Posted on 03/02/2013 10:02:29 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
We think of the iconic images of the Great Depression as representative of a uniquely miserable period, long vanished from American history. The bread lines and soup kitchens of those abnormal times have gone. So, too, has the sight of thousands of men (there were very few women among them then) waiting all day outside a factory in a forlorn quest for work.
But they're there still, in the many millions across the country—little changed in their total since the 1930s: 12.3 million today are fully unemployed, compared to 12.8 million in 1933 at the depth of the depression. The difference is that now they're invisible, because we've organized relief differently. In our "recovery," the millions are being assisted, out of sight, by the government, through unemployment checks, Social Security disability checks, and food stamps. More than 47 million Americans are in the food stamp program, some 15 percent of the total population, compared with the 7.9 percent participation in food stamps from 1970 to 2000. Then there are the more than 11 million Americans who are collecting checks from Social Security to compensate for disability, a record. Half of them have signed on since President Obama came to office. Twenty years ago, one person was on disability for every 35 workers; today, the ratio is one for every 16. Such an increase is simply impossible to explain by disability experienced during employment, for it is inconceivable that work in America has become so much more dangerous. For many, this program is another unemployment program, only this time it is without end...
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
The US News and World Report having a moment of clarity?
Sorry, Mort. You’ll be fired or laid off soon. See, you actually did speak “truth to power.” Sadly, this nation has been so intentionally dumbed down that only us “wing nuts” will see it.
He may have had an 11th hour conversion, but he fully supported the current destroyer of the republic in 2008.
So, Mort Zuckerman, your last minute clarity has come too late.
well... the election is over and Obama can’t run for a 3rd term, so there’s not a lot of reason to keep the blinders on at this point.
Things will be hunky dory again come the 2014 election.
How could Zuckerman support an African communist for president - - it had been well publicized that Ubama was THE most liberal member of the US Senate - - and then have an epiphany four years later? Sorry, but I truly believe there is such a thing as “malicious stupidity”, and if Zuckerman hasn’t put 2 + 2 together yet, I have no use for his “thoughts” on anything.
They know a lot of people are scared and want public assistance to be generous if they need it. They also know one heck of a lot of people are already on some form of it. The timing is not coincidental. It’s no eleventh hour conversion, it’s jumping out of a history book and yelling “boo!” just in case too many people get the idea that sequestration isn’t so bad.
I was out of work for a year and underemployed now, even here in the jobs mecca of Austin, TX. I am over 55 and each month I see my debt increase and my savings decrease. Even with a full time job, I’m not keeping up despite cutbacks.
Zuckerman, a Democrat, analyzes the crisis well but I don’t agree with many of his solutions at the bottom of the page. Government doesn’t need to “take the lead”. Government just needs to get out of the way. Stop punishing the achievers and selecting the winners. Let competition grow and roll back all the government regulations and high taxes that keep outsiders from investing in the U.S.
Texas is as pro-business a state as anywhere yet governments always think solutions are all about them, not the people they allegedly serve.
As for me, I am just trusting in the Lord to get me through my remaining years whether they are five more years or 30. He is faithful. I’m counting on it.
Zuckerman was always a liberal, just not a moon-bat, crazy liberal . He is a social liberal who likes making money and is not completely opposed to having a strong defense. Now, he is seeing that voting for someone because of symbolism is not the wisest course of action.
Unemployment checks eventually run out and stop. Social Security disability checks continue for your lifetime.
The “smart” takers are converting their unemployment checks into Social Security disability checks.
They will be devastated in the coming storm.
Just spoke to a guy who works for the FAA today. Been at his job for years. He was just notified of a layoff and isn’t too happy about it. The Prez is alienating quite a few government employees and the MSM is starting to shift and turn on him a little. This could get interesting...
“The government must take the lead and arrange the marriage of private and public capital to regenerate real growth.”
And true to form, he thinks more government is the solution. Just doesn’t get it. Government will take its fee for performing the marriage.
Get government the hell out of the way!
Yup. I have said this is the past. One of the reasons why the Unemployment rate officially is not as bad as it should be is because there has been massive growth in the numbers of people claiming to be disabled. This makes sense seeing as disability pays a lot more than unemployment. This administration has done nothing to discourage this rampant abuse of the system because it serves its propaganda purposes to claim that the official unemployment is lower than 8 percent.
Good article, but far too little, way too late, Morty. Especially when you had to throw the nugget about high speed rail (to channel Bob Dole: “Grrr, we don’t want it!”)
I’d only add, things get even worse for folks when you factor in gas and food prices. It’s hard making it on part-time work. It’s a whole lot harder when gas is nearing 4 bucks a gallon (again), and folks are getting clobbered at the supermarket. Especially at the meat counter - I pay almost as much for pot roast now as I used to for sirloin steaks under Dubya. I’m lucky in that I’m a bachelor, and can afford (for now) my groceries. I honestly don’t know how some families are making it these days.
