Jobless rate jumps to 8.6 per cent in Canada, USA 10 per cent.

I feel it, somethings got to break. There is a tremendous economic shift occurring worldwide, so important in fact, that for 10′s of millions of us life will never be the same. The recent jobless rates of 8.6 in Canada and 10 per cent in the USA, mentions nothing about millions of those of us who have exhausted their unemployment benefits and are now applying for welfare. A number that is critical in my opinion. What are they to do?

It is strategically important for everyone to realize that over the next few years there will be a redistribution of wealth worldwide, its happening now. Simply take a look at the once thriving metropolis of Detroit, MI. Once the nameplate for American ingenuity, quality and leadership in the automotive industry. Greed and mismanagement have left once prosperous neighbourhoods abandoned, boarded up and left without hope.

When the North American market started to introduce cheaper and better manufactured goods from overseas markets like Japan and China, it started a domino effect. Lets take the automobile for example since we have already mentioned Detroit. When I was younger in the sixties, every car that I could remember seeing was built in North America. When I was in high school in the seventies, one of the guys was driving an Opel and another his British Racing Green MG and one of my best friends was driving a Toyota Celica.

Not only where they cheaper cars to own than GM, Chrysler or Ford they where a heck of a lot more fun to drive. Corolla’s it seemed almost one out of every twenty families owned one.  As you can well imagine it started becoming tough for domestic automakers to match the price and quality without going overseas themselves! 

Wages, benefits, pension agreements and union negotiated contracts that have unwittingly created a labour market that is uncompetitive with today’s reality. The same has happened and is happening across industries nationwide.

I think after the initial economic windfall in the form of global stimulus spending has made its way through the economy, we will all be in for a rude awakening. Full time jobs will continue to be lost and unemployment will increase to the point where the numbers of personal bankruptcies and foreclosures will reach epidemic proportions.  The next bailout package may very well be a moratorium on all debt.