How is it a Recovery Without Jobs?

My dad is a World War II vet, a great American, who took himself from an eighth grade education to founding his own plumbing company that he ran successfully for more than 50 years. My dad is also blunt and outspoken. My mom accuses him of being tactless. But you know what? At least with Dad, he not only speaks the truth, he knows the difference between a lie and the truth. Even now, as the memories fade, and Dad sometimes experiences confusion, he knows the truth.

That's why when politicians and news announcers smirk into the camera and tell us to cheer up at the good news because we're experiencing a jobless recovery, Dad doesn't cheer up. His reaction goes more like this: "Well." He rears back in his chair. Then he makes a pig snorting sound and slowly shakes his head. "Bunch of damn liars took over the news and the government. Just how the hell is it any kind of recovery when people have no jobs?"

That's what I'm wondering. And from what I hear from my friends, a lot of other people are wondering the same thing. 

Occupy Wall Street — I'm Confused

I was at first astonished and then pleased to learn about the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. Finally, I thought, Americans have woken up and decided to do something about the greed and the financial risk taking that have impacted us all and dragged our economy into recession. 

As I've followed the story, though, I'm greatly troubled by the vagueness of the OWS goals. It seems everyone I ask has a different take on just what it is they want. My initial enthusiasm has fizzled to dismay.

If what I'm hearing in interviews with the OWS people is true, I can't share their goals. Handouts? Free everything, courtesy of the government? Pile more taxes on the rich? Tell me, what good does it do to tax the rich? The tax money simply flows into the hands of the people in Washington who have done such a great job of bankrupting our country and making ridiculous laws. Why should the government be our nanny and decide what we can and can't have?

I'm sorry OWS. I wanted to believe that you could do something to change things for the better. I really did.

I don't believe the American people hate capitalism. I believe they hate corporate greed. Corporations owe no allegiance to this country or any other. Their sole motivator is profits. They are run by people apparently obsessed with power and money. Greed rules and Wall Street is their god, and you'd better not get in their way. A company announces mass layoffs to increase profits and their stock prices skyrocket. There's a lot wrong with that picture.

When it comes down to it, it's pretty outrageous for corporations that do business in this country to make use of our infrastructure and all the other benefits of operating in our country with its stable government. Corporations demand the power and protection of the US military. They want access to American consumers. There's only one catch. These same corporations don't want to hire Americans. Too pricey. Too many benefits. They've solved that problem by not only shipping most of the work overseas, but even laying off Americans and importing cheaper workers into the United States to take jobs. It's easy, thanks to the laws they've bought for themselves with their campaign contributions.

Job losses mean the end of the American dream, a drop in the standard of living, and, thanks to what they call a "jobless recovery," there's no way out. The Americans I know want a paycheck, not a government handout. They don't want to occupy Wall Street, they want to go to work. They want corporate accountability, not CEO's collecting millions in salary and stock options while ordinary workers collect pink slips. And they want an end to our current way of doing business where campaign contributions buy favors. Is that so much to ask?

Jobless Recovery, a novel

Jobless Recovery video

#SampleSunday Get Real: A Jobless Recovery is like a Moneyless Paycheck

It didn't take long for the characters in my novel, Jobless Recovery, to figure out the government had engineered the economic downturn and was now lying to them about the recovery. 

Dave Griffin is a poster boy for the American consumer. He drives a blood-colored Behemoth model SUV, has a new home in the suburbs, a beautiful girlfriend, a computer programming job, and all the benefits that come with middle class life in America. Then Dave's employer replaces American computer programmers with cheaper imported labor in order to increase company profits. Soon Dave is out on the street. But he still believes in the system. All he has to do is bring the problem to the attention of the media and the people in Washington to get results. This move only deepens his trouble.

Meanwhile, Dave's friend Joe Tremaine, a former FBI agent who lost his job after suffering a head injury, is struggling to stay sane. Cynical Joe knows better than to trust anyone in Washington or in corporate America. He embroils Dave in his fraudulent money-making schemes, and when Joe decides to educate the powerful senator who has been the driving factor in eliminating American jobs, his plan goes awry. Can an unemployed computer jockey manage to keep Joe--and himself--out of jail? Or will the oddly-shaped bundle in the back of Joe's truck lead the cops to haul them both to the slammer?

