Jobs Report: 'The 'Hood Is Doing Bad'

Listening to the sound bites and news tickers, it seems like everyone's got a jobs report.  Mitt Romney announced that he would announce his jobs plan, and then he dropped a 150-page "plan" that includes phrases like "A robust investment tax credit, extending the write-off for capital expenditures for an additional year, and a lower payroll tax could each have a positive effect if properly structured."  COULD???  Hey Mitt, most plans choose words like "will". 

And Gov. Perry has got his jobs "miracles"…to which the "miracle" part is still up for debate.  So it would seem that any old day now we should expect a jobs plan from S dot Palin?  Why not, I'm sure she's got some ideas she's seen from China.  And while they are all at it, I've got my own jobs report to drop: THE HOOD IS DOING BAD!!! 

But seriously, I don't actually have a jobs report, as I'm still trying to wrap my head around the true purpose and place for said report.  Last I checked, we were bickering and impressing upon each other how we would "create" jobs -- notice the simultaneous two-fingers-wiggling making the quotation marks.  It's going to be tough going trying to really create jobs, and I don't think the American people are looking to a report to tell them that.  Simple math says you have work, then you have work that needs to be done, then you find a way to afford to pay someone to do that work, and you've created a job.  How much work out there is going undone?  Better yet, where's the money for this labor?  Where it is now and how will we get it into the hands of our citizenry?  So for the Job Reporters- the phantom team that "creates" these jobs- please respect our intelligence.  Do not try to pass off patronage positions, handouts, non-sustained and non-subsidized plans that show big numbers, but don't translate to bills being paid, groceries bought and savings accounts (I guess we just gave up on the middle-class retiring one day?). 

I said all of that to say this: what twisted, convoluted state we MUST be in that we actually thought that the President's speech needed to be considerate of the opening NFL game???  Bad enough there was insistence of the Republican party (that kinda made sense though- debate and speech in one night spells wonk overload for some, sheer boredom for others), but that our Commander in Chief should adjust the timing of one of his most critical reports for the beginning of an athletic competition- not a Bowl game, or Game 7, but a game.  I'm a football fan (49er Faithful Baby!!!) and I'm all for the hope, camaraderie and plain good tradition that these contests conjure up, but we've got to get and keep our priorities in order.  The game tonight has created the jobs it will create, and you cannot make arm-chair QBing a full-time gig- though many have tried.  ESPN isn't looking for any new analysts with the skill set most of us carry around; which is usually just enough to argue around the water cooler and not get splashed. 

All I'm saying is as much as we know a simple report delivered won't immediately changes the lives of the thousands who are out of work, but can't we be grown up enough to admit we wet the bed on that call.  We can do better!

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