A time to be thankful...

I'm mere hours from the not-so-long drive home to Van Wert county for two days of fun and relaxation with the family, and I can not wait to escape the work schedule and see the parents/siblings/cat? No, not so much the cat.

I do want to say a few quick words about the status of some of my beloved sports franchises before moving on to more pressing issues...

Cleveland Cavaliers (10-3) : playing the New York Knicks tonight and looking good so far. Only losses to Boston (deserved), New Orleans (sloppy), and Detroit (gave it away) blemish a stellar season thus far.

Cleveland Browns (4-7) : I do not know why I put myself through it each and every week. I really should nap during the allotted Brownies television broadcasts. Waking up to a loss is more bearable than sitting through consistent pain and torture.

NOW the main event...

The Obama Cabinet update for this week centers around economic matters for the most part. The President-Elect has surrounded himself with experienced advisors that all admittingly have never faced a challenge of such enormous proportions before (who has?) But, that hasn't taken the focus off other economic concerns; i.e. Citigroup meltdowns, layoffs and mismanagements PLUS what to do about the Big 3 (Chrysler, GM, and Ford?)

Citigroup laid off 50,000+ employees in this past two months amidst the largest depreciation of value in the company's history. I believe I read some statistics that showed that nearly 60% of the corporation's value has disappeared in the past few weeks. Congress runs to Citigroup's aid, but does not take major offense to Citigroup signing a 20-year naming rights contract with the New York Mets for their new stadium (proposed $20 million per year estimation.)

Economists are clammering for the auto industry to declare chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganize their leadership structure. What most people do not realize is that this will most directly eliminate previous union contracts with laborers within the workforce of these companies. So when the corporations eliminate jobs to pair with the reorganized leadership structure and cut back production estimates, current employees will have to re-interview for their positions and face definite pay/benefit cuts as part of the negotiation. Cable news economists and conservative forecasters have no problem demanding organized labor cut back heavily in order to save these businesses, but you will rarely hear them demand CEO wage restitution or even freezes on corporate bonuses or exorbitant benefit packages.

The American people do want corporations to restructure to meet the demands of a changing economy and global trade schematic, but what good will it do to only address the wages/benefits of the working-class that enables production to occur when the top leadership is rewarding itself millions of times over with money that should be reinvested within the company (via infrastructure repairs, technological improvements, resource development, hiring creative talent?) The free market, capitalist mentality must wake up and face the music that has been playing quite loudly on the main streets of America. We must stop living beyond our means in an over-stretched credit market that can not adequately meet the needs of an inflated market. Americans pay too much for health care, insurance, and energy expenses. The cost of food, clothing, and simple family security measures consistently outpace wage increases and benefit packages.

The Bush Administration has consistently praised economic indicators that do not appropriately reflect the average American's income and well-being. Statistics that describe corporate income and welfare do not begin to dictate how the American economy truly operates.

Now, in the final moments of the Bush Adminstration, we have authorized socialized corporate bailouts of major public/private institutions. After declaring the sanctity of taxpayer dollars, the Bush Administration has purchased vested interests in the private sector as a way to "help America recover" as a whole. It would be believable if the administration actually had a track record of helping the working-class and average citizen rather than the run-of-the-mill CEO, CFO, and top earning percentage of the U.S. population.

So on this Thanksgiving, I'm thankful that some change is on its way in January 2009. And I pray that it is the appropriate committment to the presented problem.