What others are saying about Jobless Recovery: “Jobless Recovery will push all your buttons as it tells a story that is too close to reality for many of us. It was a real think piece for me and I recommend the book highly.”--Sandy Nathan, award-winning author of Numenon and former Economic Analyst, Santa Clara County, California

"A brutally honest look at corporate America's flaws and desperate people caught in the middle, Jobless Recovery is a masterful, gripping piece of fiction that rings true with every word. Candid, suspenseful and moving. Jobless Recovery was a very enjoyable read, one of the best novels I've read in a while. I think it would make an awesome movie." --Cheryl Kaye Tardif, bestselling author

A brief excerpt: 

Joe waited until the lone customer cleared the convenience store before he went in to steal cigarettes. The security camera only worked half the time, and the clerk, Howard Simms, always made sure that the down time coincided with Joe’s visits. Joe would give him some of the stolen cigarettes later.

Howard glanced up from his newspaper. He raised his right hand in a halfhearted salute and pried himself from behind the counter to lumber down the narrow aisle to the back, his stocky body moving with the deliberate slowness of a man who’d given up and placed himself on permanent autopilot.

When Howard, former software engineer and now day clerk at the Quick Buy, returned to his station a minute later, Joe had already snared a carton of Marlboros and shoved them under his jacket. He fingered a Snickers bar as if trying to decide whether he wanted to part with seventy-five cents. He finally tossed the Snickers down on the counter and watched it skid to a stop next to a Slim Jim rack.

“Still working, Howard?”

“I’m here, aren’t I? And glad to have a job. I’m buried under a stack of bills a mile high.” Howard jabbed the candy bar with his pudgy fingers. “That be all?”

Joe nodded. He paid with a handful of pennies and nickels that Howard didn’t bother to count.

He collected his Snickers and walked outside like any paying customer, holding his head up and pretending he had places to go. He limped across the parking lot and paused next to the rusting gas pumps to squint into the distance toward the center of town. There was too much haze for him to see, but he knew it was there. Normally the soaring Pyramid Building owned by Markham-Hook Conglomerate dominated Avalon’s skyline, poking heavenward to broadcast to everyone in North Carolina that Markham-Hook meant power. The building’s architect had won an award for the design, a tower with a pyramid forming the top five floors, which he said was inspired by the pyramid on the dollar bill. But Joe thought that from a distance the silver pyramid topped by a gold-colored metal sphere made the building look like a NASA rocket with a wad of chewing gum on top. He spat on the ground, just missing his left shoe.

He planned to go home and do his laundry, but there was no rush, there never was. He’d already washed the breakfast dishes, dried them, put them away, and swallowed his mental illness prevention pill this morning. He decided to reward himself for good behavior with a smoke or two.

Mental illness my ass, Joe thought, grimacing as he tripped over a bump in the sidewalk where tree roots had burst through the concrete. He was as sane as anyone. Saner, because at least he had sense enough to see what the politicians and their corporate campaign contributors were doing to the economy while the brain dead citizens of the country wondered where all the jobs went. 

Jobless Recovery

Book Trailer for Jobless Recovery

Jobless Recovery Reviewed on Daily Cheap Reads

The country is still in a "jobless recovery" with millions of Americans unable to cash their moneyless paychecks.

Meanwhile, you might want to check out a great review of the book Jobless Recovery on Daily Cheap Reads.

http://dailycheapreads.com/2011/03/23/book-review-jobless-recovery/

Jobless Recovery Gets Some Recognition

Jobless Recovery got a great review on Independent eBook reviews. I'm especially pleased that the reviewer says this is the best edited independently published books she's read. You can read the review here: http://wp.me/p12lxA-3c

Though there were some things the reviewer didn't care for, she did pick up that I'm passionate about the book. I should be. I lived a lot of it. Not the parts about the—well, the crime. I don't want to put in a spoiler that would ruin the book for readers, but I do want everyone to know I didn't do the crime in real life. That part is pure fiction.

With the current economy, it's not surprising that I've heard from a lot of readers who are currently living their own version of a jobless recovery.

