Good Morning Middle America, your King of Simple News is on the air.

Most of you will remember my prediction that this downturn would eventually reach the white collar gang. I predicted early on that educated workers would be handed their hat. GM is getting ready for another round of cuts and guess where they are looking?

The German company Siemens recently laid off some 18,000 workers world wide; most were management. After all, you can’t lay off old Joe, he’s making the product. Bill is indispensable because he keeps the machinery running, Angela processes the orders…so who can we lay off to lean up the payroll a bit?

In a capitalistic society such as our own, management gets to determine who gets laid off. Management is of course close to others in management. Furloughing one of your piers seems too close to home. “Let’s not get an idea started here that could come back to haunt me,” is the thought process.

If the blue collar workers were allowed to choose those who would be laid off, the cleaners who do white collar laundry would go out of business in short order.

But there comes a time when hard realistic choices have to be made and we need to talk about that. I wish I could say that everyone could remain working, but that wouldn’t be true. The layoffs in the auto, RV plants and other shrinking sectors or our economy will prove to be permanent for many.

If you find yourself working in a dying business or industry, “don’t wait around for things to turn around,” get out there and find something different as soon as possible. Those who believe that the election will turn things around could be right. It may get so bad so quickly that it will make the current times appear as a virtual bonanza.

Seek out opportunities in critical services and critical manufacturing. Think, food, energy, medical, transportation, communications, sewer and water…all the things that we must have. There will be a boom in alternative energy fields…at least there better be.

New auto companies will make breakthroughs, but it won’t Ford or GM. Like the wagon manufacturers before them, they are stuck in time and it was their undoing.

I know this one is difficult, but if you are living in an area that has been hit very hard by the turn down in manufacturing, you may well have to move. Once more, don’t think that a recovery is right around the corner; it isn’t.

The conversation in every corner of our county is the economy. Join in that conversation in a positive way. It is what it is, and the time for complaining has past, we all need to take personal action to best deal with the reality of a recession and perhaps a depression.

No one is alone in this mess, be the person who brings up the fact that it’s time to change things around the neighborhood. Now is the time to talk to family, friends and neighbors… government isn’t coming to the rescue and that’s a natural fact.

Consider barter in lieu of cash. I’m going out today and dig a service line for a friend with my backhoe. He has a large home shop (including a machine shop) to help me with some vehicle and trailer repairs.

Regardless of whether there will eventually be a “full recovery”; it won’t be soon. Assess your situation, talk about it, make a plan, talk about it, write it down, talk about it, and let’s make some lemonade out of this lemon.