A total of about 3.6 million jobs.

From President Obama’s election in November of ‘08through the end of ’09 we lost another 4 million jobs are about 310 thousand a month.

Beginning in June ’10 job growth started to pick up, going positive and producing about 2.2 million jobs the next 15 months, an average of 150 thousand jobs a month.

Through June of ’11 until February of ’12 we gained about 1.5 million jobs or 178 thousand a month.

Every month we have a150 thousand people enter the job work force, through attaining the right age, re-entering after raising children or illness, and so on.  So that’s the benchmark that has to be hit to have positive job growth and a lower unemployment  rate.

Admitting there’s nothing we can do to get ahead of the problem is economic suicide for a community and an admission of failure. It shows no appetite or clue about how to correct the direction. Not only have I never been city manager in such a city, I’ve never lived in one that accepted potholes as something approaching a natural condition.

As city manager if I had public works director or city engineer who made such a statement, he would be gone. Not someday, but right now.

Then I’d find one who knew how to organize street maintenance and knew how to fix potholes. The woods is full of them.

It’s similar to having your head of water treatment say “we can’t clean the water, it’s too brown. We have to live with the condition.”

How about having a budget director or finance director say “I don’t know how to balance the budget.” Wouldn’t you get one right away who did?

I can go on and on with examples of behavior that would lead inevitably to a culture of surrender. To the locusts.

That’s unacceptable to me, as a citizen of the community.