To quote Dave Griffin in my book: "Yeah, one day the country, and maybe the world, would return to government of the people, by the people instead of government by the greedy." 

Who Can't Handle The Truth?

My book Jobless Recovery seems to have a lot of fans who love it, as well as a few readers who have told me they can't finish the book. It's too depressing, they say. I'm sorry, I say. If you'd just read on, you'd have seen that the ending sends the message that the human spirit is unquenchable and that there are always solutions.

Now the odd thing—or maybe not so odd—about the readers who find the book too true to life or too depressing to finish is that they are all men. It could be that the women who find it too depressing simply haven't bothered to share with me. They might be afraid of hurting my feelings. Or it could be more of a Venus and Mars thing. Who knows?

In my experience, men want to fix things. Tell a man you feel depressed today and most likely he'll assume a slightly panicked expressions and then offer a dozen solutions meant to cheer you up. He'll tell you to take a walk or he'll say maybe you're working too hard. If he's a significant other, he might buy you flowers and take you out to dinner. Of course, every woman knows, none of the above solutions is really helpful. All women want is for men to understand, but men want to fix things. It's hardwired into their brain circuitry.

After reading the first part of Jobless Recovery, which does hit very close to home, it seems some readers conclude there is no fix and they give up on the book. We're in a mess and there's no end in sight. Record unemployment, unfair trade bills, elected officials who can't get enough money and power, corruption at all levels of government, and a host of other ills are all contributing to the collapse of our once great nation. The United States is hurting. On their watch.

They feel bad about this, but the usual fixes they have in their playbooks won't work. The problem is too big. And a billion flowers sent to Washington won't do a thing.

Readers who read apocalyptic fiction enjoy the books and then they reach the end feeling relieved that those things didn't happen and they probably even believe those things couldn't happen. Aliens trying to take over Earth? A genetically enhanced leader with no conscience ruling the world? A supervirus that kills every male on the planet? Puh-lease. Thank God it's fiction, right?

But what about Jobless Recovery? Corrupt politicians. Corporations whose leaders worship the bottom line at the expense of the Americans who fight and die in the U.S. military to protect their interests. Unemployed people forced to take any job to feed themselves and their families. Record foreclosures. The list goes on. And there's no sense of relief that those things can't happen. We're living it. There is no easy fix, that's true, but as long as there's hope, it's not too late.

What Does it Mean?

Jobless Recovery--that's what they call it when the people who make the rules keep their own personal economy humming, while you have no job.

Jobless Recovery is Featured on Daily Cheap Reads

Daily Cheap Reads is an excellent site to find the latest in great bargain priced and free Kindle books. The site also posts reviews. Check out Jobless Recovery today. Find out what happens when greed rears its ugly head in a once prosperous North Carolina city.

http://dailycheapreads.com/

Would You Dance for Chippendales?

Guest post by Joe Tremaine, a character from my novel, Jobless Recovery. Joe can scare you sometimes, but he's an okay guy. Sort of.

Thanks, L.C.  I'm going to start my post with a few questions. Probably going to end it that way, too.

So. What are you supposed to do when your country gets economically dismantled by a few greedy people at the top? Do you sit there and believe the lies about the jobless recovery? Not unless you want to starve. I'm going to tell you something--if it's jobless, it's not a recovery. I'll bet you know that already. Seems everybody except the people in Washington and the media know that. If you want to engineer your own recovery, you need a job.

Yeah, I know. That's what we all want. But how far do we go?

I've thought about that question every day since I heard that my neighbor Martha--a sixty-one-year old grandmother who goes to church twice a week--has finally found herself a job. Martha calls herself a phone actress. I don't need to explain what that is.

After I got dumped from my government job, I did handyman work for a while and now I'm an Internet psychic. Don't judge. It pays the bills and it's kind of fun. I don't believe there are any legal jobs I wouldn't do to keep myself alive. I'd even oil my body up and dance for Chippendales.

Man, I can see that. Middle-aged guy with a bum knee prancing around the stage at Vegas wearing a bow tie and not too much else. I'd do it--if I could get that job. It's not like I've been discovered by the Chippendale talent scouts.

