So I've been trying to keep my chin up and think about fighting the good fight, the way forward and all that and then made the mistake of reading the New York Times today, which made me feel like slicing a vein.
First I read Bob Herbert, who continues to be the only major newspaper columnist who is really focused on what is happening in the economy writ large. In a column entitled "They Still Don't Get It," Herbert continues to lament the failure of America's political leadership to grasp what is happening in the country. Herbert cites some frightening statistics -- the addition of five million people to the ranks of the impoverished from 2000 to 2008, an increase of 15.4%, bringing the total number of Americans living in poverty to 40 million. Even more frighteningly to me, there are now 91.6 million Americans living at or below 200% of the poverty line, which is a mere $21,834 rate for a family of four. In other words, thirty percent of our countrymen are living in highly marginal circumstances.
And one of the reasons for these dire figures -- private sector union membership has now declined to 7.2% of the work force, down by 800,000 members since 2008. There are now more union members in the public sector than the private sector. Unionized workers make median weekly earnings of $908.00 versus $710 for workers who are not represented by unions, a nearly thirty percent difference. This does not include the pension and medical benefits that almost all union members get, something that would likely increase that wage differential to at least fifty percent, which explains why employers routinely break the law in order to prevent their employees from unionizing.
Construction and manufacturing, two areas in which high school educated men have traditionally been able to earn middle class wages, have been crushed in the current recession. They alone account for the loss of a staggering 2.2 million jobs. Overall employment has declined by 7 million jobs since this debacle began.
Unemployment in the "recession proof" District of Columbia hit 12.1% in December 2009, with the African-American community suffering rates of unemployment more than twice that.
The casino economy ushered in by Reagan, tolerated, if not embraced, by Clinton, taken to ludicrous heights by Bush, has collapsed and left a crater in its wake. The Obama people underestimated just how serious the damage was when they took over. Now, a year into his presidency, it is time for a radical break from business as usual. Obama needs to step up and show just how seriously he takes this problem. Tell Evan Bayh and the other deficit "peacocks" to fuck themselves -- the only thing that matters now is getting Americans back to work.
After that, we need to figure out whether we are going to continue to be a society in which the average person can have a decent economic life or whether such quaint notions have been consigned to the scrap heap by the invisible hand.
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