Unemployment Isn't Getting Any Better in Arizona

The national average for unemployment in America is 9.7%. With 304,059,724 people in America that means that there are 29,493,793 people unemployed. This already stark figure is even more horrific when we look at the specific demographics of unemployment.

The worst city in the United States to be in right now for unemployment is El Centro, California. There the unemployment rate is 30.2%. Following close behind is our very own Yuma, Arizona at 26.2%.

Check out the entire article on the Huffington Post .

United Way (too much money)

Ed Parker, who served as president and chief executive director of the United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona chapter was paid a $180,000+ yearly salary, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

The United Way has been a stable force in charitable works in the last few decades. Started in 1887 by "a priest, two ministers, and a rabbi" United Way has been fighting to improve people's lives by mobilizing community support. And no, this is not the beginning of a really bad joke to share at the bar, but was an effort dedicated to gathering community support for the welfare problem in Denver.

There are three "building blocks" for a good life that the United Way focuses on, namely education, income, and health. Maybe we could surmise that the president of the local chapter here would feel comfortable retiring, knowing that he worked for a coalition so dedicated to the well being of sick, uninsured, and elderly.

Rather than going through United Way's bank book and mocking their fiscal and public "responsibility", let's just consider what $180,000 could have gotten Tucson residents:

• 6.38 people paid the average Tucson salary of $28,194.00
• 90 in-state resident's tuition and fees at Pima Community College (estimated ~$2,000/yr)
• 23 out of state resident's tuition and fees at PCC (estimated ~$7,700/yr)
• 21.9 months of potable water at 12 inches per month

With residents of Tucson struggling to send their kids (or themselves) to college and paying their bills like electricity, gas, and water as unemployment nears double digits, Ed Parker's $180,000 yearly salary is a kick in the face. His is yet another example of how national "charities" are guilty of being very self-charitable, while the communities that need help are left in the dust.

How much debt to you have?

Recently a group of us got together to have dinner and as conversations go these days we all started talking about how much debt we have. It seemed like a good idea at the time to add it all up and see what the sum total of our financial woes was.

The dinner party included six people with an accumulated debt of $125,000. This number included both school loans and credit cards.

Surprisingly, credit card debt was pretty low amongst the crowd. It seemed everyone had taken an active role in keeping their credit card debt low. On the other hand, no one was able to avoid the ridiculous amount of student loans necessary to get through school. At least one could say that it was worth the debt for the opportunity to finish school and work in the field for which you studied.

That would be true if everyone had finished school and/or had a job they were trained for. One person had finished school but could not land a job, so now works in retail. Another could not complete schooling because funding for the field of study had been cut and no programs are hiring students. Two students went to both community colleges and private universities trying to offset the cost of their education, but neither were finished with their degrees.

The cost of education, private and public, is one that impacts nearly everyone. We have become a debter's nation, with significantly higher percentages of recent graduates with higher credit card and student loan debts -- not to mention higher percentages of graduates unemployment or employed outside of their area of study.

It is time that we start knocking at the doors of the administration, of the Sallie Mae's and JP Morgan Chase's and tell them that we have the right to an education. No more should we drown ourselves in debt to become baristas and shop clerks.