As Americans, we have excellent reason to be grateful. Ours is the richest and freest nation the Earth has ever known. And despite the current economic crisis, the American people have not suffered the severe deprivations endured by millions or even billions of people around the world.
Nevertheless, our country’s unemployment rate is a high 9.6 percent, and few expect that it will drop much anytime soon. So while we give thanks for the blessings of living in a free nation, those who are involuntarily without work are understandably troubled.
Chattanooga, however, has more reason than most parts of the country for gratitude on the economic front.
With prospects for lots of new jobs from the big Volkswagen plant and other economic development, the city and the surrounding area are in better shape than many other places.
For instance, the latest figures available put Hamilton County’s unemployment rate at 7.8 percent. Though that is still obviously much higher than we would expect joblessness to be in better times, it is nearly 2 percentage points better than the national unemployment rate of 9.6 percent.
We clearly should not stop pursuing more local economic development, but we can be thankful for the economic vitality that we already enjoy.