Slipping, sliding, beeping and hidden
My sense is that our local economy is definitely slipping and sliding. Let’s look at our local economy. With gas prices hitting record levels, we don’t need to be experts that consumers are going to cut back on travel. Expect more downward pressures on tourism. Yesterday our state government declared an “official” drought condition with about 75% normal rain and snow fall for the season, but fails to demand any cut back in use of water. The election this past week had anemic voter turnout of less than 15%. We are starting to see businesses shed thousands of jobs, as announced today with two airlines announcing layoffs of over 5000 jobs. Where is the leadership from our government? Let’s get back to reality and demand that our government leaders do more than sit on their hands. Let’s start by asking for what can we do to increase the supply side of these equations. If we need more jobs, what can government legislatures do to promote growth in business, which leads to more jobs. If we need more electricity, why not create incentives to build more nuclear electrical plants. If we need more water, why not create incentives to built facilities to reclaim sea water as drinking water? Now you may not like the particulars of my suggested actions, but instead of just complaining about no nuclear, or no water desalination plants in my neighborhood, what is it that we can do to start creating solutions? I believe we can create change to demand that our leaders start taking action.
In a way we are all like sail boats. Either the winds or the tides are going to move us. Currently as we are in the slip and slide mode, we are more like the becalmed boat who is driven more by the tides. If we want to start gaining movement, let’s hoist our sails and start moving forward. We may have to tack as we move forward to reach our desired destination; but if we are moving, we will have much better control over where we are going. So let’s get moving!

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