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Next time you want to slam unions remember this: “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

Even if your job is NOT union, remember that the business has to stay competitive with the union jobs in order to hire people. So a business has to offer a decent salary just to get people to sign on.

Part of what makes America great is the freedom for our workers to collectively bargain for better conditions, thereby raising the bar for other businesses if they want to hire, because the best and the brightest will take the jobs with the better working conditions.

This is also why big business LOVES high unemployment. It makes it easier for business to say “take it or leave it” and offer crap wages and working conditions.  An easy example will be the fact that I’ve seen contract rates fall by 10-15% in the last year alone.

The desperate can be easily pressured to “take it or leave it.”

Dear Congress -

I’m a small business owner. All of the tax cuts in the WORLD aren’t going to change the fact that until demand comes up I’m not in a position to hire someone, no matter how much I want to.

If I hired someone today they would be sitting on their ass waiting for work.

Demand isn’t going to come up until the consumers start spending money.

They aren’t going to start spending money until they have more in their pockets.

So a hint – leave me the hell out of your equation and give the tax cuts to those who need it, so they can spend it, so I can hire someone and start growing again.

Love, me.

The government’s “Continuing Resolution” will be expiring a week from today.  As a government contractor, this directly affects me.

They have two choices.  They can pass ANOTHER C.R. or they can actually pass a budget.

I don’t post political statements here too often.  However I don’t know about you, but from where I stand this travesty that the House has floated is a disaster.  1.2 million jobs lost by the estimates I’m hearing, and to top it all of, it doesn’t do SQUAT to balance the budget because the places that need to be cut / reformed, IE Defense, etc. are off the table.  So this will be for nothing.

If the posturing peacocks on capitol hill don’t get their collective crap together and one side (or the other) forces the government to shut down. I may have some time on their hands.

Part of me is hoping that cooler heads prevail.

Part of me is looking forward to a little time off.   I’m told it is actually a CRIMINAL offense for me to work if the government shuts down.

Bring it.

..for one day and the world blows up.  Yesterday, I walked into a bunker in Culpepper, VA and was more/less completely out of circulation for most of the day.

I come out, get in the car, turn on the radio, and hear “…dow dropped over 750 points today as the House of Representives failed to pass the 2008 rescue package.”

Holy crap.

I’m still employed, this is a good thing, and the amazing part is that the recruiter calls have actually picked up in the last two weeks after a period of being dead.  Not that I’m in the market, but it’s good to know I have somewhere to fall if all hell breaks loose.

I’m going to go to ranting about politics for one post, and one post only.

This bailout isn’t a good thing, it’s not comfortable, and it’s not something I’m looking forward to.  But it needs to happen.

Kind of like having an infected leg.  If it’s too infected, you have to cut the leg off.  You don’t want to, it’s life-altering, and it’s going to hurt like hell – but to not do it means you’re going to die.

If the financial markets aren’t bailed out, credit will stop.  Businesses and private citizens will no longer be able to get credit for anything.  Small or large, whether it’s to renew the lease on your car, purchase a new car/home, or like me, front money for travel.  It all just stops.  Certain evidence has shown that this started happening months ago.  (American Express determined about 6 weeks ago that I was no longer a good risk, despite the fact that I paid every bill on-time and in-full.)

If this happens, money stops moving.  Anyone who has taken Econ-101 knows that when money stops moving, the economy crashes harder than we’ve ever seen.

Hopefully we’ll see some change in the next week or so.  Because sometimes I think that limbo is a much worse place to be.

Gas prices are down though, so maybe there is a silver lining.