Changing Demographics, Employment, And Immigration

Matt Drudge is highlighting this new CIS study which tracked where the jobs went from 2000 to 2014.

The gist, as described by the NRO Staff:

According to a major new report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), net employment growth in the United States since 2000 has gone entirely to immigrants, legal and illegal. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CIS scholars Steven A. Camarota and Karen Zeigler found that there were 127,000 fewer working-age natives holding a job in the first quarter of 2014 than in 2000, while the number of immigrants with a job was 5.7 million above the 2000 level.

I have reservations based on some stray thoughts about the baby boom of 1946-1964. In 2000, this cohort was aged 36 to 54, so all were in their prime working years; by 2014, they (fine, "we") were aged 50 to 68 and many had presumably retired.

So on a gross basis, maybe - MAYBE - a decline in US jobholders and workforce participation should not be a surprise; on an age-adjusted basis maybe workforce participation rates have been steady and all is well. [More on that here].

However, the CIS presents data that seems to answer that objection:

Other Ways of Defining the Working-Age Population. We see a similar decline in work no matter how we define the working-age population.... If we examine the 25- to 54-year-old native-born population, which is often seen by economists and demographers as the core of the work force, it shows the same pattern of decline. Their employment rate declined from 82.4 percent in 2000 to 80.5 percent in 2007 and was 76.7 percent in the first quarter of 2014. In contrast to natives, the share of immigrants in this age group working increased from 2000 to 2007, and did not decline as much as it did for natives during the great recession (Table 3). No matter how the working-age is defined, there has been a very significant decline in work among the native-born in absolute terms and relative to immigrants.

Well, then, hmm. Even Paul Krugman has admitted that the sun rises in the East waving in cheap labor reduces wages, which presumably is tough on unskilled natives but also discourages others from working.

Of course, on even numbered days progressives wring their hands about rising income inequality, without ever acknowledging the likely link between immigration (legal and illegal) and inequality. US inequality, that is - a President of the Americas would be pleased to see the rising standard of living in Central America as workers in America send money home, which is worth keeping in mind.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: The Times did a big survey of the history of the War on Poverty in the US which included this laugher:

The more important driver of the still-high poverty rate, researchers said, is the poor state of the labor market for low-wage workers and spiraling inequality. Over the last 30 years, growth has generally failed to translate into income gains for workers — even as the American labor force has become better educated and more skilled. About 40 percent of low-wage workers have attended or completed college, and 80 percent have completed high school.

Economists remain sharply divided on the reasons, with technological change, globalization, the decline of labor unions and the falling value of the minimum wage often cited as major factors. But with real incomes for a vast number of middle-class and low-wage workers in decline, safety-net programs have become more instrumental in keeping families’ heads above water.

In TimesWorld, when the topic is the American poor, immigration is happening in some other country.

A THOUGHT WITHOUT A HOME: Even as income (or wealth) inequality has been rising in the US and most European nations over the last thirty years, inequality between nations (e.g., the Chinese middle class versus the US middle class) has surely been falling. Discuss...

LATE ADD: A mere three weeks later Tyler Cowen takes to the Times with this:

Income Inequality Is Not Rising Globally. It's Falling.

Income inequality has surged as a political and economic issue, but the numbers don’t show that inequality is rising from a global perspective. Yes, the problem has become more acute within most individual nations, yetincome inequality for the world as a whole has been falling for most of the last 20 years. It’s a fact that hasn’t been noted often enough.

I am so far ahead of the curve I think I am catching up to myself from behind...

Comments

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

My only concern is one rather well paying job that went to a Kenyan immigrant a few years back.
(Hey, DoT's not around to not poke TK, so someone has to.)

[Threadkiller]

Just as the Founders intended...

[Eric in Boise]

It sounds like they're doing the jobs Americans won't do, but the reason they won't do them is because the jobs are filled.

[Mark Folkestad]

Ignatz, I lost my promised promotion to a rather young and flippant Mexican who had been amnestied. And before that happened, I had to cancel my vacations several times, because his last-minute demands for "family trips" back to Mexico took precedence over the vacations I'd reserved time for a year before.

[Threadkiller]

Obama is doing a job to Americans that an American wouldn't do.

[Old Lurker]

Did we figure out where DoT is?

[miss Marple]

Hello from Madison, Wisconsin.

Picked up a copy of USA Today in the lobby. The only good part was detailed coverage of the World Cup.

