The Victorious Opposition

It use to be that Santa’s only needed to be plumb, somewhat jolly, and not be listed on any sex registry, but in today’s environment having some motivational or family therapy training can go a long way.

As a longtime Santa Claus at a suburban Chicago mall, Rod Riemersma used to jokingly tell children they would get socks for Christmas if they were naughty.

This year, he stopped telling the joke. Too many children were asking for socks. “They’ve probably heard their parents say, ‘Geez, I wish I had some money to get them clothes,’ ” says Mr. Riemersma, 56 years old.
The Santa Index

A wintry measure of hard times can be found this holiday season on the knee of white-bearded, red-suited men around the country. A couple of years ago, children were shooting for the moon, asking St. Nick for Xboxes, iPods and laptops. But with the economy still fragile, many children are requesting basics such as shoes, library cards and even eyeglasses, say dozens of Santas who work at malls or on the party circuit.

“Kids will hear the E-word, but it’s not Elmo,” says Tim Connaghan, who runs a Los Angeles Santa-training school. “It’s the economy.”

How sad is that?

And the stress level is compounded, first by kids worrying about the basic essentials of life and then by bread winners feeling ashamed because the bread is not being won and and their jobs of providing for their families has gone wanting. In this land of plenty it seems that what is bountiful is worry, grief, and uncertainty.  Kids have enough to worry about today (and they have it much harder than when we were growing up).

Sometimes even the best training can’t keep Santa from being caught off guard. Mike Smith, who works as Santa at the Polaris Fashion Place in Columbus, Ohio, says a 5-year-old girl wearing a Dora the Explorer sweat shirt last month hopped in his lap and asked, “Can you turn my daddy into an elf?” “Why?” he asked.

“Because my daddy’s out of work, and we’re about to lose our house,” she said.

A candy cane or some Christmas cookies is not going to solve that problem.

Some would argue that in our disposable society, kids have been basically spoiled, asking for ridiculous outlandish items that would seem unthinkable 20 years ago, and if a cold slap of reality removes the pathos of instant gratification and gets them into focusing on what’s important in life, then they will turn out more well rounded and better equipped to deal with real life.

“While visions of sugar-plums socks danced in their heads”..............no thanks.

Although the death of opulence in anything may not be bad, some of my most cherished memories of family has always revolved around Christmas, and not just the loot, but it was the time spent with family.

This year, although we will be spending less, the traditions established in our house will not be wanting. The decorations have all gone up. The stockings have all been hung including one for the dog and the cat ,this year we made personalized stockings for our two chickens (pets for the kid but I like the fresh eggs) and our two squirrels that live in our willow tree in the back. I figure if we feed them, then they are part of the family. I did have to draw the line at the two deer that have invoked eminent domain in our open space in back, the fact that I haven’t called Ted Nugent on them should be merry enough.

So what say the rest of you guys? Has there been any deviation from the usual holiday festivities this year and how are you all coping with any changes?

I would also encourage those that can to not forget those truly in need and maybe give something to the toys for tots drive at the local firehouse, or feed the Salvation Army kettle at the stores. This morning outside of Safeway I was chatting with a Salvation Army volunteer and asked her about donations this year. She told me they were still good, people will dig a little deeper over Christmas. Reading stories like this about kids asking for shoes or socks, these Tiny Tim’s need some hope.

I could of swore that our president told us back in February that the $789 billion stimulus package was needed to curtail the spiraling unemployment rate, and with its passage, that rate would be arrested at 8%. Given that the rate is now over 10%, and that the unemployment rate among our black community is at 34.5%, I don’t think we are getting sufficient bang for our buck.

Of course this only applies to the private sector (you know, the real growth engine of any economy), the federal government has never been fatter.

The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.

Take a look at that chart on the left under “federal ranks”. Who said the American dream of prosperity is dead?

And here is the soup bone quote:

The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker’s pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.

It’s not like we did not have sufficient warning that an explosion of big government (and the wages to pay for it) was coming, nor was this trend out of line with Mr. Compassionate Conservative, who in 8 years never managed to find his veto pen while signing appropriation bills. But therein lies the problem, no one seems to know or has shown any desire to stop this massive behemoth.

It is its inherent nature for government to be fraudulent, corrupt, duplicitous, inefficient, and wasteful. It has neither the internal mechanisms to keep it on the straight and narrow (the incompetent are never let go, there is no competition for positions, the market does not decide openings, there is no incentive to do more work then you absolutely have to, and the truly exceptional are subjugated to the same levels as the barely competent) nor are the market forces inherent to real competition (no capital is ever at risk, no market factors to determine which company excels and which is forced out of business, no personal incentives exist to compel the business or its employees to put out its best effort, and no consequences exist for sub standard, antiquated, or inefficient work).

