DON'T KNOW THAT ANSWER

Last weekend I watched my routine number of Sunday morning interview shows to see if any new spin might be filtering in from Washington. Sure enough, there was Tim Geithner, boy genius of the financial world admitting that the federal deficit is getting too high but that the priorities now are economic growth and job recovery. Mr. Geithner, that’s always been the priority. His commentary reminded me one more time how little the financial world gets about real business.

Host David Gregory, who by the way doesn’t do too bad of a job bringing the spinners back to his questions, asked the one question that I’ve not heard a politician answer yet. “When will be see jobs come back?” Geithner’s response? “We don’t know that answer for sure.”

Really? Of course not. Bankers, Lawyers, Wall Street types and certainly Politicians don’t know the answer to that question because they don’t know what you know. They don’t make a payroll and pay for it based on customer sales. Private businesses that produce products, provide services and otherwise sell to customers are the people that understand jobs. The others do not.

When work is slow, you all shortened hours. Some of you had to let people go. Others shared workers to keep everyone working. You deal with real jobs and real work day after day. To a business owner, jobs are intuitive because you know the connection between work, revenue, expenses and jobs. Jobs you produce. Jobs you provide your employees. Jobs your create for those not working.

JOBS! Down to the minute. Down to the hour. Down to the truck. Down to the crew.
This is the part that politicians don’t get. They never participate in this decision. They look at statistics. You look at the faces of your employees when things get slow.

How do jobs look? You’re the business owners that know.

Bankers have to ask YOU to find out this answer. Accountants have to ask YOU to find out this answer. Lawyers have to ask YOU to find out these answers. Politicians generally don’t ask.

Next time you see a genius on the news show telling you how the economy is doing, ask your self the question, “What does this guy do for a living?” If he’s a lawyer, banker, politician or a talk show host, consider the source. You can tell them more about the real economy than they can tell you.

You just don’t get on network TV news shows.


Kevin McNulty
Execuive Director