Sunday, February 21, 2010
Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs
"...the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits."
This is a humanitarian disaster in the making, far bigger than Haiti or anywhere else. And the response: Spending freezes and fiscal conservatism!
It's primarily been an economic story unitl now, but it will soon affect the very fabric of our society. It will lead to higher crime rates and significantly higher levels of disorder.
This is the result of the sick, destructive, neo-liberal, free market fundamentalism that hss gripped our country and already destroyed many of the smaller economies in the world.
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6 comments:
Yes. And so many people who attack our industry as not being competitive and "viable" compared to other countries like Japan, don't realize that Japan and China, for example, have used policy for decades to nurture, support and sustain those industries. THAT is the only reason they have comparative advantage. We don't do this. We do the opposite. We leverage up our industry on debt for the benefit of speculative raiders and financial tycoons who care little about the impact to workers and the communities where they reside. They only care about their own personal enrichment and the profit that can be ploughed back into the next deal, which again, will be speculative in nature and not contributinng to the real economy in any way. This is all the result of the "Chicago School" boys, the Milton Friedman gang, who was followed by Laffer, Rubin, et al. It's a disaster. What's most ironic, however, is that so many people whow have lost their jobs or who have been badly affected by this still rail against government and support the very phony free market arguments used by the financial operators who were the cause of their misery.
Its funny because while Obama was talking about how he wanted to help kick start a Green Energy industry for the last few years, China built theirs. State run industries and state researchers built massive factories to churn out solar panels and turbines and all the other goods. I must deleted my last post while you were writing -- I figured my comments about SSI would only inflame the wrong people.
Don't worry about inflaming anyone. We have very intelligent and reasonable people reading this blog.
I can't help but mention that Naomi Klein did write about the radical Friedman style neoliberal reforms that were implemented in Chile(under Pinochet),Argentina,Russia,Poland and the list goes on in her book " The Shock Doctrine and the rise of disaster capitalism". The results were disastrous.A humanitarian crisis was created while wealth flowed to the top 1% of society.
Snow White:
Yes and the same thing is happening here. Were it not for the reforms and safety nets implemented under FDR, we'd be nothing more than another lopsided oligarchy. The problem is, we're headed in that direction anyway, thanks to Friedman, Laffer, Rubin and the current Wall Street coterie, not the least of which, is the Goldman "gang" that has a vice-grip on policy. The middle class is getting decimated, wages and salaries for workers are below where they were in 1968 in real terms and the only saving vehicle for most Americans--their homes--is collapsing in value. Meanwhile the 1% keep getting richer by the day and this is happening, incomprehsibly, under Obama, who promised to champion the middle class. Tonight there will be a dinner at the White House. Who will be there? The CEOs of some of America's largest corporations, including the heads of many banks, like Jamie Dimon, whose companies have received huge corporate welfare. Meanwhile, the little guy is left to dangle in the wind. And the ignorant Tea Party folks support this very phony form of "free market" ideology that has put them in such a mess. They've been hypnotized well by these charlatans. They drank a lot of their Kool-Aid. It's time to put a stop to this!
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