Otherwise, a long column extolling the virtues of Nate Silver's site and Ezra Klein's Vox thing. So now LIV readers of the paper will be steered to those sites and think they are getting in-depth analysis.

I will get home tomorrow, and I am ready!

[miss Marple]

Captain Hate,

I missed that you had cardio tests. You know that you have my prayers that it is nothing serious!

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Thank you, Miss Marple; you've had a lot to juggle on the vacation so my updates, which are mostly no big whoop, really don't merit anything special. But thank you for the prayers of course.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Btw Madison means home tomorrow, no?

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

I was only being flippant myself, Mark.
As far as I'm concerned anyone who enters the country illegally should be deported and employers should be on the hook through e-verify which will result in a rather massive self deportation if allied with no welfare for illegals.
90% of this problem is fixable without any great effort.
Anything else is handing this country irretrievably, short of an armed revolution, to the now largely insane and criminal Dems who as a party have proven to not only be anti American but butt ugly.

[narciso]

they've missed something I think;

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/06/leading-far-left-website-asks-is-climate-change-destabilizing-iraq/

[miss Marple]

Yes, Captain Hate, home tomorrow. I miss my dogs and my own things.

Then Mr. Marple arrives from overseas for a short stay on Sunday. He will return to Africa on the 3rd.

I am spending the 4th recuperating from all of this activity. Mr. Marple will want to do shopping, restaurants, and visits.

I am hoping July will be nice and boring.

[Captain Hate]

Home sweet home; and Mr Marple for a bonus.

Some of my lib Farcebook friends, particularly one living in Scottsdale, are really really pissed off at all the illegal immigrants.

[miss Marple]

Captain Hate, I bet they are.

Wait until a scabies or lice epidemic breaks out at their kids schools.

That should switch opinions to our side fairly quickly.

[Captain Hate]

If libs are reacting this way, this just makes the GOPe's fixation on being on the wrong side even dumber than their usual clown car level.

[narciso]

Looks like a double decker clown car:

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2014/06/26/what-do-you-mean-we-kemo-sabe/#more-37711

[Gus]

Who will our Senate majority leader be? And will he have balls?

[miss Marple]

I still ask the following questions:

Why has Mexico facilitated the movement of these children?

How many have been kidnapped or died in the desert?

Why were ads placed for help with these children in January?

Why didn't Obama act earlier to discourage this travesty?

Are these children merely expendable props for Obama's continuing vendetta against this nation?

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

The last one is YES!, MM, rendering the rest of the questions largely moot.

[miss Marple]

Well, it seems to me pointing the callous disregard for these children is the attack to use. Puts us on the high ground.

[Eric in Boise]

Safe trip, MM, and Godspeed.

FWIW, Mrs EiB and I fly to L.A at noon tomorrow, then drive to Santa Barbara to help our daughter and her husband finish packing and prepare for their move to Portland, where hubby has accepted a new job.

Sunday: on the road with the U Haul and their car, including our 6 yo grandson and their 1 yo daughter: Santa Barbara to Redding, CA.

Monday: on the road from Redding to Portland, with the same crew.

Tuesday: help them move into their new house in Portland.

Wednesday: fly back to Boise.

Daughter is eight months pregnant with grandson Henry, hence the need for a bit of help on our part.

Wish us luck.

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

That Wretchard column is another corker.

What's curious about the left is they label their enemies reactionaries and yet seem utterly oblivious to the inevitable reaction that will explode in their faces as they succeed at stealing people's freedoms and hopes.
They couldn't suppress the eventual explosion in places as primed and eager for suppression as 1789 France and 1917 Moscow. I don't know how they think they're going to pull it off in the land of pickup gun racks and Gadsden flags.

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

--Well, it seems to me pointing the callous disregard for these children is the attack to use. Puts us on the high ground.

Posted by: miss Marple | June 28, 2014 at 12:13 AM --

Yes, but the left's answer is "obviously we need to comfort, care for and make citizens if we really care about these urchins".
What's the answer to that seemingly even higher ground?

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

--Sunday: on the road with the U Haul and their car, including our 6 yo grandson and their 1 yo daughter: Santa Barbara to Redding, CA.--

Hey Eric, wave to my daughter coming back down from Redding where she was an AWANA camp counselor the last week. She's in the green CRV.

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

Three in a row; time for a shower and bed.

