El-Cheapo now Gone-O (IMG_7074.JPG)

Once packed with customers, this location is now one of the growing number of closed businesses who apparently can't do enough volume to keep the doors open, given the combination of high unemployment (translating into fewer sales) and high taxes. If you can't maintain a certain volume of business, then you just can't make ends meet. The answer isn't another government bailout- its lower taxes and reducing the unemployment rate, which will only happen when the government quits taxing us to death and people can and will buy again. People have to have disposable income, and businesses have to be able to make a marginal profit. (From my college days, we covered that the first few weeks in "Economics 101," but Washington doesn't seem to have taken that class.)

(photo by Kristin)