Archived Past Pages:

2007 pages

2008 pages

011509

020409

021809

W e e k l y   F e a t u r e   P a g e
Links to archived past pages on lower left

LOOKING UP

It is just no wonder people don’t know what to think. Every night, you come home, straddle the chair, load up your plate, and there, just beyond the meatloaf and mashed potatoes, the nightly news anchor is listing all the plants that closed that day, tolling the bells for another failed bank, or chronicling the big sell-off on Wall Street. You can almost bet that the first half of the news will be devoted to the seemingly unprecedented chaos in our economy. The new president has marshaled all his supporters on the hill and hammered out a “stimulus” bill, in hopes of getting the economic train back on the tracks. I’m not sure. For instance, “Ex-Lax” is a well known “stimulant” too, but that whole story usually ends up with the phrase, “down the drain”. Give a hyper active 6 year old another bowl of sugar, and you’re gonna light him up real bright for a while, then he ends up face down in his mac and cheese around supper time. Maybe more confidence would be inspired by a “Stability” package. That’s what seems to be missing. A giant cash infusion, followed by the realization that it was our “giant cash” in the first place, just seems to add a little more volatility to an already twitchy, jumpy, panic-stricken system. Again, not sure.

Equally troubling to some of us out here in the Heartland, is the fact that many of those hoping to address the problem seem to have chosen the arbitrary cutoff level between the haves and the have-nots at somewhere around the $250K per annum level. We often hear that figure bandied about as sort of a threshold, implying that anyone earning less than that was in a precarious position. Well, color me bright “precarious”, buddy. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d like to think the problems appear a lot closer to the ground than that. Perhaps the yardsticks by which our duly elected representatives measure their constituents has become a bit warped by prolonged immersion in that endless stream of liquid assets that we annually pump in their direction. And I don’t think that basic disconnect is limited to elected types either. For example, in the earlier stages of this crisis, the 3 corporate CEO’s flew their tin cups to Washington onboard their luxury private jets. It wasn’t just a small PR mis-calculation, it didn’t even occur to them how incongruous that might look to the “little people” out there. Our government bails out faltering financial giants (you know, the type that will reach across their mahogany desk and push that “Release the Hounds” button if you are 12 hrs. late with a payment to them) who then think, “Thank God, now we can reward our greedy, inept, CEO with that $5M bonus he so richly deserves.” And they do it! And he takes it!! The disconnect is that complete. Apply that scenario to your life/job/career. Suppose you decide you can enhance your bottom line by leaving that gasket out of the fuel supply line on every unit that goes down your assembly line. Then one day a whole parking lot full of grocery-getters bursts into flame in front of the local beauty parlor. Are you really going to be expecting a fat bonus, come December?? Not so sure about that either.

As always, no solutions available here, clearly those are only generated well above our pay grade. Just leaves us with the lingering question, exactly whose problems are getting solved here? Just remember, as you struggle along on your hands and knees, there on the bottom of the food chain, try to be forgiving of those whose bootprints you feel on your back. They don’t even know you’re down there.

©2007-2009 Mid Michigan Old Gas Tractor Association (MMOGTA). The contents of all materials available on this Internet site are copyrighted by Mid Michigan Old Gas Tractor Association (MMOGTA) unless otherwise indicated. All rights are reserved by Mid Michigan Old Gas Tractor Association (MMOGTA), and content may not be reproduced, downloaded, disseminated, published, or transferred in any form or by any means, except with the prior written permission of Mid Michigan Old Gas Tractor Association (MMOGTA). Any unauthorized usage on newsgroups, or other internet sites, or unauthorized reproduction, printing or sales of these images is prohibited under existing Federal Copyright laws of the United States. We will actively prosecute those that duplicate, distribute or otherwise use our images without express written authorization or release. Mid Michigan Old Gas Tractor Association (MMOGTA) maintains this website to enhance public access to information about its functions and policies in general. Our goal is to keep this information timely and accurate. If errors are brought to our attention, we will try to correct them as soon as possible. Mid Michigan Old Gas Tractor Association (MMOGTA), however, accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the material on this site.