[Stephanie tortoise not the hare]

Load em on the plane with the first lady of Nicaragua when she comes to visit.

All these south of the border countries are happy as clams that we are taking in their tired, poor and hungry. We take em, feed em and then the little eastwards don't have the decency to contribute to the tax base or the GDP here. They send their "will work for cash" back home via remittances and we still are feeding, clothing and housing them.

[Stephanie tortoise not the hare]

Eastwards = bastards. Stupid kindle.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Yeah I don't think "callous disregard" should be the primary thrust when self interest always has an appeal in this endless recession. Iggy's correct that the MFM will always define the higher ground in any humanitarian discussion to benefit their usual suspects.

[Eric in Boise]

No problem, Ig. There won't be any traffic on I-5, so I'm sure I can pick her out. :)

[DrJ]

Eric,

Wave to me too. I won't be here to see you, but do have a great trip!

[Eric in Boise]

Stephanie, it's too bad it didn't autocorrect as "Northwards" instead of "Eastwards".

[Stephanie]

Everyone stay safe on the roads this weekend!

I'm concerned about beasts; he hasn't been around since his query about headaches. Anyone tried to contact him via email?

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

I just did. Will letcha know.

[Publius of Idaho]

Eric,

Your adventure takes me back to when our 2nd daughter was 10 days old and we relocated from Westlake Village to Salem.

It seems like yesterday, but was actually 39 years ago.

[Gus]

The next two years are going to be wild and wooly. Obama has no reason NOT TO ACT OUT like a pathetic weasel. The GOP had better start to understand what we are up against.
November and taking back the Senate is our only hope.

[daddy]

Related to that Wretchard column, local British TV ran a story yesterday on an anguished immigrant father in Britain, whose 3 sons who grew up in Britain, have run back to their Syrian homeland and joined up with the Syrian Rebels to play Jihadi. One has already won the 72 virgins, but now the youngest, a 16 year old, is submitting his videotape from overseas, telling us how happy and willing he is to kill and die for the cause.

The father is saying to the reporters that he feels bad about this, but cannot interfere in his son's legitimate decisions to be Islamic militant warriors, and the story on TV presented it as if it was simply an understandable life style choice, and therefore the proper response from everyone watching Telly in Britain should simply be something like George Costanza and Jerry Seinfeld: "So they're engaging in murderous Islamic Jihad---not that there's anything wrong with that!"

[Stephanie]

Thanks Iggy, You are awesome.

[Eric in Boise]

Publius, where in ID are you?

Lyle, same question?

Asking out of pure curiosity, at least for now. Possible meet up in the future? We'll see.

[Gus]

Daddy, as a son of a British Mother, and having lived in Scotland and visited 15 or so times, I can tell you that the BRITS, treat Muzztards as if they were retarded 5 year olds. They pat them on the head and pity them. Condescending bastards.

[Publius of Idaho]

Eric,

Let's say I'm with you. I believe Lyle is also, when he is not in SV.

[Gus]

Eric, Henry and I and Miller Lite met repeatedly last night. We met again this afternoon, but neither Henry, nor I had any interest in calling Mr Miller Lite to join us today. If you know what I mean.

[Eric in Boise]

the BRITS, treat Muzztards as if they were retarded 5 year olds.

Well, Gus, there's the problem right there. They should be treating them as if they are bloodthirsty 7th century savages, rather than retarded 5 year olds.

I preemptively denounce myself, of course.

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

Beasts is doing fine Steph, just taking a little break.

[Stephanie]

Yeah I don't think "callous disregard" should be the primary thrust when self interest always has an appeal in this endless recession.

You'd think a generation so self absorbed that they take selfies would get a clue about self preservation but...

Who were the ones to major in humanities and poetry and other dead end majors that ended up as barristas at Starbucks? Progressives.

Think they have put two and two together? Yep. And their answer is the evil corporations and republicans and tea partiers and other really mean people who are keeping them from their multiculti dreams ...

[Gus]

Bingo Eric. LIBTARDS "pity" the poor poor 7th century rape and kill cult. It must have been something WE DID, that caused such unspeakable horrors for 14 hundred years. Remember when libs said KILLING THEM merely created more of them???
But killing them with DRONES is just fine.

[Stephanie]

I hope his 'little break' has legs up to her azz.. IYKWIM. :)

[Eric in Boise]

Thanks, Publius. I'm in West Meridian, if that helps. I understand the risks of being specific about one's address online...

