While County, City, and Chamber economic gurus belch happy talk about great things to come for Rock County's economy (currently some of the worst unemployment in the State), they have made an incredible oversight. Rock County and Janesville have been "new norm" economy ready for years. Long before Rock County lost their General Motors operation and all the factories that serviced it - long before thousands of people were put on the unemployment street - Rock County was economically up-armored for the "new norm." 

    For years they were up and running with McJobs that boasted perks like: No pay increases in any foreseeable future (assuming you are lucky enough to even have a job); less hours; no-benefits; minimum wages; seven-day-a-week work weeks at four hours a day wrecking the whole week for 28 hours of lousy pay; and finally, citizens relentlessly buying Chinese junk products probably for the rest of their lives. This is the culture that developed around the better paying and benefit offering factory jobs. This service industry and all its lousy jobs has thrived in Rock County for decades. Fast food and pay-day loan shops line the boulevards even in this "Great Recession" in Rock County.  It's not hard to find them. If "media" still had reporters older than 22, perhaps someone could muster up era-comparison data to do a round-up of this current Middle-classless culture. 

    Production plants that have used the part-time worker rubric for years are still surviving and still...using the part-time worker rubric. Basically, if you run most of your operation with part-timers, no one is in charge half the time. But, these places trudge on down here - down here at the great gateway to the non-glaciated prairie. 

    The area honed its survival tactics in the "Misery Recession" of the late '70s early '80s. Remember we hardy blue-collar folks down here have been on the margins of the great "Rust Belt" as long as most of us can remember.  Much of our economic savvy and cleverness was crafted during that last massive recession. And remember too, it was that time in your history books they only mentioned in a couple paragraphs, yet it ruined millions of lives.  Hey, kind'a like nowadays. But I digress.

    Not to stop with an on-going bastion of McJobs, Rock County has been perfecting for years a keep-afloat income culture based on unemployment benefits; Aid-to-Families-with-Dependent-Children funds; floundering factory pensions; part-time health care jobs; and, bulging college campuses with displaced workers using student loans for income. And, one of Rock County's greatest exports is all those college students once they graduate. 

    Poetically, University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly wants campuses to graduate more students as part of a plan to increase the number of degree-holders in the state by 30 percent by 2025. Excellent - people over 50 years old have not been working down here for years. The canaries in the economic coal mine. Many of them have five digrees by now. But none-the-less, perhaps the new Spanish trains soon to be up and running will help facilitate the exodus of said graduates. 

    And, for those brave souls that elect to stay and tough it out, I can personally attest from my tavern and restaurant reviewing, the alcohol serving establishment industry down here is a well kept secret.  Hey, don't get me wrong.  I will lift a cold tapper with the best of them.  That being said, there is plenty of places with in walking distance for an economically beat-down citizen to self medicate away the "Great Recession" blues.  And, the beauty of this gritty sub-culture - more part-time, non-benefit, low-paying jobs.  It fits right into the "new norm" rubric like a hot knife cutting into soft butter - good Wisconsin butter. 

    Take heed Wisconsin. Rock County and Janesville is your ready template to survive what could be a Soviet-esque style, Middle-class-less "new norm" economy for the foreseeable future.  Hey, we will pretend to work - "The Man" can pretend to pay us. It's been that way down here for a long time. Call if you need more details - anything we can do to help.

       Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
    (each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan) 

    Marine Lance Corporal Ryan J. Nass, 21, of Franklin, Wisconsin died Saturday, September 3, 2005 from a gunshot wound at Camp Blessing, Afghanistan. He was a rifleman in the 1st Squad, 1st Platoon, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force. The unit is based out of Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. Camp Blessing, Afghanistan is about 20 miles from Pakistan. His unit was deployed to Afghanistan in June of 2005. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sited his medals as the Afghanistan Campaign Medal; Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; Sea Service Deployment Ribbon; and, the National Defense Service Medal. At the time of his death Lance Corporal Nass was survived by his wife. Lance Corporal Ryan J. Nass was the fourth Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

                              As of this blog entry's posting date:

    95,822 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
    
    9,415 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    4,391 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003. 

    1026 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

    317 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    670 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001. 

    31,762 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003. 

    5,393 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001. 

    102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    18 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

    140 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.