The Economy Is Killing Me

Apparently we are in a time of need. People are loosing jobs all over the place. Companies are cutting back their spending all over the place. Certain firms are forcing pay cuts and taking away paid time off and yearly raises. Some are even going completely to the opposite direction and filing for bankruptcy and ending it all. And according the previous and current presidents we are officially in a recession.

The price of food is going up. Corn, sugar, barley, beef, chicken, bread. The cost of a gallon of case has been on a roller coaster for the last two years hitting high’s over $5 a gallon. (It is currently bouncing around the $1.49-$1.79 mark.) People are traveling less. People are eating less. More coupons are being clipped and more savings accounts are being drained.

So what is the government doing about it? I mean, they are the ones that are in the end responsible. They control spending on a national level, they control the processing and production of money. They control the war we have spent over a trillion dollars on. They control every thing that is spent in one way or another. So what are they doing to help? They are giving a bailout. President Bush passed a $750 billion bailout. It did not help. He then, the last week he was in office, passed another $350 billion dollar bail out. Now, once Mr. Hope and Change has entered the office, he is looking at a $835 billion bailout to add to that. Now, correct me if I am wrong, but what in the hell are they going to accomplish by giving us all, say, $1,000 each?

That is a topic for another time. But know that your government wants to help is by bailing us out by pulling billions of dollars from somewhere. Where does that money even come from? Does anyone know? I have a guess and it begins with tax and ends with payers. I will personally, if this money ever does come, will just put the money in the bank. I am not going to go on a shopping spree and then a week later be right back to where I started.

But the reason for today’s post is not the state of our economy. It is not about the bail out that we will probably never see. It is about the way it is effecting one particular family. Today a man, who had once worked at a local L.A. hospital with his wife, walks into his home after sending a fax. He walks in, and opens fire. He shoots his wife, five children, and then himself. That is a total of 7 murders to welcome your Wednesday morning.

Both he and his wife were laid off from the same hospital. And he sent this 2 page types fax to a local news station to explain his plan. The news station was concerned, called 911, and by the time police showed up there was a murder scene in the making. All 7 have been identified and all pronounced dead at the scene.

Now, you have got to be kidding me here. I am only 25 years old and I am not even out of college yet (stop laughing) and I know that there has to be more behind this than simply him loosing his job. Of course I am on the side that says, sure, he and his wife were both job less and running out of money. I am also on the side of the fence that says 11 million other people are in the same boat as you. That number, however, is not that high. We are only at about 6.5% unemployment rate. Sure, we are not the lowest rate in the world, but that is not that high and not the highest it has been in the United States before. We were over 15% during the great depression.

My question and concern is what in the world was his justification to end everything over a lost job. He was 32 years old for God’s sake. And not only to take his own life, but to also take the life of his 5 children and his wife too?

The economy might be bad, sure. But it can’t be that bad that you have to go to such extremes. But the economy is in bad shape. I mean, I did have to wait in line for 45 minutes to get tickets to a movie last Saturday. Oh, and I had to wait almost an hour for a table at Olive Garden last week. So yeah, the economy is pretty bad.