[Gus]

Stephanie, what they MEAN, is that Corporations suck, yet they need the monies that corporations CREATE. Those who are gainfully employed and pay taxes, and live moral lives are INTOLERANT FASCISTS.

Repeat as necessary.

[Gus]

Stephanie.........Beasts is THE MAN. He posts so much good guitar porn!! "she's got legs right up to her neck!!!" ROD STEWARD. I have a GIBSON 1275 Doubleneck. Google a pic.
It's a 2 legged guitar woman!!!

[Publius of Idaho]

Eric, I'm 2 miles from Costco. Is that being too specific? :)

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

The only legz I ever saw that didn't make it all the way to the azz were the two Baby Iggy pulled off her Malibu Double Amputee Barbie.

I'll leave the naked, decapitated Barbie on a shoestring she dangled over the curtain while I was taking a shower for another day.
Glad she got that stuff out of her system early.

Night all.

[Eric in Boise]

I'm 2 miles from Costco. Is that being too specific? :)

Well, since I'm about halfway between the Boise Costco and the Nampa Marketplace Blvd Costco, we're close either way.

{sticks hand out window}

{waves at Publius}

[daddy]

Wow! Everybody's still awake!

Over here it is just coming up on 7 AM. My 2 buddies and I are going to try to catch a train into London in an hour. One guy has Wimbledon Tickets, so he's hoping it doesn't rain.

The 2nd guy I think is heading toward the Museum.

I am going to try to continue on down to Kent to Darwin's home (Down House) but nobody was interested in tagging along---ha! Don't blame 'em.

Seems like all the hotels are booked in London due to Wimbledon, so I suppose I will just get off the train at Liverpool Station or King's Cross Station, and play it by ear after that. Might take the iPad along, so I assume if I wind up staying at some place that I do find open, my typing skills will become even worse.

[Stephanie]

LOL Iggy.

[Stephanie]

Nice Gus. How many guitars do you have anyways? You've got guitars like I have sandals. Can't resist em.

[Eric in Boise]

I'll leave the naked, decapitated Barbie on a shoestring she dangled over the curtain

I know you're in bed now Ig, but damned if I didn't think this was a Duda post when I first read it.

[Stephanie]

Early turn in for me tonight - unless I can't sleep. The laying of the bricks has commenced and my back is killing me. I'll just leave that there for H&R to knock it out of the park in the ayem. ;)

[JiB]

Gus,

Not my experience of the Brits and Islam having lived there very recently and during 911. To me the British politician and security forces including the Met are scared shitless of them and because of their evolved political power walk on egg-shells regarding how to handle.

Same result just a different pattern of getting there. Empire building & colonization have their consequences.

Buon Giorno from Montecantini Terme where the air is clean and 10k motorcyclists are now leaving for another leg of their "Moto Tour d'Italia". Can't you hear them?

[Gus]

Stephanie. I have many guitars. I've "willed" a couple of really really nice guitars to Jr. He is 13 and the finest human being on the planet. IMHO. In my palatial Wisconsin household, and the rehearsal spots that I frequent with my "gang' and/or bandmates. I have 34 guitars. Although I think it's more honest to admit that 26 are truly mine.
I'm often asked which is my favorite. I answer honestly. Today??

[daddy]

On quick catch up I see the link to Judge Emmet Sullivan on the last thread being the Judge assigned to look into some IRS corruption. Narciso was right that he was the Ted Stevens Judge who kept being outraged at the corruption of all the Prosecutor's, but ultimately let them all get away with the crime as a fait acompli, and doled out what turned out to be inconsequential wrist slaps after the fact. I am not optimistic, tho' he's probably about as good as can be expected.

I believe he is also the Judge that approved the Obama decision to List the Polar Bears as endangered, which resulted in locking up thousands of miles of drilling habitat in the Chukchi from drilling. The data used for that was the bogus Polar bear counting and a corrupt EPA researcher that we've followed over the years, so once again Judge Sullivan in my view rendered an incorrect decision due to relying on faulty info that was intentionally fed to him.

Does anyone happen to remember who was the Judge that was lied to supposedly by his staffers in not being properly notified in the case where Eric Holder said he had notified the Judge about going after FOX reporter James Rosen. I thought that was Judge Emmet Sullivan but may be mistaken, and I do not recall any resolution of that case ever occurring.

Cheerio!

