US ECONOMY IN DECLINE, LIKE IT OR NOT

So, I hear yesterday that one of my favorite bands of all time, Nine Inch Nails, has a new CD coming out in April. I immediately think to myself "Awesome! I'll totally pick up that CD!"

Then it hits me: where can I pick up a CD these days?

Tower Records in Westwood closed years ago and the Blockbuster Music/Wherehouse closed years before that. The iconic, Sunset Strip landmark, Tower Records just recently closed for good leaving only West Hollywood's Virgin Megastore and Hollywood proper's Amoeba Music left as CD sources for Los Angeles. Sure, I can go online to iTunes or a myriad of other online music sources, but I don't know who's DRM system will be the least bigbrothery and draconian. When I buy a CD, I can do anything I want with it. Then another thing hits me. CD stores aren't the only stores I've seen close. There have been a rash of KB toy stores in my area close. The one at the Westside Pavillion mall closed earlier this year and the one at the Santa Monica Place mall closed last year, as I recall. I also remember, late last year, hearing on the news that the Toys R Us Corporation was considering selling off their Toys R Us unit because it wasn't making them as much money as it used to. Just the other day I was looking for a cheap thumb drive at my local CompUSA (the one in Culver City). Turns out they're closing down in the next couple of months. It also turns out that every CompUSA store south of Bakersfield is shutting down. Now, Bush said something about our economy being strong, but it sure seems to me like it isn't. How else can you explain all of these retail stores closing? It means that people just aren't buying music/videos, toys or electronics like they used to. Why is that? Because we can't afford them. Why is that? Because gas prices are up (again--thirty-cent jump in the past month according to CNN Radio) and the value of the US dollar isn't up. We have to pay our cable, cell, credit card bills and our jobs aren't paying us any better. Hell, I'm actually making less now than I have in the last ten years. The rich white men can say whatever they want about how good the economy is but from the poor white man's point of view, my point of view, the economy is in serious decline.

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