How about you? Would you be willing, for example, to pick vegetables in the fields or work in a meat processing plant? That's assuming, of course, that they paid enough, so you wouldn't have to live in a one-room shack with a dozen other people.

Anybody care to weigh in? Where would you draw the line? Remember, we're talking legal jobs. 

Dave Can't Manage On A Moneyless Paycheck

What's an unemployed computer jockey to do?

This is an extremely satisfying read. It opens doors that are at half-tilt and layers tension on tension, but with a sense of humor. What does Joe have in the back of his pickup truck? And will Dave's final wish come true? "Yeah, one day the country, and maybe the world, would return to government of the people, by the people instead of government by the greedy." 

I can't recommend this book enough. It truly is a Must Read--Barbara Silkstone, author of The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland, Age 42 and Three-Quarters.


The three main characters--Dave, Joe, and Lark, and wonderfully brought to life. I was totally involved in their predicament and was rooting for them all the way. More than this, however, what made this novel stand out for me, was the deft touch author Evans has with contemporary social commentary. I really kept expecting some hard-handed political diatribe at every turn, but she manages to serve up biting, humorous social satire (witness the riotous phone calls that Dave makes to clueless government officials at the unemployment office) without seeming to take a political position. She skewers big business as much as big government. I dare you to guess her political persuasion. --Patricia Rockwell, author of Sounds of Murder


If you never read another book this year, read this one.--Martha A. Cheves, author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat

A Jobless Recovery is Like a Moneyless Paycheck

"Jobless Recovery--A thrilling revisit of The Grapes of Wrath." Barbara Silkstone, author of The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland, Age 42 and Three-Quarters

Jobless Recovery is fiction. Really.

About the book:

Dave Griffin is a poster boy for the American consumer. He drives a blood-colored Behemoth model SUV, has a new home in the suburbs, a beautiful girlfriend, a great job, and all the benefits that come with middle class life in America. Then Dave's employer replaces American computer programmers with cheaper imported labor in order to increase company profits. Soon Dave is out on the street. But he still believes in the system. All he has to do is bring the problem to the attention of the media and the people in Washington to get results, right? Wrong. Very wrong.

Meanwhile, Dave's friend Joe Tremaine, a former FBI agent, is struggling to stay sane. Cynical Joe knows better than to trust anyone in Washington or in corporate America. He embroils Dave in his fraudulent money-making schemes, and when Joe decides to educate the powerful senator who has been the driving factor in eliminating American jobs, his plan goes awry. Can an unemployed computer jockey manage to keep Joe--and himself--under the radar? Or will the oddly-shaped bundle in the back of Joe's truck lead to big trouble with the feds?

The part in the book about American tech workers losing their jobs to cheaper tech workers imported from India is absolutely true. Have Americans had to train their replacements? Absolutely true. Are the imported workers paid less than the Americans? Absolutely.

Outsourcing is bad--jobs go to China, India, or wherever. But insourcing, bringing workers to the United States on work visas to undercut wages and take jobs from Americans right in this country, is far worse. It is absolutely true that this is happening.

I called Washington (many times) and I was told this is legal and there's nothing I can do about it. I even have it in writing from the U.S. Department of Labor that the H-1B law is full of loopholes and there are no protections whatsoever for American workers. The worker importation laws were signed into law by President Clinton. Since then, you can see what's happened to the economy. I have called senators and representatives, the White House, The U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. Department of Commerce. I received absurd answers very much like those given to my main character in the book. It's all a bunch of meaningless government speak that does nothing to address the fact that our country is being economically dismantled.

For so many years Americans have been expected to drive the world economy with consumerism, but how are we to do this without jobs? Every company wants the benefits of doing business in the U.S. with its stable government and relatively affluent consumer base, but they don't want to hire Americans and pay American wages and adhere to American labor laws. At the same time they expect Americans to fight and die in the U.S. military to protect their interests. First they told us we didn't want service jobs, so when those went away we were told to upgrade our skills and get manufacturing jobs. When those went away, they told us to get an education and get tech jobs. Now those are gone to outsourcing and insourcing and we're told that it's globalization and we are supposed to "deal with it." We've been lied to you and thrown by the wayside.