Looking ahead, our economy is headed for big trouble

Looking ahead, our economy is headed for big trouble

EDITOR:

For the last few years the main news seems to have been Iraq. More recently, the state of the economy has been capturing the headlines. For awhile it seemed no one could agree whether there would be a “soft landing,” slow down, or a “recession”, a word nobody wants to hear. Now, it seems that all of those in the know think that a recession is likely or has already started.

There have been several reasons given as to why this happened, but first and foremost seems to be the housing situation and how it was affected buy the sub-prime mortgage lending practices. Now I am certainly no expert on the economy but I think it goes deeper than that and anyone living in this area probably does too.

First of all, from what I have read, 70 percent of the economy is fueled by consumer spending. We in the Mahoning Valley have had a front row seat to see what has happened to workers’ earnings. For us it started years ago when the steel industry disappeared as a major employer. However we limped along with the help of Lordstown and Packard Electric. Now, employment at both those companies is way down with further cuts possible. On top of that they both have lowered their wage scales and cut benefits which greatly affects purchasing power of their employees. Most of this has happened with the consent of the unions under the threat that it was either that or move the work outside the country

As for the country as a whole, it is just about impossible to buy anything that is not imported. Some say this is good because prices of the imported goods are much less and the consumer is able to have so much more. Now, I hear that it will not be long before autos from China will be on the market and if history means anything people will want to buy them because most people want “CHEAP” even though it may mean their own job in the end.

A few years ago we were talking about the imports, especially from China, and at that time I said, “that’s great, as long as there are enough of our people working good paying jobs to keep the economy going.” Since then there have been more and more imports and more and more good paying jobs have been lost. Some talk about history and how long recessions usually last, but I don’t think there has been anytime in history that has seen the number of imports that there are now and every day we read about more companies reducing their work forces and others sending work overseas..

WINSTON SWAN

Hubbard

Struggling in a .com world

EDITOR:

I’m writing you concerning computers. My complaint is that everything I go to do is www.com. Everyone does not know how to use computers. Personally, I had problems learning in school and could not learn the typing keyboard at that time.

What are we seniors supposed to do, businesswise, if we don’t use computers and can’t learn how to. Please, let’s get back to the basics, where we could make a phone call and talk to a person or write a letter if we have problems (not go to www.com). This is very frustrating for us computer illiterates.

DONNA CHERNISKY

Liberty Township.