Leave The Recession Alone!

NBC News today mentioned how gasoline prices during this recession has led to higher food prices, is hurting families, blah blah blah blah blah.

How they've failed to report that the recession ended in June, 2009, almost a good two years hence.

Remember, the recession has long ago ended. It's no longer. To make reference to families suffering today due to the consequences of a minor economic slump that happened two years ago is just wrong, according to those at the National Bureau of Economic Research and to the author of this monologue. Families aren't suffering due to any recession; their suffering is due to their own doing, not to the economy at large. That any given family has endured a layoff or a foreclosure or a repossession or a cut in hours or a takeback is their own damn fault, not because the economy is dour. Laid off? Shouda worked a bit harder, slick. Shouda been more valuable to your employer than what they were payin' you, slick. Shouda landed a recession proof job, slick, not selling pianos, mortgage insurance, microwave ovens, Kirby vacuums, kitchen cabinets, speculative real estate, hot tubs, financial products or pool tables...

I'm tired of hearing about how the Great Recession is still to blame. Might as well keep on blaming Bush. Indeed, some are. But regardless, the recession is over...and it's been over for nearly two fucking years. Get over it. If you can't find a job then you, obviously, aren't looking hard enough. There are plenty of corporate $9/hour wage slave positions available around Elk Grove in this Target/Walmart/Best Buy/Lowe's/Radio Shack/Burger King economy of ours. Go out and get one instead of bitching about how the Great Recession has you down.

Nine dollars an hour. One hour's work will get pissed away each day as you drive your 2006 Ford Expedition with the $6k rims to your front desk managerial job at the freeway Hilton Garden Inn, some eleven miles away from your rental. Won't matter really -- you spent $860 for that in-dash nav system for those twice-a-year trips outside Elk Grove that could have perhaps been saved or invested, but no, your income is below Federal poverty levels for Sacramento county and you obviously know you'd be better off not declaring any assets lest you be denied free assistance, so two thumbs up for in-dash navigation. So much better than those outdated, archaic paper maps, too. Spending a full afternoon folding them up after the weekend dash to Infineon Raceway for the Toyota/Save Mart 350? No way...

Yep. Sick and tired of the recession! It's over, but all you alls don't want to believe it. What, you don't trust the PHDs at the National Bureau of Economic Research? They're doctors, you know, and everyone trusts doctors. They're right. It's over. Been over. Leave The Recession Alone!

Growth has resumed. Deficits have quintupled, yes, but growth has resumed. Regardless of your little unemployment figures (which is a lagging indicator, by the way) we've been growing for almost eight straight quarters. Stop blaming the recession! Leave The Recession Alone!