Inmates in Charge

The Bush administration’s support of the economic rape of America by selfish business interests continues with no opposition by the officials we elected to look out for our interests. Good jobs are so hard to find that a woman recently took out an ad to sell her breast milk.

In a transparent attempt to divert attention from the country’s economic decline, increasing home foreclosures, and rising food and gasoline prices, the U.S. Department of Labor bowed down to the Bush propaganda machine and announced Friday that employers added 166,000 jobs to non-farm payrolls in October, the most since May. Meanwhile, the jobless rate held at 4.7%

If you are scratching your head wondering, “Huh?” you are not alone.

Here is what they do not tell us; Chrysler announced it plans to nearly double the 13,000 job cuts it announced in February, now targeting the elimination of more than 25,000 hourly and salaried workers, or nearly one-third of its workforce. Add the Chrysler cuts to the expected job cuts -- at least 137,400 of them -- already in the works at General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and its ACH unit, and Delphi Corp. and the total American job reductions just in the manufacturing sector rise to about 150,000.

Net gain zero? Not so much.

Let us look at what jobs the Labor Department is talking about. 99% are in what is euphemistically termed the “service sector.” That means janitors, bedpan orderlies, hotel maids and temporary employment workers making minimum wage. How many of those new jobs do you think went to American citizens laid off from $20 and hour jobs with benefits who are losing their homes? How many $5 an hour jobs with no benefits went to illegals?

Do the math; the net loss to the economy and the tax base by those who contribute nothing to America comes to billions of dollars. The inmates are running the asylum and you and I are screwed.