Like the Francones, four and a half million Americans have taken hardship withdrawals from their 401(k)s. With savings gone, unemployment checks exhausted, many are coming to charities including the CALL Primrose Center, a pantry of free food.
Mary Watts has run CALL Primrose for 11 years.
“Before the Great Recession began, you were sending out how many bags of groceries in a year? Pelley asked.
“When I started in ’99 it was 4,000 bags a year,” she replied. “It’s going to be 32, to 35,000 bags this year.”
Wow, you’d almost think the Republicans paid for a story like this right before the election. But it’s the truth whether the Democrats like it or not.
I have to believe we are nearing the point of civil unrest. But some people are just in denial, I get in these discussions where some say, with a straight face, why cut government jobs, that will just lead to higher unemployment? That seemingly educated adults don’t understand how government jobs are paid for, the mind just boggles…..
Let’s pray for a turn in the right direction next week.
People with income beyond their necessities aren’t spending money because they are unsure of the future. They are saving that money.
People with savings are afraid that run-away-inflation will decrease the actual buying power of those savings.
Politicians in the Administration are talking about trying to ‘stimulate’ inflation in order to ‘scare’ people with savings into spending those savings before they lose their ‘buying power’ in order to ‘stimulate’ the economy.
Businesses, especially small businesses, that hire people who spend money that stimulate the economy are not hiring people because they can’t obtain loans because the banks do not want to take very scary risks with the savings of the people who are saving their money in the banks.
The Administration wants to tax-the-heck out of small business owners who can’t afford to pay high taxes and this causes the small businesses to ‘shelve’ their plans for taking out loans, rehiring laid-off employees, expanding their businesses and hiring more employees.
Businesses and businessmen are being demonized by the Administration for wanting to run their businesses profitably and for fear that that demonization will result in repressive government measures that will make it too risky to make significant business at this time.
And the beat goes on.
Solution:
Stimulate businesses and ensure their owners that the government will not repress the “free enterprise system.”
Make reasonable loans at reasonable interest rates under reasonable terms to business so that they will borrow money.
Promise businesses that the Administration/Congress will not mess with the free enterprise system and keep that promise.
Cut income taxes and business taxes.
Create a ‘level playing field’ for interaction between businesses and organized labor in order to avoid situations that make American businesses unprofitable and which ‘open the way’ for foreign competition to take over’ the markets/market-shares of American businesses.