Federal Taxpayer Monies Go To Study The Unemployed

As one who has been seeking employment in several fields for many months as are literally thousands of other Americans, especially the empty nesters now in the boomer generation, last week while visiting the local job force center I was amazed to see just where some of those stimulus monies are now going.

Posted throughout the center were advertisements from a local college requesting the jobless to be interviewed or videotaped in order to "tell their story" about their quests to seek work in this depressive U.S. economy by both the unemployed and underemployed.

The work force center, of course, was packed and every single computer was taken, even those in the overflow rooms.

Seminars on resume writing, computer skills and training, and even mock interviewing are also provided by the local communities through federal grants aimed at "getting Americans back to work." Putting many people to work or providing jobs aimed at both studying and assisting the jobless. Of course, many are jobless due to the fact that most of those jobs are taken by former state workers and teachers who are already collecting pensions or retirement from their former governmental positions, or students who go unpaid but are getting their credit hours at the unemployed's expense.

Connections with also local social services agencies or taxpayer funded special interest groups receiving federal grants aimed at assisting the jobless are also provided, along with classroom space and time.

Most of these centers also contain individuals who "market" to the unemployed, as if they had the monies to even pay for their services, rather than their rent or utilities with what little savings they have left, or their unemployment.

A changed job market (with online applications which take over an hour each to complete using "keywords" that will set your resume apart from the pack) and fewer and fewer jobs due to the tech focuses of many industries which have outsourced or computerized all those former jobs resulting in fewer middle income positions is this boomer's opinion.

With the majority of those jobs paying less than $11.00 per hour, especially those call center jobs which are nothing more than mills due to the focus on gaining those training dollars and meeting conflicting performance matrixes, rather than employee development and retention just might also be at work here. I mean most of those large cell phone companies and insurers and financial concerns which have seen better days did grab at those billions in stimulus monies, and of course big brother never gives without having at least some strings attached. Most are "temp" jobs actually due to the actual working conditions and performance standards which must be met in order for those employees to "earn back" some of their taxpayer dollars since, of course, most of those businesses would like to keep as much of those stimulus monies for corporate profits rather than providing new jobs as they can.

Recently, I saw a job posted by a local real estate company asking for an administrative assistant (with graphic design skills). The individual would be responsible for handling creating all the flyers and brochures on a weekly and monthly basis for all the agents in several publications which were used by the company each week/month to stimulate their sales, tracking the agents sales and listings, handling any and all secretarial/administrative tasks assigned and creating and maintaining spreadsheets and reports for the company.

It was represented as a part-time position of 30 hours per week paying $11.00 per hour, which "might" go to full time in a few months as "anticipated" sales increased.

A local bank just announced that it will now be charging its customers for using their ATM cards to check their balances, rather than using the internet and raising its minimum balances for free checking and upping its monthly fees for accounts under those minimums by about 40%. About the same amount Americans now face in raising gas prices throughout the nation, post Deepwater and the greed of the global oil industry during both this war, and after that disaster.

Bet those observations don't make the final cut.

Super Bowl Sunday: And The Saints Go Marching In

As a boomer who remembers the first SuperBowl back in the '60s and the Steelers/Cowboys/Jets/Colts/Redskins eras, it has been interesting also "politically" to see just how this one game has changed from its inception to last Sunday's SuperBowl and all the hoopla leading up to it.

Especially those commercial breaks, and the half time entertainment.

What started out simply as a game between two rival football groups and franchises, the AFC and the NFC, has evolved into a yearly event that is choreographed now almost a year in advance insofar as the politics that go in insofar as even the selection of a venue for this all important game.

This year, of course, the Saints finally made it to "the Bowl," and the Who Dats, for the first time in 43 years, came back with the trophy to a city still reeling from the devastation of Katrina almost five years ago and in which the amount of citizens and residents has dwindled, while the amount of long and short term visitors and foreigners has increased in leaps and bounds.

Many native born and long term residents have "moved on," to other states and will not be returning. Once was enough for them, and since then another, Gustav, even occurred which then swelled the number of visitors to the City of Baton Rouge which already was bursting at the seams with the overflow from those also former New Orleans residents, some of whom now have suffered two devastating losses of homes or property in less than five years.

The Saints needed this win like no other. And the people of New Orleans are very loyal and grateful fans of "them Blessed Boys."

I still find it interesting that the Superbowl in this country, one in which the majority of Americans still claim to have a belief in God, is played on a Sunday to begin with, and why a Sunday was selected especially when college bowl games and such are over by New Year's week. This also puts a wrench in some of those travel plans in order to be back at work then on Monday after all that celebratin', especially now that it is held on Sunday nights and not during the day.

And, of course, now the "season" has been extended another week from the original which were held the last Sunday in January for many years.

The SuperDome, of course, used to be the the premiere venue for the SuperBowl after it was built for many of those games.

It, of course, suffered a great deal of damage after Katrina, but is back and the home field once again for the Saints.

Its just too bad that the game couldn't have been played in New Orleans this year, instead of Miami.

I would think that in order to acknowledge the true fans and contributors to the NFL franchises and those teams who buy all those trinkets and pay those now outrageous sums for season and individual tickets, that a game such as this one should be played on one of the two "finalists" home fields, wouldn't you?

I mean, the influx of tourism would help pay back some of those fans for their investment in those teams through all those seasons and all those games.

I know it might complicate those travel arrangements for some of those league officials and others who need to send advance teams to those locations in order to set up the camera crews and backdrops for some of the commentators and advertisers, but is that who is really important in the end, or the people that have stood in line and bought their tickets for so many years?

Perhaps in the future the selection of a home field for the game could be determined either by the regular season records of both, or on a coin toss.

Those that need to book their travel arrangements months in advance, well there is always local affiliates that could help with some of those arrangements by putting up a few of you executives and high end advertisers in their homes and thus maybe eventually reducing the price of some of those tickets in the process, or the price of your products.

I mean, this is a time of economic recovery in America, is it not, with a disappearing middle class which is being literally destroyed, for all intents and purposes.

It was also interesting to note that the half-time show was outsourced to a 60's era British rocker group, The Who.

Now I am a Who fan as one who did grow up in that era, but for such a national event such as the American SuperBowl, don't you think we could next year "in source" rather than "out source" the half time entertainment, with the exception perhaps of a rerun of Janet Jackson's performance?

I mean were Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Simon and/or Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane (Starship), or the remaining members of the Grateful Dead or Paul Revere and the Raiders all booked up, since it would appear they also could use the gig and may also be some of those in the disappearing middle class?

Is the half time entertainment also the subject of some of those free trade agreements, or are U.S. rock bands also headlining the halftime shows at the National Soccer/Football Championships in Europe and/or Canada?

Isn't it time you also contributed your part to the American Economic Recovery and Relief Effort, Commissioner?