Government should do a few things, well, providing for the common defense and promoting the general welfare, those sort of things, everything else should be left to the private sector because only in the private sector will market forces compel them to be efficient. Only in the private sector, where your capital or your time is placed at real risk, can true competition exist, and without competition, we get an inefficient useless federal job paying twice as much as a useful private sector job.

For those in the camp advocating that our nation is one in decline, this is about the best indicator I can think of for promoting that belief.

Little commentary is necessary here. I knew my state was in trouble but did not think we were giving Michigan a run for its money, nor did I realize that Alaska has been bad for a very long time. Notice the slow creep enveloping pretty much the entire nation. Parts of the mid west and the rocky mountain states have suffered less, but that could easily be lack of population, lack of manufacturing plants, and more agrarian living.

Any way you slice it, it is this fact above all others that will cause the ruling party more consternation in upcoming elections.

I would like to see a power change more than most but not at the cost of genuine misery to fellow Americans. I hope this ship gets righted the fastest. The holidays are stressful enough, a malaise brought on by a deficiency in one’s personal economy at this time of the year can be too grievous to bare.

Quote of the day award goes to:

“To drop out of that league, that was hard to do,” Turner said. “I’ve had the experience of being on top and riding the roller coaster down again, nearly to the bottom. You know, if you economize and don’t buy new airplanes or long-range jets, or that sort of thing, you can get by on a billion or two.”

I feel your pain, Ted. Really. I do. Seriously.

H/T: Bloomberg

I thought of this thread on the way home today, because I was talking to both Thrill and fingerbang today. It’s a fucking tough ass market out there, but how are you really living these days? Has this recession forced you to rethink everything, or nothing, or is there something you’ve done that we could all benefit from in these slimmer times?

Strictly speaking for myself, I saved myself an ASSLOAD of money getting outta the car game. I have a classic Mustang, it’s got a V8, and “what the fuck are you looking at?” It costs me gas and oil changes. While it’s not a panty dropper (in the Los Angeles sense) to see a 32 year old dude rolling around in her grandpas car, fuck it. Once I started at the company that shall not be named (anymore) my promise to myself was to not take my merit increase and get a Mercedes with a vanity plate. I have been on an aggressive savings plan of saving a quarter of every paycheck I make. It has made me feel very good about myself, but let’s just be fucking frank (and I don’t mean Frank Newman), I don’t live anything like Luke Perry here.

I live in a 2 bedroom apartment, I drive a 22 year old car, and I have nothing but savings to show my worth. I have some old furniture, a nice bed, and my crown jewel (JimK said he would blow me for this) is a Macbook 17 inch (oh yeah) and an Ipod touch. I also have my bike (I bought it for 200 dollars) that I ride everywhere now. It’s almost a little treat to myself if I drive. People ask me at work if I woke up late if they don’t see my bike in my cube. Didn’t want to squash that “Hollywood image” of life here, but that’s the way it is.

That said, I can buy just about anything I want to right now, do anything I want to right now, and not being pretentious in these times has suddenly turned into the “in” thing to do. Imagine working on a studio lot, driving what many would consider a shitbox, and not really having any real agenda behind you. The perfect crime.

If you would have asked me 12 years ago to review the myself of today, he probably would have been like “what a fucking loser”. Maybe. However, for being an artist, i have fulfilled my destiny, done what I set out to do, and have nothing more to prove to anyone. You cant get any better than where I am right now. Sure, I don’t have a big house, a fancy car, or even some faggoty designer furniture to show for this existence. Remember, you’re talking to a very poor kid, born from a mother who did her best at a young age, and nurtured us the only way she knew how. Knowledge, and nurture.

How are you guys? i really want to know what’s going on out there. I don’t want to have a selfish opinion about the world.

If you love your car, you might dream of making it to the one-million-mile mark, too. But can it be done? The consensus seems to be that with regular maintenance and the necessary parts replacements over the years, most modern cars can go the distance.

I’m not really sure what the secret, underlying point of this article is, but I know that there’s one there.  I’m a little tempted to say that making your current car last for a million miles is a great “fuck you” to the automobile manufacturers but it seems more likely that this may be part of a coming theme of recession stories that basically say “Let’s Make The Most Of A Bad Time!”

I mean, if you can’t buy a new car thanks to tight credit rules, it should be fun to keep that old clunker going until 2030, right?  Something just tells me that the longer this economic crisis goes on, the more of these stories we’re going to see. 

Next week: Making back-to-school clothes for the kids out of those old towels you were going to throw out!

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There are people around here far more savvy in the financial details of this sort of thing; please give us your thoughts on this analogy being made by the New York Times:

During World War I, Americans were exhorted to buy Liberty Bonds to help their soldiers on the front.

Now, it seems, they will be asked to come to the aid of their banks — with the added inducement of possibly making some money for themselves.

