Monday, March 02, 2009
A Thought Occurs to Me
Speaking of businesses failing, today I walked a mile or two in the snow/bitter cold only to find that the only music supply store in town was closed because of aforementioned snow/bitter cold. It annoys me, because it's a tiny store that has terrible variety, low quality, high prices, annoying hours (it closes at 3:00 on Saturday and doesn't open at all on Sunday), and an inconvenient location. If it had any competition whatsoever, it would either improve significantly or be driven out of business. The closest competition is a Guitar Center in a mall that is not-walking-distance-miles away. Arg.
4 Comments:
By 
Viking Kaj, at
Tue Mar 03, 12:05:00 AM:
It may surprise you to learn that the south side of Chicago is famous for developing programs that generate funds for political patrons without the projects getting completed, such as bridges and freeways that get funded and never built. Obama helped Tony Rezko stack the Illinois State Hospital board, its how he managed to buy his house in Hyde Park.
When confronted by various reporters who questioned the way the funds were allocated in terms of actual job creation, Obama's response was that "it's all stimulus."
Or, consider Rich Daley's response to the question "What does Obama's election mean for the city of
Chicago?"
"Gain, gain, gain, gain!"
On the music thing, you should take a field trip to Sam Ash or Lou Rose in Edison.
By 
, at
Tue Mar 03, 12:12:00 AM:
Call Joe Biden's office. He will help you help the store owner find out what is in the stimulus bill to help improve their business. Maybe there just needs to be a bridge to make it easier for you, the customer, to get to his store when it is open.
By , at
Tue Mar 03, 12:19:00 AM:
It actually takes skill to build something. Carpenters, electricians, plumbers, heavy equipment operators and so on. You have to know what the building codes require, be able to understand and follow the plans, etc. It's not just grabbing a shovel and digging a pointless ditch somewhere (well some of it may be but not much).
A better question might be, are those the kind of people out of work these days? Probably yes, in some parts of the country, but there are a whole lot of office workers and white collar types getting laid off who are going to need some serious retraining to learn how to operate a power saw or a backhoe.
By , at
Tue Mar 03, 01:08:00 PM:
Unemployment in the construction industry in big cities is almost twice as high as national unemployment rate.
Stimulus projects are underway already in more than a dozen states although I note that New Jersey is missing from the state-by-state listing in the attached. Perhaps that's why you weren't able to find work:~>
