When this "crisis" started last fall, before our historic elections, a friend of mine summed the future up this way. He said, "we are going to see some things we never thought we'd see,and some things we don't want to see". Today, those words echoed through my head as the reports that GM had declared bankruptcy circulated over the airwaves and internet, leaving another 21000 without work, on top of the 1000 or so dealerships they forced out, after the US taxpayers had infused a huge amount of money into GM in hopes of avoiding this very thing. This event was perhaps the tops, thus far, of the things I simply could not fathom would happen in my lifetime.
The old jingle use to go, "baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet", that was an ad, but it summed up America. You could interchange the words at the end of the phrase, "as American as..", Chevy and GM were as American as you could get. I now have to wonder what exactly America does produce, other than food and lots of sophisticated weaponry. I needed some bearings for the drill today so my wife and I drove to the nearest big town, Emporia, for a "parts run" that also turned into a grocery and work boot run. Most of the bearings for my Great Plains drill were made in China,( the Timkens were made in France), my workboots were made in Thailand. Amy's car was made in Germany, running on tires made in South Korea, just like my pickups run on either Chinese or Korean tires. We spent perhaps $700 today, about $200 or so was on American goods, mostly food. I have to wonder how long this can last without the USA becoming a third world nation.
The experts seem to believe by the fall of 2009 or at the latest the spring of 2010 our economy will be recovering. My simple farmer mind has trouble reconciling that idea with the things I see happening around me, and the reports I hear on TV and the radio. GM takes out bankruptcy, the state of Kansas has revenues far below expectations that will perhaps force even more budget cuts (equalling lost jobs) when the new fiscal year starts in July. Nearly everything we use in our day to day lives is made somewhere besides this nation. Our own federal reserve predicted a week or so ago unemployment would rise to 10.5% by fall, and our new and dynamic President continues to propose even more deficit spending. I guess this is why I am a farmer and not an economist, because all these "signs" don't point to a forecast of recovery from my vantage point. Of course, these are the same economists who didn't see any of this coming........perhaps they should be doing something else for a living, like farm???