Sunday, November 23, 2008

There once was a town.

There once was a town where all the farmers gathered and sold their crops. Along a river in the middle of a vast stretch of land flat from horizon to horizon...

*Hmm... Where am I going with this? I don't like it. I'll do the short version.

There were local businesses and local banks. Money stayed in the area...

*I'm tired of this. Most people have figured out by now that they are losing their shirts because they put money in big-name multinational banks that are bankrupt or they bought a house for two hundred thousand dollars that's now worth one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars, but they bought their two hundred thousand dollar loan with a variable interest rate that just doubled so they can't afford the payments.

If they tried to sell their house they would still be in the hole for seventy five thousand dollars, but now there is nobody who wants to buy their house anyway.

Everyone's home values have dropped. Cars are in the same situation.

Before the September crash, the Census Bureau has released a report to the Press titled "Household Income Rises, Poverty Rate Unchanged, Number of Uninsured Down"

The report states "Among the race groups and Hispanics, black households had the lowest median income in 2007 ($33,916). This compares to the median of $54,920 for non-Hispanic white households. Asian households had the highest median income ($66,103). The median income for Hispanic households was $38,679."

The Census Bureau also reports income for Springfield, Illinois median income was $39,388 in 1999, a wage of around $18 per hour. According to Census, The national median income is close to the level of such careers as Illinois State Legislators, Engineers in various fields, Actuaries, Architects, and so on.

Currently the available skilled labor that is most in surplus is minimally skilled non-union workers that line up every day to fill out applications at retail and fast-food businesses that pay the minimum wage of $7.50 per hour.

I've been searching online trying to find a file that contains a job description, the exact number of people in that job, and exactly what they get paid for that job. But that information is kept separated and buried so deep as to make someone frustrated enough to give up.

I was able to find it in 2003, but it's been moved and buried even deeper. If there is anyone out there who can give me the appropriate information I would appreciate a comment on this blog about it.