There are a lot of layers to this country. It’s like a pungent vegetable waiting to be peeled and browned in butter—maybe even caramelized.
Maybe I shouldn’t write this column right before lunch. My co-worker to my left just brought in some Thai food to eat at her desk, while the guy to my right is unwrapping a massive burrito. I’m on deadline and don’t have time to stop and eat right now, which is why you can probably hear my stomach growling as you read these words.
Deadlines, deadlines, it’s always about deadlines. They’re too soon for me to be able to dig into that pile of lightly toasted sunflower seeds, and they’re certainly too soon for me to be able to include anything in this column about the president’s State of the Union address. By the time you’re reading this, he’s already laid out his middle-class-friendly speech (or at least, that’s what the pundits were speculating would be a focus as I wrote this).
Since I’m hungry and unable to weigh in on the talk itself, I’ll punch out this column by talking about what the mood was leading up to the address. All signs were pointing to good, but it was a relative sort of good—like, The lion is chewing on my leg, not my head.
OK. Maybe it wasn’t even that bad. But suddenly I have a hankering for a nice, rare steak.
Anyway, according to the Pew Research Center, recent surveys revealed that more Americans were reporting that they see the economy as improving. Hooray! In context, though, that “more” means that now about a quarter of Americans think the economy is “excellent or good,” while a quarter think it’s poor. The remaining half would rate it fair. So 75 percent of the country thinks our economy is fair to poor. The improvement, by the way, came in people changing their rating from the lowest tier up to the “meh” middle. Yes, that is improvement.
More survey results revealed similarly guarded positive statements: “Positive views of the job situation have edged up,” one Pew Center heading reads, “but most Americans still say jobs are hard to find.”
Isn’t that the truth? And isn’t that a homemade lasagna heating up in the microwave in the break room?
Just a couple of issues back, the Sun reported that Santa Maria’s unemployment rate was 9.4 percent heading into the new year. Lompoc’s sat at 10 percent, while Guadalupe’s was 10.3 percent. All of those numbers are much higher than the county average, higher than the state average, and a lot higher than the national average.
If you’re like me and have to do some mental acrobatics to figure out whether an unemployment rate rising or falling, being higher or lower than other numbers, moving in any direction is a good or a bad thing, let me sum it up for you: Those cities are not doing well compared to any of their neighbors or the rest of the United States as a whole.
Northern Santa Barbara County, it seems, is still clawing its way out of the Great Recessional hole—which, again, is progress. Clawing upward is not sinking deeper, though I guess both can be happening at the same time.
Another point in the Pew research: People see that the economy is improving, but they simultaneously believe that the cost of living is rising faster than they can keep up. The bulk also apparently think that inequality is growing, too—and by that they mean the rich are increasingly really rich, while everyone else glaringly isn’t.
The Sun also recently reported that the California Labor Market Review revealed that the largest group of unemployed people in the state claim to have been unemployed for 52 weeks or longer.
That’s a year. A whole year. Or longer!
Look, I’m fully aware that I could be tooting a horn that went comically out of tune the moment President Barack Obama opened his mouth and began orating on the evening of Jan. 20. Well, not that out of tune. I know that no matter what he said or didn’t say, our economic outlook isn’t going to turn on a dime. Even if he addressed every point raised in this week’s column, there’s still a lot of climbing to do.
But that’s a good thing, right? The climbing?
The Canary wishes everyone could fly like her. Send comments or tips to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 22-29, 2015.