People Unclear of the Concept.

Back in 1994, I decided to derail my goal of being a game programmer and start focusing on this little quirky thing called the Internet (hell, I was on AOL back then). I went and picked up as many books as I could find which wasn't that much back then as compared to now.

And I studied.

And studied some more (in between classes I was taking).

I landed a job as a graphic artist for a news publication. I eventually took over most of the webmaster responsibilities. When I quit, they hired 2 people to replace me. All the time I was working as a artist, I studied how the web worked and made a career out of it.

When the dot com bubble was in full swing, I was a hot commodity. I got a 65% increase in salary in a single year. I avoided dot coms like the plague, because after studying the Internet for so long, I knew it was a phase and that eventually it would settle out and those who focused on using the Internet as a tool rather than for show would eventually keep their jobs.

I was right.

And during this time, William Jefferson Clinton never had a damn thing to do with my studies. I was broke, living paycheck to paycheck working 3 jobs trying to advance myself. I couldn't get much help for college because I won't take money based on my skin color and the GI Bill didn't cover everything.

In short, the massive amount of time I spent in bettering myself had, albeit a tiny amount, an effect on the economy. I did all this despite the taxes I had to pay, despite the fact that anyone who could spell HTML could get a job (which saturated the market after a while), despite working 3 jobs so I could survive.

Clinton never helped me study. He never gave me advice. The government never dropped by my house and asked me to work overtime so the economy could improve. In short, Bill Clinton happened to be in office while I busted my ass as millions of others who did as well.

The President does not have a magic wand he waves and magically improves the economy. Why is this so hard for people to understand. I don't give credit to Clinton for my position today just as I don't give credit to Bush for it either. I appreciate being able to take more of my earned money back home to my family, but the POTUS has never asked my company to hire / fire any number of people.

So when Kerry blames Bush for all the job losses, he is full of shit. And when W takes credit for the creation of any jobs, he too is full of shit. At best the President can try to have certain things imposed that have a general effect to stimulate the economy, but in the long run it's up to you and me to get it done.

As the Reverend Sensing said