[Gus]

Daddy. Any half intelligent human being ,would understand that Obama and his CZARS are on a IDEOLOGICAL TRAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR. The gears of the EXECUTIVE BRANCH and it's ability to POLITICALLY APPOINT the HEADS of each CABINET LEVEL ADMIN, are clearly coordinated and in MARXIST/ALYNSKY lock step. From Holder, to Arne Duncan, to Sebellius, to Gina McCarthy at EPA, it's all COMMIE all the time. The RANK and file over paid/over staffed BUREAUCRATS are happy as clams to be cut loose to abuse their powers, as almost all govt. employees/unions are way way way lib/Marxists.
What has pissed me off from the get go, is the GOP's spineless ball-less inability to CHALLENGE the COMMIES that they went on to APPROVE. What did the COMFORTABLE COUNTRY CLUB RINO's.....THINK.... that Obama WAS/IS??????

[(A) nuther Bub]

It troubles me that the illegals surging over our Southern border are continuously referred to as "children," and that the result is called "a humanitarian crisis." I suspect those labels could be an attempt at a tug-on-our-heartstrings portrait of what's taking place. If they are "children in crisis" and we are "humanitarians" then how can we do other than grasp them to our hearts, give them a permanent home and care for them?

Somewhere I read that more than 80 percent are unaccompanied males between 14 and 18 years of age, many with suspicious tattooed markings and behaviors that mirror the worst of our native-born gang members. Has anyone else read that? What is the reality of these "children?" Do any official statistics exist re their sex and age? (Any that have been revealed to the public, I mean.)

[anonamom]

What concerns me (A)B is that the federal employees dealing with those "children " have been muzzled, under penalty of losing their jobs. They know who is there.

Things like the VA lists and Lois Lerner's campaign at the IRS require many people to have at least some knowledge that something is not right; but the obvious culture of intimidation is what allows it to happen.

Very few people are going to risk their jobs to be branded a "disgruntled" employee in this economy in order to step forward
and speak out.

[Jane]

Anonamom,

Justina is going to be on Huckabee tonite. I'm not a fan of Huckabee's or the fact that he is taking credit for "taking the lead" in saving Justina - given how hard lots of people around here have worked, but it might be interesting to hear what she says.

[miss Marple]

Good morning, all!

[pagar]

Good morning, nice easy rain here. Should be a quiet day.

[miss Marple]

I am in Gus's state and heading home today.

Sunny right now, but I think we will be driving into rain.

I want to get home early enough to pick up Maggie, my dog, from her deluxe suite at Barkefeller's. I miss her.

My daughter's two dogs stayed at home because they are small and my daughter was at home in the evenings. Maggie is a high energy dog and needed not to be cooped up all day while daughter was at work.

The little dogs have been lonesome in my absence, and have been following my daughter all around the house in the evening. Ha! At least the dogs appreciate me!

[miss Marple]

Taxi driver is picking up someone here at the hotel and is ranting about how Obama should be impeached.

In Madison Wisconsin!

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Yesterday Kim Strassel took a day off from bashing the Tea Party to comment on how the Congressional donks, led by Reid and Pelosi, have allowed their partisan obsessions to massively erode the power of their branch of government in a manner previously unheard of. And that Boehner's lawsuit is an overdue first step to reclaim it.

I knew Kim still had it in her when not placating Rupert's pet issues.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Regarding Boehner's lawsuit, Levin stated a couple of days ago that, assuming standing is granted, the same logic which argued successfully against the line item veto should be employed.

[henry]

Miss M, the taxi driver works for a living, most of Madison doesn't. I hope you have a safe and speedy drive home!

[miss Marple]

Levin isn't always right about the court, however.

I have a very clear memory of Levin ranting about how the Bush case before the Supreme Court in Bush vs. Gore was all wrong and doomed to failure.

He got irate at me on Free Republic, where he used to post, because I disagreed with him.

[Extraneus]

He's often irate, MM. Don't take it personally. :-)

[miss Marple]

I didn't take it personally, Extraneus. He did, however, resort to ad hominem attacks, which was pretty funny.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Mark gets pretty impatient with callers, many times unreasonably so IMO. I think he's right about the type of argument which would win Boehner's suit, mainly because that's what I was thinking before he brought it up. Still it's a sad day that the suit is necessary.

