apple jockey

dewme said:

Any permanent, full-time, full-benefits, tax-paying, income above the poverty line new jobs that get currently unemployed or underemployed Americans back to work is a great thing. Hoo rah. As with everything being presented through the Twitter Based Narrative (TBN) preferred by the new regime we have to take it upon ourselves as a Thinking American to dig a little deeper into the details of these presentations to understand the legitimacy and real world impact of the story being presented.

The 50,000 jobs number sounds huge in the Twitterverse but keep in mind that Target alone hired over 77,000 additional workers this holiday season, Amazon 120,000, and retail overall more than 680,000. With these kinds of numbers you'd expect that you'd no longer know anyone at all on your street or in your circle of friends without a job this holiday season. Surprisingly, this is not the case. The reality is that the US workforce and GDP is massive and while the small wins through direct hands-on attention of a chief executive are great for Twitter attention and ego enhancement it's the macroeconomic policies that the chief executive can push that have real meaningful and long term value to the larger economy. Anyone who thinks that these marquee self-congratualory tweet based actions come anywhere close to the 4.5 million jobs that were created during Obama's administration - while coming out of a heinous recession no less, are living on another planet or in Delusionville, WA. But yeah, compared to President Clinton, Obama's numbers are not impressive, but to imply that Obama didn't have a huge positive impact on jobs is disingenuous. Trump will now have his chance and we'll see ho well he really does on the big stage of reality. I hope he does exceedingly well.

We'll just have to see how this all plays out at the macroeconomic level over the coming years. While many Americans despise the president-elect and his followers it is now in every Americans current and future best interest that his presidential term be successful for all Americans whether we like him or hate him. If he sinks the whole damn ship we're all going down with it and echoes of "I told you so" will ring hollow as your last breath leaves your water filled lungs. The best thing we all can all do as Americans is to do the very best at what we can personally control and influence, be true to our word, do our jobs, take personal responsibility for our actions, and make sure you have your own lifejacket close at hand. Whether the next administration is filled with geniuses or festooned with idiots doesn't absolve any of us from personal responsibility, seeking the truth, and thinking for ourselves.