They have, but to be fair, small businesses have inherent risks that bigger businesses don't or have the ability/capital to overcome. In the case of many small businesses, a single car wreck will end the business instantly. Doesn't even have to be a fatality, just one that renders some type registered or certified professional unable to do his work and 2-20 jobs disappear because contracts can't be fulfilled. And while they can be far quicker to research/create/develop a new product/technology than some unwieldy larger companies, they also more sensitive to their business models and/or products becoming obsolete.
The private sector is doing pretty good, all things considered. And yes, there are a number of reasons for this, most notably because they continue to make money by raising prices, limiting costs of employees, and continuing to funnel the money upwards. The reason nobody is hiring is because there isn't the demand to support new hires (we're all paying off debt) and because there is no reason to hire today when an entire political party is promising tax cuts and payouts if things get worse. Meanwhile, the current solution to the lack of employment is to continue cutting every public sector job until there aren't any more left. That will help with demand, I'm sure.
If someone in Hollywood here in 2012 were somehow clever enought to be able to combine the scripts from the movies Wall Street, Friday and Office Space you could make the ideal movie for how life is lived/perceived for millions of this nation's work force.
Sure, they could fire 25 - 30% of any government office and nobody would notice. Of course, the time to do that would be when the economy is doing fine, and could absorb these underperformers into some sort of new career. To do so now just adds to the unemployment rate, which requires more federal support. It's almost as if the Republican plan is to borrow and spend as much money as possible during their administrations, only to scream deficits and cut programs during Democratic administrations. "Starve the beast" as it were. Nah, I must be cynical. And the big Republican fear of the coming cuts is that they are equally spread between civilian and defense. Somehow, government is a big, wasteful, lumbering bureaucratic hunk of suck except for military contractors, who are bastions of efficiency and cannot be touched.
Not to mention China, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela are going to start landing troops any day now unless we keep up our military bases in Germany and Japan.
I think I've figured out what's going on here.... Romney's advisors are hoping this will be Obama's "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" moment. I think they're barking up the wrong tree though, because the reason that statement was devastating to Old Man McCain was that the economy was cratering while he was saying it. The private sector ain't doing great right now, but I don't get the impression it's about to fall off a cliff either. EDIT: The caveat of course being that the euro zone dissolves between now and the election...
I remember having that conversation with a relative that is in the reserve.... He said, "Government sucks, name one thing that government does well?" I tilted my head and looked at him... He quickly said.. "Except the military"... Then I was about to say "Iraq, Afghanistan, Gitmo, contractors" but my wife gave me the look and I just had to go along with soft rethoric....
Basically, the government is good at anything that's manly. Unless it's mostly done by minorities, like garbage collection. Then the gvt. sucks just as bad as they do when they do women's work.
All kidding aside, we have wayyyyy better public schools than we deserve. But we tend not to notice for a variety of reasons, not least because...
If anyone thinks that, overall, the private sector is doing fine, you either have a gov't job, or you're part of the 1%. To those of us out in the real world, it's the worst it's been since the late 70's. Based on the industry I'm in and another industry I left, you can tell when things are fine and when they're not. Right now, the only people spending money with me are ag and gas/oil businesses. Almost everyone else is working with skeleton crews and are only spending money when they absolutely have to. Almost every month, when I'm making my rounds in a certain area, another customer of mine has closed the doors. There is just not enough work to go around. It's sad, because I can make a sales call at a place and be shooting the bull with 5 guys and chances are one of them will be laid off by the time I come back. Something has to change and fast. For the sake of a lot of struggling families, including my own, I hope this isn't the new normal.
Don't worry Steamer -- when Romney gets elected he will solve all of these problems. Everyone who wants a job will have one. Of course, with him as President, all of those middle class families you talk about can expect to be rewarded with a nice, fat tax increase. I thought Republicans were supposed to be for tax cuts.
This is the new normal. All those bubble construction and real estate jobs? Gone. The bubble realtor and banking and refinancing jobs? Gone. Manufacturing of normal stuff is gone too, all shipped to Asia over three decades. The service industry is a joke. Not everyone can go to college and become a technical or health worker, especially if business have their way and they can outsource that to India and China or, better yet, bring everyone back on H1-B visas. Let's be honest here, both parties are to blame. But one party claims that government can't make jobs, while pointing out that the incumbent hasn't made any jobs. That party is sponsored by large corporations, who have done nothing over the last 20 years but take the equality and fairness out of government, stripped any sort of regulations that protect individuals from corporations, and siphoned all the money from the middle class and handed it over as "bailouts" to the rich. And their solution is to cut the rich people's taxes and eliminate even more regulations. The economy is bad. But it ain't that bad if you're rich. And if you are an executive, it's pretty good - because you can pay your third world employees cents a month and keep the difference, while complaining that as a "job creator" the future is too complex for you to invest anything, but if only there was another little tax incentive, you might hire another illegal nanny to take care of Jr.
1) agreed. One of the consequences of Clinton moving right to reclaim the center for instance. And Obama is as beholden to Wall Street as Romney. 2) if I was not using this Ipad, i would look for the recent study that showed the middle class has generally seen its wealth shrink to 1992 levels. But I am pretty sure that hasn't happened at the higher executive end, and I would be surprised if people living off investment incomes have seen such shrinkage. The difference between the two parties in 2012 is that one sees us as being all in this together, and the other is in it for those who are saying, "I got mine, and you are going to give me more."