benchmark interest rate.                  Democrat Sherrod Brown, who sits on the Senate committee that oversees the Fed, questioned Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's assertions that he had no authority to address rigging problems with the key inter-bank lending rate.                       In light of the Fed's past claims to strong expertise and authority to oversee the largest U.S. banks, "it is difficult to accept the argument that the Fed has no authority to address this problem," Brown said in a letter Wednesday to the New York Fed's president and director of bank supervision.                          The Fed oversees large banks, including the U.S. branches of foreign banks such as Barclays Plc, which paid a record fine to settle charges that it manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate. (Libor scandal: Barclays executive Jerry del Missier given £8.75m pay-off - The Telegraph of London - Alistair Osborne - July 31, 2012)


Now back to sleep my children

Sometimes Going Back is Going Forward -- Let's Fix This!!!

Comment made in the previous article that I want everyone to see and see the response to:

The change in the 1960's was moving away from segregation and towards integration just as old ward style isolationist (kingdoms)elections progressed to the at large elections that we have today. The change took the City in the same direction as most Cities in NC are today-overwhelmingly so. It appears as though this referendum is moving the City back to the 1960 era. Not a good thing. It took a progressive Council and Mayor to make the change in the 1960's. Ok fire away Hound!

To the first anonymous. I am not attacking the messenger. I am "Attacking" (addressing) the message. I'd love to talk with this guy. The only thing I did was mention his name. He called what we are doing radical, thus inferring that we are radicals.

To the second anonymous. I appreciate your reasoning and it does fall in line with the argument made at the time of one man one vote, but the process and logic are very much flawed in my opinion.

We are the only city, our size, in North Carolina that has this Modified At-Large system, which is what the information that the city went and got from the School of Government shows. There are two cities our size that have the pure ward system. The other cities have Pure At-Large systems with no wards in the cities, so Hickory is doing their own thing.

You talk about kingdoms. Is the State of North Carolina a Kingdom? Last time I looked there is no one from South Carolina clamoring that they deserve to vote here and in Virginia and in Wyoming. The pure Ward system is best, in my opinion, because it allows people to deal with the issues in their community/neighborhood. Kingdoms are defined by Monarchy and Kings. We are talking about empowering regular ole people and having their representatives be accountable towards their communities/neighborhood's interests. That doesn't seem all that bad to me. It is grassroots participation at its finest. It keeps it to where a representative looks out for what is best for his community/neighborhood first, while fitting that (and plugging into) the needs of the overall City. That is the way this State and Country works.

DoGood made an excellent point. Elected City Officials claim that they Look at (have looked out for) the welfare of the entire city. This was the argument made back in the 1960s. What are they defining as the entire city? Seems like it is only the very center of Old Hickory.

Where are the big Economic Development and Revitalization projects in Southwest Hickory, Highland, St Stephens, and even Viewmont? Heck, they have allowed the people with degraded and abandoned properties in these areas to have free rein, thus depreciating the value of those properties that are taken care of. What if you bought one of these properties years ago and all of this degradation has subsequently occurred? What have you, as a property owner, done to deserve this fate?

It was stated back in 1967 that the going to an At-Large system would lead to machine politics and I believe it most certainly has. The Mayor talks about Horse trading under a ward system and that is what we have seen under the current At-Large system with the less wealthy wards being held hostage by the wards with more wealth and any monies towards economic development going towards the wealthy interests, while the middle class and poor are ignored. Give and take is going to happen under any system, but when ones neighborhoods are taken into consideration first that is a lot more noble than money interests coming first.

You can read about all of this. We haven't tried to hide anything, but we do provide opinion.


http://thehickoryhound.blogspot.com/2011/11/1967-how-we-got-where-we-are-today.html

http://thehickoryhound.blogspot.com/2011/11/1961-lesson-in-hickorys-history.html

The logic and reasoning of the City Leadership in 1967 of one man/one vote was as wrong then as it is today with the 2012 City Leadership. If I can vote for my ward representative who lives in my community/neighborhood and then 5 people who never step foot in my ward come along and decide they know what is best for me, then we are diluting the voting rights of that ward. We are right back to the system that surrounded segregation all those years ago.

I believe that if you allow the wards to have representation that meets the dynamics (Culture & Socio Economic) of that particular neighborhood/community, then the people of that ward feel better about their representation and governance and they will participate in their governance. And if they don't like their representative and feel that they aren't represented by the individual, then it will be much easier to boot them out.

When all of the Wards are empowered and come forward and work together, plugged in - charged, on the City Council bench, then it will mean the empowerment of every crack, corner, creak, and crevice of this city and you will see revitalization and human energy come back to Hickory.

This City is not doing well folks. Most of us see that. Many of the most don't know what to do. This is what we need to do folks. What happened back in 1967 was a mistake. No name calling or insults are intended or needed. They were misguided. I understand the fears and motivations they had that caused them to go in this direction, but I believe those fears were unfounded... that what happened didn't benefit anyone and that what we can be, can be so much more.

That is the reason why I believe in the Pure Ward Voting System.

You know sometimes having the courage to admit mistakes in logic and reasoning and going back to your foundation, roots and reestablishing your mission is a good thing. Dead end roads don't lead to progress. In this case going back is going forward!

Ward Referendum Voting Meeting - Patrick Beaver Library - July 28, 2012

This was a open meeting held on July 28, 2012. The public was invited and a diverse group of citizens attended the meeting. This discussion was an open discussion where Joe Brannock and Myself (Thom Shell) spoke to the issue of why we support the direct ward system. Jay Adams, a former Mayoral and City Council candidate and supporter of this issue, was asked to make an impromptu address of the group. Billy Sudderth, the discussion facilitator for the Citizens for Equity in Government also made some important points of discussion.



The Hound: We talk about the lack of participation.... Taking ownership of your personal lives and governance... The dynamics of the local governance... Ward Dynamics... The Dilution of your vote and influence in the ward you reside in... Gaining a voice for citizens... The Dynamics of the current City Council and City council meetings... Empowering Neighborhood Associations... Moving Citizens Requesting to be Heard to the front of the Agenda at City Council meetings... Wealth should not control the Power of Governance... Diverse people coming together for common interests... shedding the labels... term limits... 2,707 reasons for signing the petition... problems with the City Management form of Government.

*** We are the only city our size in North Carolina that has the Modified At-Large electoral system with Primaries in Wards leading to an At-Large General Election.

The following comment is about the meeting this past Saturday and a response to the Letter to the Editor in the Hickory Daily Record by Mr. Paul Byrd,  in which he labels those supportive of the Direct Ward Voting Movement as "Radicals." If believing that government belongs to the people, all of the people, and people should have input in their governance 365 days per year and people should be able to state an opinion for the record to their government. If that is "Radical," then I am 100% guilty.

This was a great meeting and I was encouraged by the diversity of those in attendance - black, white; republican, democrat - casting aside political and racial labels and coming to together to talk about an issue.

And this meeting was open to the entire public - as advertised. I'd wish Mrs. Fox had publicly advertised her little get together at the library instead of personally calling a hand-selected few people.

I certainly don't know what it is, but our City Council members are hell-bent against sitting down in a public setting and discussing this issue.

Hopefully, Mr. Guess will man-up, and accept the Greenpark Neighborhood Assoc's invitation to speak at a forum they are holding in August.

As with so many other things, only time will tell. I guess the only refreshing thought is that here lately, the chips have been falling in a manner independent of the City's control.

I can only imagine what the City will look like on September 19th - but I am very much looking forward to it!

DON'T FORGET TO GO VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!