This page was last updated on January 18, 2010.
Job crunch; Editorial; Beaver County Times; January 17, 2010.
The editorial asserts, “Even though the current recession appears to be ending, unemployment is expected to remain at around 10 percent through next year.” If you remember editorials from a few years ago, you recall they tried to convince us the economy was bad even when the unemployment rate was at or below five percent. As with other issues, the Times position changes depending on who is in office.
The editorial goes on to say, “The magazine reports these are men and women who have no company-funded retirement plan, pay their own health care (or go without it), are solely responsible for their retirement planning, receive no sick days and get no paid vacations. They’re easy to lay off, and many will have no access to unemployment insurance. Although some will be well paid, most will struggle to make ends meet.” The implication of these comments is there is something wrong with people not relying on someone else to handle retirement funding, retirement planning, healthcare, unemployment insurance, et cetera. Depending on employers and government to be a nanny is what gets us into trouble, not self-reliance.
Finally, let’s remember a big reason businesses like temp employees is because of uncertainty and, despite claims by the left, businesses don’t like to fire “permanent” employees when things get tough. Uncertainty right now is pretty high not only because of the economy’s current status, but because of a lot of uncertainty about the future. Let’s also make no mistake; the uncertainty is all on the bad side. Businesses aren’t “worried” about how much their regulations and taxes will drop. They are worried about the negative impact of all the proposed taxes and increased regulations regarding energy, healthcare, et cetera.
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