Performance Review in Washington???

In your job, in whatever it is you do for a living there are consequences. If you work for a sizable company you might even have regular reviews of your performance. What happens if you do a bad job? Maybe you get a closed door meeting where you are told to shape up. If you do a bad enough job you might just get fired or have to close your business. If you get fired or close your business do you get health benefits or a pension? I don't think so, and if you do count yourself as lucky as our leaders.

Did you know that our president continues to receive benefits after he leaves office? He even gets a pension. ("A taxable pension that is equal to the annual rate of basic pay for the head of an executive department.") Currently they receive about $191,300 till the day they die. That amount is just a drop in the bucket, they get more benefits. The combined cost of the former presidents for 2008 was around $2,235,500. That amount doesn't even include the Secret Service protection they get which is reported to total $24 million a year. Former congressmen and congresswomen get a similar pension (which in 2006 was to the tune of $22,103,976). Our leaders can be paid our hard earned tax dollars after they are finished with their term. It makes matters even worse when they are voted out of office.

There is a piece of legislation that has been introduced called the Federal Pension Forfeiture Act. This act will cause a congress person to lose their pension if they commit certain crimes. I say we take this act one step further.

Let's create some consequences for doing a bad job in office. Once a congress person or president has left office the voters which were represented by that person get to decide by referendum if they receive their pension. We are all held to a standard in our jobs and businesses, why not our leaders?

Of coarse this Act would have to be voted into law by the very leaders for whom it provides consequences. Usually dogs don't don their own leashes!!!

Tax Cuts are just like a New House

Obama's little fireside chat got me thinking, well ok it actually pissed me off.

So here we are in the midst of an economic crisis, right? The solution our FEARLESS leader and his band of idiots in congress come up with is cut taxes. This at first glance makes a lot of sense to me how do you get people to spend money, well you make sure they have more of it. I get that, who doesn't? Well let us play the analogy game, shall we?

As a government how do you help/encourage someone to buy a new house? Maybe you give them more change in their pocket (ie a tax cut). Sure, sure that makes sense, but you aren't going to give them $100K in extra change so what else might they need to buy a house? Hmmm...how about a mortgage? Well if we are the government we don't really do that but we can make some policy or legislation that persuades lenders and banks to CAPITALIZE on this group of people. I STRESS CAPITALIZE HERE!!!! So now you have a banker/lender (who we all know loves money) who is like a little kid wanting candy and mom or pop (AKA government) is giving them a little push from behind to go get that candy. At this point you probably get the picture; the kid doesn't really need the candy (as any responsible parent would know), the bank doesn't really need a new risk prone market to invest in, and the taxpayer doesn't really need the house either.

Well I only have one question left for you. If we don't have the money in the Treasury to spend and we aren't going to raise revenue (ie, taxes) how in the heck are we going to pay for these spending programs?

If you haven't guessed it and you own a home with a mortgage SMACK YOURSELF IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD! That's right folks we are going to borrow it, just like the home buyer who doesn't have the $100K change in his pocket!!

So in summation, the government, Obama, Congressmen/women who voted to spend billions/trillions, and us (you know the people that voted these morons into office, what does that say about us?) are repeating the mistakes of the mortgage lending crisis only this time on a scale that makes the mortgage crisis look like a drop in the pond. Ok I lied I have one more question...What happens if the United States of America can't pay back the money we borrowed?

Bits of wisdom from people

Pessimism/Optimism

I don't know about the rest of you but I kind of enjoy looking back and seeing the mistakes I made so as to learn and grow from them. Sometimes I even revel wallowing in the misery that the past has brought upon me.

You might be thinking wallow in the past? Revel in that? Why not look forward where you can change things? You might even be looking down on me for not trying to find the good in all this unemployment business, thinking to yourself why not be optimistic about the situation? Believe it or not you aren't the only person to think this much less tell me. I say screw all of you and the horses you rode in on.

Helen Rowland once said "An optimist is merely an ex-pessimist with his pockets full of money, his digestion in good condition, and his wife in the country." Well, my spouse is in the country but the way things are going I don't know for how long. I have empty pockets and bad digestion, just ask my spouse, so I fit the pessimist mold perfectly. I really would like to be an optimist, in fact I think I once was one when my pockets were full and my crap came out whole.

Things could be worse...

I keep hearing people tell me that it could always be worse. Screw that, of course things could always be worse. Things could always be better too. Telling someone that it could always be worse is like telling me I could have six fingers on my right hand. Well, sure I could BUT I DON'T! I suppose people say it to put things in perspective; well for the record I have more than enough time to put things in perspective while waiting for the 20 companies I applied to yesterday to show interest in me. I need perspective like I need another asshole. What I need is a F-ing JOB!!!

Someone once said "I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet." Employed people telling me it could be worse is like the man with no shoes complaining to the man with no feet about his shoe problem.

Introduction

My checking account reads $53.12. I have been laid off twice since May 2008.

Go ahead read it again, I know it's a shock. Now imagine trying to accept it. I am starting to feel like I have a disease...maybe I do.

I know that I am an intelligent, rational, hard working person who can accomplish anything if I put my mind to it but here I am woefully unemployed again and I have to ask myself is it me? Now, you might be thinking of course not, you just happened to worked for two companies that made poor choices which hurled them into the Worldwide Economic Black Hole, and you would probably be right. Now the first time I had the usual difficulty with it. I resolved the issue in my mind and accepted responsibility for my part and went on with looking for a job. I even found one and sunk myself into the work I had found, thankful I had a paycheck (albeit smaller) and a place to work. When it happened the second time I couldn't just accept it and move on. I was, and still am, plagued by the possibility, even the likelihood that it is not coincidence.

This may seem trivial, even simple to resolve but with each day that my unemployment grows longer and greater I find it more and more difficult to dismiss as coincidence. This has innumerable effects on me. I have become more depressed than I have ever been in my life. I take my frustrations out on my friends, my family, and even my spouse. I used to be such an easy going nice person but now I am just an pain in the ass.

While I try not to wallow in my suffering (often unsuccessfully) I spend my days looking for jobs or ways to learn new skills that will help me get a job. If you have ever been unemployed you know how boring and frustrating that can be as you watch your bank account dwindle to $0.

This blog will be three fold: 1) On one hand I will post about unemployment its frustrations, pitfalls, and negative effects on anyone that breathes, 2) An accurate account of how the mortgage crisis took down the auto lending industry, and 3) Some verbal venting in the general direction of the parties to blame for above mentioned Worldwide Economic Black Hole (hereafter referred to as WEBH).