Lamar Thames

Uh, oh!

Was Monday’s announcements of massive nationwide layoffs the flash-flood warning of an economic tsunami heading our way? 

School districts across the state are facing large budget cut that will force them to eliminate jobs. Home Depot, Sprint, Caterpillar and Pfizer are among the latest national companies to announce huge job losses. 

I am hearing talk of layoffs in nearly every walk of life these days, including the elimination of a job that recently hit home. Clear Channel Radio announced on Jan. 20 it was laying off 1,850 employes across the country. One of them was my son, Joe, an advertising sales person in Jacksonville. He lost his job on the day Barack Obama was inaugurated and the same day that both radio talk show personalities David Lamm and Joe Cowart lost theirs.

Another son’s wife has been out of work for six months and his computer consulting business has slowed, both because of the housing crunch.

Maybe it is just coincidence that my son and I lost our jobs within three months of each other. Or maybe it was that we both had jobs that depended on advertising sales to prosper. In tough economic times, advertising is the first thing that businesses tend to cut. They cut back on advertising because nobody is buying anything. Nobody has money to buy anything because they are losing their jobs. I think that is called a catch-22 situation. 

What is going to happen? I certainly wish I knew. If I did, I would probably have been sworn in as Treasury secretary the other day instead of Timothy Geithner. Only I would not have had to pay back taxes to get the job. I would have known that if you get income, you have to pay taxes on it. I don’t buy for a minute that it was an oversight. He knew better and he just wanted to get away without paying the tax. Anyway, after a slap on the hand, Geithner was confirmed. Let’s hope he has some answers.

The chairman of the Clay County, Fla., school district, Charlie Van Zant Jr., wants to explore the possibility of going to a four-day work week. He asked staff members to try to come up with cost savings that such a move would generate. I suspect he will be met with massive resistance from working parents of young students who will have to find day care on the other day of the week.

Clay school Superintendent Ben Wortham submitted a list of proposals to the School Board this week that would trim $27 million in expenses, including the elimination of 256 positions and 3 percent salary rollbacks for everyone, including himself, board members and board attorney and secretary.

That is the first incident of a CEO voluntary taking a salary cut that I can remember. (Some have been forced to.) Maybe others should follow suit. I mean if you make $5 million a year (not the superintendent, of course) why do you need $6 million? The same goes for athletes and movie and rock stars. $350 for a ticket to see a Springsteen concert? Gimme a beak. 

As I said in an earlier column, maybe the economic slowdown is not all bad. Maybe it will teach us the value of little things in life and help us return to a more simpler time when our needs were not so great. Do we really need 250 television channels to choose from? An iPod that can carry 1,000 tunes? Or to pay $700 for a pair of season tickets only to watch our football team go 5-11 because most of the players were upset that the team hired two mediocre free agents for nearly $20 million? (Uh, excuse me, I just had to get that little dig in there. Buh-bye Jaguar tickets.)

All I know is that I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if my newly depleted, formerly a 401k, now a retirement IRA will be safe; will my other three children have jobs tomorrow or will I be able to find meaningful employment in the near future? 

In the meantime, let’s all do our part and try to look out for each other. We may be the only things we can rely on in the future.

What do you think? Let me hear from you.