[Centralcal on iPad]

Barely awake and the coffee hasn't yet kicked in, but in response to (A)B's question about mostly young gang banger males being a large portion of the children overwhelming our border, talk radio did several hours on the request by ICE for donations of thousands of pairs of plain white boxer underwear. Don't think too many toddlers or young females are having a critical need for them. Just sayin'.

[henry]

cc, they won't accept pink boxers with targets on the backsides? ICE is h8ting the LGBT lifestyle.

[Centralcal on iPad]

They probably will accept 'em, Henry. There being such a "critical" need and all.

[pagar]

WZ has another story of a kid losing his IPOD, so he offs his parents.

Unbelievable!

LUN

[Captain Hate]

talk radio did several hours on the request by ICE for donations of thousands of pairs of plain white boxer underwear. Don't think too many toddlers or young females are having a critical need for them. Just sayin'.

Especially 6x size; give us your fatasses.

[Captain Hate]

WZ has another story of a kid losing his IPOD, so he offs his parents.

Darwin at work. Excellent parenting skills imo.

[narciso]

Admittedly he's a weasel, but Don Corzione or even
the Isias bros don't get this treatment,

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/27/4205129/rothsteins-ex-senior-law-partner.html

the Turbo Tim Fund, will be legendary,

[miss Marple]

Excuse me, but the logistics of someone wearing a 6X boggles the mind. Did he hoist himself on top of that train? Waddle through the desert? I am trying to envision someone of that size sneaking, but my mind cannot wrap itself around that idea.

Said fat person has to have been transported by motor vehicle, which makes me ask who let said fat person into the country.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Steph:
The laying of the bricks has commenced and my back is killing me. I'll just leave that there for H&R to knock it out of the park in the ayem. ;)

My suggestion? Be on top when you are on the bricks getting laid.

Well, I tried. At best that was probably a ground rule double.

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

Who started passing the word to come to America? I bet there was coordination with leftist advocacy groups...& leftist 'religious' groups down in Guatemala, Honduras, & El Salvador.
Those printed slips telling the people how to answer questions...
This is all coordinated with the Mexican govt., leftist groups, & leftists in our government.

and like AB pointed out...the 'children' meme was preplanned too.

[Rick B]

We're not seeing heart tugging photos of groups of the Central American peasant "children" because 16 yo male waddlers elicit narrowed eyes rather than open arms. BOzo's Merde Touch strikes again.

This piece on Army recruitment has some bearing on the topic of the post. It's not just the Army which isn't interested interested in hiring native tattooed waddlers drooling while pecking their I(diot)pod/phone.

[Buckeye]

WSJ and. rupert's pet projects are really starting to get old. Elitists are a pain in the ass regardless of whether left or right.

Seems like the WSJ cannot go a week without printing some article glorifying the LBGT "lifestyle".

Also clearly cater to the .01%. In today's WSJ Magazine there is an article about some french designer who has just restored a 12th century castle. Even has a moat. Billed as an elite academy for artisans. Money quote: "he is not telling his clients to live like Marie Antoinette, but he's letting them live in a world of today that evokes the past".

Does that include guillotines?

I wanna puke.

[Stephanie]

Hit, knew you could do it!

new thread.

[lyle]

Publius and Eric,

I'm in NW Boise. Work downtown. I believe Derwill is in McCall but I'm not sure. If she comes down to the valley let's make it happen.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Hey, I'll only be ~8 hours away over in Driggs the next two weeks.

Man, I wish I could make it over there.

Today is the big Celebrate America event at Huntsman Springs in Victor. Their fireworks are the bomb. I see Jon Skin-Crawler is speaking tonight. Won't lose any sleep over missing that.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Hadn't mapped it in a while. "Only" 5 hours. Dang that's getting more tempting.

[lyle]

Yeah, hit. I was wondering how slow you drive...

[clarice]

DoT's fine--just taking a breather.

[Carol Herman]

Back in 1997 we had a "bubble" burst. Then, building homes went into overdrive. Which meant good employment all around. Until we reach 2007 and the collapse of the entire mortgage industry. And, homes abandoned.

Gas prices have also gone up. Which stresses the costs of transport. Factor in higher prices. And, men who want to work by trucking goods, who can't find trucks to drive to market.

It's probably more than likely that our economy is on a plateau, rather then down deep into recession. Some people, glad to have jobs, go for years without raises.

And, then, if you want to look over the cliff's edge you look at our debt. (Not as bad as Greece, Ireland, Italy, or France. But just the same not healthy recovery numbers, either.)