As part of its sweeping plan to purge banks of troublesome assets, the Obama administration is encouraging several large investment companies to create the financial-crisis equivalent of war bonds: bailout funds.

The idea is that these investments, akin to mutual funds that buy stocks and bonds, would give ordinary Americans a chance to profit from the bailouts that are being financed by their tax dollars. But there is another, deeply political motivation as well: to quiet accusations that all of these giant bailouts will benefit only Wall Street plutocrats.

The problem I see with this is that Liberty Bonds, and the WWII-era War Bonds (which survived until the 1980s as E-series US Savings Bonds), were government-backed securities (although the government defaulted on the final series of Liberty Bonds, due to the Great Depression). This new program, proposed as a bond-fund issue from companies such as PIMCO and Blackrock (among those bidding to get in on the program), is backed by assets labeled as “toxic” by those advocating this new program.

Doesn’t this make the new program more analogous to junk bonds? Which doesn’t mean it’s a horrible investment - these can be a good balancing element in a diversified portfolio for sophisticated investors. But it’s not a mom-and-pop main street investment opportunity with guaranteed return like savings bonds. If I understand the program correctly, there is planned to be a government matching fund for the initial purchase, with no guaranteed returns. One source is claiming an investment at 60 cents on the dollar for a potential return of 15%. Good deal if you can get it. But it’s all contingent on being able to flip the asset, isn’t it?

I actually don’t find the idea of “bailout bonds” objectionable on its face - certainly better than minting cash, raising taxes, and saving everyone. But this program is sounding to me like something that would land you in jail for securities fraud if you were to pitch it to individual/small investors this way.

I’m talking to my financial advisor again later today, as we work on rebalancing our portfolio. Maybe we’ll keep some cash for a couple months and look at buying into one of these funds as part of the riskier part of the rebalanced portfolio. But I am really hoping we aren’t going to be seeing ads for people to buy this stuff as a patriotic duty. I’d expect to see return-based insurance for such a program, not investment-assistance.

Anyone who actually deals with this for a living have any insights for us?

In the DC area, if you are in the IT/Software/Internet space, most of the available positions are either Federal sector, or private-sector Federal contractors. This is probably no surprise. It is, however, exceptionally annoying for someone like me who works on consumer-facing products. But that’s a different conversation.

There’s a very interesting phenomenon that seems to be an indicator of the local IT job market’s health. A couple years ago, when I was between jobs, I would look at various Federal positions, or major contractors like SAIC, CSC, Booz-Allen, etc, and the positions would generally state “must be clearable”, “position contingent on successful background check”, or something to that effect.

Now almost every position I look at, either at Federal agencies or at one of these contractors has “requires active security clearance”, and most of those require “active TS/SCI w/full lifestyle poly” (I believe that’s the highest possible clearance; not sure about that, but it’s a long involved clearance process).

Having only ever worked in the commercial-sector jobs, I have never had a clearance. As far as I know, I’m clearable. And in the past, I’d apply for some of these positions. Now, there’s no point when the entrance criteria is an active clearance at a level that can take up to 2 years to get (and a process that can only be started once you’re sponsored - you can’t go get yourself cleared).

It’s also the case that almost no job-search sites filter based on clearance level.

Which means that at least 90% of the open positions in this area I can’t even really take a shot at, but I have to wade through all this chaff to find the wheat.

I believe things are this way now because there are so many people out of work in this region. There are so many cleared job seekers that they can set the entry bar this high, where they couldn’t in the latter half of 2006 when I was last searching.

Interesting data point, anyhow.

As a bartender and trainer at a national restaurant chain, Rebecca Brown earned a couple thousand dollars in a really good week. Now, as a dancer at Chicago’s Pink Monkey gentleman’s club, she makes almost that much in one good night.

The tough job market is prompting a growing number of women across the country to dance in strip clubs, appear in adult movies or pose for magazines like Hustler.

My first question upon reading this was how it was that if the economy is so bad that highly educated women are being driven to work in titty bars, why do men still have money to spend in these establishments?  Well, the author of the article had that one figured out:

Still, analysts say, the industry isn’t immune to the economic recession. Business is down an estimated 30 percent across all segments, including adult films, gentleman’s clubs, magazines and novelty shops, said Paul Fishbein, president of AVN Media Network, an adult entertainment company that has a widely distributed trade publication and an award show.

“In the past, people have said this industry is recession-proof,” said Eric Wold, director of research for financial services firm Merriman Curhan Ford. “I definitely don’t see that; maybe recession-resistant.”

Strip club dancers and managers said they’re drawing in the same number of customers, but fewer high rollers.

Last year’s Onion joke about a porn bailout could yet come to pass.  My suggestion is to hire illegal alien dancers who will strip/screw/pose for half the price that American sex industry workers will.  It seems to work alright for Wal Mart.

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