We Saved the Country!!!

Wait, no. Did we?

No.

We saved Wall Street:

While Wall Street was at the center of the credit crisis that began in August 2007, the New York economy has recovered faster than much of the nation as the city benefited disproportionately from the government bailout of the financial system. Jobs in the finance industry grew 1.5 percent in New York in December from the year-ago period, compared with a 0.8 percent loss across the U.S., according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Sweeeet.

They needed it.

Where's the Money

I was talking to a guy I know who's a firefighter in Jersey City, and he told me they haven't had a new class of recruits since 2007. There's one scheduled for 2011. In 1980 there were 600 on the force, and today there are about 300. In 1980 when someone was a millionaire that person was considered rich. There were few of those in Jersey City, I'd guess. Today there's probably MANY in Jersey City, and a millionaire seems to be almost run of the mill. Yet we don't seem to have the money...is what I always hear...Strange.

Then there's the issue of teachers and unions and police officers and on and on and on...

I can't even guess what a firefighter makes, full-time, but it's somewhere between $31-55,000 here in the US, depending on where you live.

Even in 1980 $55,000 wasn't considered a boatload of money; today it's clearly less. Yet the amount of money people seem to make in so many other walks of life has increased tremendously since that time.

I just don't get it, where's the money going?

I do know that what we are great at paying is one thing, which is truly American: lip service. The amount we pay to cops, fire fighters, and teachers has increased at a faster rate than any banker's salary...