I heard a piece on the radio the other day which illustrated the fact that, in America, we are increasingly becoming two separate countries -- two distinctly opposed groups, both of whom can look at the same set of facts and circumstances and yet draw completely different conclusions.
The piece was about the lingering unemployment problem. In this instance, the focus was South Carolina, which has lost 78,000 jobs from its peak in 2007. Most of this loss was in home construction jobs. A custom-home builder from York County, SC was interviewed. York County is just across the state line from Charlotte and in recent years enjoyed tremendous growth. Now it deals with persistent 12% unemployment, among the highest in the state.
The custom-home builder noted that he had ten employees in 2008, and now he has just one -- his wife. And at the moment, he is building zero homes.
I seem to recall the housing bubble of the Bush years with its ever-escalating home values, driven mainly by a bizarre financial instrument called the collateralerized debt obligation, a collection of shitty fraudulently represented mortgages that was oversold and underinsured, such instrument made possible by deregulation and lax oversight, and fueled by Wall Street greed, predatory lending, and the prostitution of Moody's and Standard & Poor's. And I seem to recall that this all blew up in the fall of 2008, in the last month's of Dubya's reign, and I recall it as the largest economic collapse since 1929, costing us all bajillions in lost assets and leaving a blast radius we now call the Great Recession, the effects of which we all deal with to this day.
And yeah, if you're a custom-home builder, that's the sort of shit that'll really cramp your style.
The builder was asked who he blames for the downturn in his business. His answer? You already guessed it -- that's right, Barack Obama. Of course.
I think this douchebag just woke up and noticed -- yikes! -- there's a black man in the White House.
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