Numbers......
As I walk through a dead as dirt Carmel on a Thursday....and a dead as dirt Carmel Crossroads on a Saturday.....I am thinking about numbers.
The poor bastard with the upstairs restaurant two blocks off Ocean with the insane rent. Competely empty. Fucked.
The nice lady with the obscure antique store two blocks off Ocean with the insane rent. Completely fucked.
The really nice guy with two cute dogs who owns the obscure Car Memorabilia Store a half block into the maze of The Crossroads with the insane rent. Completely fucked.
Multiply by all the tiny little shops selling random stuff.....paying insane rent.
The $750,000 tax hike for the richest of the rich.....I don't know......looks like it might come out of sales of all these places. Oh, and the sales girls.....and their landlords......and the places they shop.
Not that the $750,000 is more than peanuts at the level of income we are talking about. The problem is that if people feel poorer, they act poorer. Plus.....it gives people an excuse not to spend.
Remember the Great Drought of 1976-78? When restaurants stopped giving everyone water for free? Have you seen a glass of water since, this side of Denny's?
We took the excuse of saving water, and have been running with it for more than thirty years.
The last time this kind of crunch went down, in a much smaller manner, we had clients try to hire our staff to serve Costco salmon wrapped in aluminum foil doused with Costco Lawry's Seasoned Salt.....with a side of Costco angel hair pasta drenched in Costco mayo. I kid you not. It was like a pretend Depression party, and all the Pebble Beach folks went with it.
Briefly, that time. Keep your fingers crossed.
Mine are definitely crossed after I open the envelope from the client who owes us $12,000 going back eighteen months and find a check for $1,000. "Sorry I let this get away from me. Talk to you soon." And me remembering two of the parties where all the guests drove up to the guy's pretend winery in $100,000 motorcycles. La ti dah. Hey, Doc......how about dropping off one of the bikes until you get square?
Yeah, right. We are just the little people.
OK.....one more number: oil is selling for about $60 a barrel. I won't go into the whole Wendy/Phil Gramm thing again, don't worry.
Governor Palin needs oil to be above $74 to balance her famous "conservative" budget, since 84% of the state's revenue comes from.....ummm.....taxes......on oil companies.
Welcome to reality, Bible Spice.
One final number: California is short some $10 billion dollars on this year's budget. The Republicans (the Grover Norquist Crazy Republican crew, anyway) refuse to raise any taxes whatsoever....... so Arnold is gutting police, education, welfare, etc to try to balance the budget. He is talking about raising sales tax a point and a half.....which is good Republican revenge on all those poor and working class Obama folk since sales tax takes a much bigger bite of poor wages than rich incomes.
The $10 billion dollar number?
That is the amount we spend in Iraq.....every month.
Anyone remember Iraq?
The poor bastard with the upstairs restaurant two blocks off Ocean with the insane rent. Competely empty. Fucked.
The nice lady with the obscure antique store two blocks off Ocean with the insane rent. Completely fucked.
The really nice guy with two cute dogs who owns the obscure Car Memorabilia Store a half block into the maze of The Crossroads with the insane rent. Completely fucked.
Multiply by all the tiny little shops selling random stuff.....paying insane rent.
The $750,000 tax hike for the richest of the rich.....I don't know......looks like it might come out of sales of all these places. Oh, and the sales girls.....and their landlords......and the places they shop.
Not that the $750,000 is more than peanuts at the level of income we are talking about. The problem is that if people feel poorer, they act poorer. Plus.....it gives people an excuse not to spend.
Remember the Great Drought of 1976-78? When restaurants stopped giving everyone water for free? Have you seen a glass of water since, this side of Denny's?
We took the excuse of saving water, and have been running with it for more than thirty years.
The last time this kind of crunch went down, in a much smaller manner, we had clients try to hire our staff to serve Costco salmon wrapped in aluminum foil doused with Costco Lawry's Seasoned Salt.....with a side of Costco angel hair pasta drenched in Costco mayo. I kid you not. It was like a pretend Depression party, and all the Pebble Beach folks went with it.
Briefly, that time. Keep your fingers crossed.
Mine are definitely crossed after I open the envelope from the client who owes us $12,000 going back eighteen months and find a check for $1,000. "Sorry I let this get away from me. Talk to you soon." And me remembering two of the parties where all the guests drove up to the guy's pretend winery in $100,000 motorcycles. La ti dah. Hey, Doc......how about dropping off one of the bikes until you get square?
Yeah, right. We are just the little people.
OK.....one more number: oil is selling for about $60 a barrel. I won't go into the whole Wendy/Phil Gramm thing again, don't worry.
Governor Palin needs oil to be above $74 to balance her famous "conservative" budget, since 84% of the state's revenue comes from.....ummm.....taxes......on oil companies.
Welcome to reality, Bible Spice.
One final number: California is short some $10 billion dollars on this year's budget. The Republicans (the Grover Norquist Crazy Republican crew, anyway) refuse to raise any taxes whatsoever....... so Arnold is gutting police, education, welfare, etc to try to balance the budget. He is talking about raising sales tax a point and a half.....which is good Republican revenge on all those poor and working class Obama folk since sales tax takes a much bigger bite of poor wages than rich incomes.
The $10 billion dollar number?
That is the amount we spend in Iraq.....every month.
Anyone remember Iraq?
posted by Txacoli at 4:21 PM
2 Comments:
Wait on now...
DoD costs are north of $10Billion per month.
Department of State and the combined "Black" budgets are north of $7Billion per month.
Now that's north of $17Billion per month, because those NeoCon BASTARDS always round down. So lets get "Conservitive" and round up...
The grand total is...
$20Billion per month or NORTH OF $670,000,000 per day.
So bring the troops home now and work on Victory at HOME in the good old USA.
Oh and BTW I did not add in the unfunded, health care for returning VETS. But what the hell the Zygote/ Fetus is sacred, but once you turn 19 and you are CANON FODDER... FUCK YOU, we don't have to fund Veteran care. Do we?
BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW. It worked for Kevin Rudd the new PM in Australia and it will work here...
Bennie
The stock market crash and the predicted dismal "holiday" sales?
Who isn't buying what and why..
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