Willful or not, this ignores basic economics. Businesses are, indeed, sitting on quite a bit of cash. Why isn't it being invested in hiring workers? The answer can be found in economic textbooks, not political screeds and the answer is this: demand is soft and productivity is high. When you can meet demand by making your current workers work harder (especially with the decline of organized labor in the private sector) then there is no economic incentive to hire more workers.
The problem isn't particularly political. If consumer demand shot up do you think that companies really wouldn't hire workers because they don't like Obama? "Please sell me this widget." "No, sorry, we're out of widgets and won't make more right now because we don't like Obama" "Ok, I'll go buy the widget from this other dude" "Have fun and beware of socialism" I'm pretty sure that everyone here is smart enough to understand basic supply and demand. Look at the economic numbers out there. It isn't a supply problem. It is a demand problem. Now, the good thing is that productivity has declined slightly recently. Surveys seem to indicate that companies have wrung out about as much extra as they can out of a work force that is really afraid of losing their job. We've also had a period where inventories have declined and consumer spending is starting to tick up. This, hopefully, indicates that we've reached a point where a lot of the excess in the economy has been worked through and businesses will have to start investing a bit more to meet demand, which will increase jobs, which will increase demand because more people will have money. As Robert points out though, consumers are paying down debt and increasing savings at a rate they did not prior to the recession, so that means that demand may increase more slowly than it has in the past. Still a long tough slog. Judah On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 8:31 AM, Robert Munn <[email protected]> wrote: > > They are following what they see as the best interests of their > shareholders. Compounding the problem, consumers are continuing to pay > down debt rather than spend. Do we then blame consumers for dragging > the economy down? Of course not. > > The President and Congress deserve the blame for creating a hostile > environment for these companies, who understandably are keeping their > money on the sidelines until things improve. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:327973 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
