Trans Union, a credit reporting agency which creates quarterly reports from 27 million anonymous individual credit files, reported that in the first quarter bank card delinquencies which are defined as the ratio of borrowers who fall 90 days or more behind on their credit card payments increased by 11%.
“As the recession entered its sixth quarter, we saw continued increases in average bank card balances, as consumers struggled to meet repayment obligations in a job market that continues to deteriorate,” said Ezra Becker, director of consulting and strategy in TransUnion’s financial services group. “This increase could be an indication that tax refund checks, typically used to pay down balances during the first quarter in years past, are now being used to cover daily living expenses. ”
if you work for an employer and that employer announces that it needs to cut back on expenses to survive, do you as the employee of the company either (a) helped the company in cutting expenses and streamlining or (b) ignore the situation and continue on as business as usual.
In my opinion, I feel that most people would select option (a).
The reasoning is simple, if the business survives, you as the employee still has a job.
Now, let's apply that to the state of Oregon. We the people [ominous words they seem to have forgotten] are the employers, and the state is the employees. The employers have been trying to tell the employees that they are financially in trouble. The employees, selfishly balk at the employer's financial situation, and continue to act on issues which as a result raises the operating cost of the employer.
The battle pursues between the employer and the employee to the point that employer goes out of business and the employee loses their job.
The above report is a confirmation of what the employers [the citizens] have been trying to tell the employees [state and local government] for a long time now. Business is bad, cash flow is slow, and were fighting for survival. Quit making the cost of doing business more expensive.
3 comments:
Robin, I'm glad you brought this up. Please excuse my rant. Two years ago, Oregon's economy was doing great and the state had extra revenue. So our Governor, Teddy boy, decides with the help of the legislature to expand government programs and spend much of the extra revenue. They really didn't want to send out kicker checks to the citizens when they could spend more for programs. Fast forward two years and the Oregon economy is in the toilet. What should the Governor and legislature do? Well, since we are talking about a loyal democrat majority, it isn't in their vocabulary to cut back programs. What to do, what to do??? Let's raise taxes on the people and see how much we can expand government more. There is no time like the present. Besides, it's only the real rich and small businesses so it won't hurt us real people. It seems to me that they have spent much of their time passing nonsense bills and trying to come up with new revenue enhancements to pay for more government control. And just so there is no confusion, the county cut back on jail beds and received federal money prior to the legislature meeting in January, so their story of waiting to see what the legislature will do is just a lot of hog wash. They could have added back the beds in October.
We could cut government spending by twenty-five percent and never notice it. Sure, there'd be a lot of government employees who would have to figure out how to live in the real world, but mebbe that education would benefit the state.
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If there was a way to make government employees pay dependent on actual economic activity of the state we would see a dramatic reversal of attitudes concerning businesses. All of a sudden the focus of all departments would be on how can we help every business succeed? The concerns of the small but very vocal special interest groups that restrict and harass business interests would be put in it's proper perspective.
Since public projects can only be supported by increased economic activity it only makes sense that government employees should play an active role in increasing that activity. As it is now many programs are actually made larger and more powerful by the decline of successful private employment. Financial incentives are a huge motivator even among the most altruistic Progressives.
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