There are no good paying jobs.
On SNAP, you’re not charged taxes or credit card processing fees for buying food and drink.
People who get SSDI, SSI or unemployment benefits receive more than they would if they worked forty hours a week on a minimum wage job.
Add it all up, a lot of Americans get tax free income - essentially a sort of negative income support from the federal government.
What helps to perpetuate it is that an economic recovery doesn’t appear to be in sight any time soon.
I think Unemployment was worse in the 30’s because today the women often work which means at least one person in a household is working whereas in the 30’s when the man was out of work, there was no money coming in.
I also think it was worse in the 30s because in those days the unemployed would do a lot to get a job where now, if you want a job and are willing to do almost anything, you will have a job.
I have always maintained that it was the huge spike in gas prices in 2007 that brought about the collapse in 2008. People who could squeak by before then, lost it when the high gas prices started to increase the cost of food and other necessities.
I have a broken back that occurred in childhood, knees with little to no cartilage, high blood pressure, and I’ve been looking for work now nearly for 2-1/2 years. So far, no luck.
Could I go on disability? In a heartbeat. No problem. But I can work and want to work.
The problem is there are millions of young, healthy people also competing for those jobs.
Just like me, there are people who’ve been looking for work and can only find the kind of job that requires lifting 50-60 pounds unassisted, and/or moving about in a manufacturing facility.
I’m not quick to suspect everyone of disability fraud. Instead I suspect that the majority have worked for years with one or more disabilities that now prevent them from getting another job.
It just so happens I inherited the family home so I have items to auction, plus I was an award winning artist before graduating from high school and am starting a business around painting and marketing of my works.
I’ll probably make it. For the rest, I can pray that everyone survives the forthcoming financial debacle.
Gas prices were surely a factor. But major reason was the leveraged derivatives issued by banks which collapsed when housing bubble burst. Banks were rescued by TARP, courtesy of tax payers. Too bad the TARP does not rescue me when my investments decline.
You’re looking at it MACRO, I am looking at it MICRO. Why did the housing bubble burst? I think that it had a lot do with people getting homes they could barely afford. When something changed, spike in gas price and the attendant rise in food prices, many of the people just defaulted. It started to snowball when people started to lose their jobs also. Yes, it was due to derivatives but many of these investments relied on stability in the housing market and all that started to fall apart when over indebted people stopped making payments. So irresponsible banks lending to irresponsible people begat the crash. It was a house of cards built on greed by all parties, big-shots and little-shots who wanted to live beyond their means.
What are those “pot roast” and “sirloin steak” things that you speak of? We’re lucky to have Treet, generic hot dogs & beans and store brand macaroni & cheese.
That, and also less willing to accept less free terms of employment - given that both illegals and “skilled guest workers” both are under very captive terms. In each case, there is no room for someone(whether illegal for unskilled or guest worker for skilled occupations) to change employers or to raise valid complaints without retaliation.
In short, someone with a choice to seek and accept better terms seems to cost too much.
I assume you realize that Obama is not getting blamed for any of this, right?
It’s all the fault of “Congress”, otherwise known as the Republicans.
Frank Luntz just had a Focus Group consisting of 22 Obama Voters and 22 Romney Voters. They all blamed “Congress” for the Sequester, not Obama. Again, Congress = Republicans.
Ignorance is Obama’s best friend, along with the lapdog Media that promotes it and him.
Don’t leave out the CRA and flippers. Between the two, the housing market was pretty fragile, and flippers contributed to the bubble. When prices went down, they also added to those walking away.
The first falls under “living beyond one’s means”, the other under “uninhibited greed”.
The lid is starting to come off the Obama box of lies, deceit, law breaking and outright bull-crap.
Once momentum swings against him, the media will jump on the bandwagon. They will act totally surprised that anything amiss was going on right before their eyes.
And they will be shocked that anyone could think they were part of the corruption that put Obama in office and covered up his misdeeds.
Huge spike in gas prices? - When “Bush” was in office, gas prices were half what they are now. That was 2007; since Obama took over in 2009 it’s been Katie Bar the Door in every area. Change? For sure. Hope? Not so much. Forward? Yep. When something fails, DOUBLE DOWN!
Stupid comparison right off the bat by the writer. Same number of people in a smaller population makes a much larger impact. Clearly things were worse in the 30’s.
True enough. I have little doubt there were those who used the CRA to buy homes they could not afford, and then extracted ‘equity’ (”home improvement loan”) when the prices went up, only to walk away with a wad of cash.
The MSM is exaggerating in the other direction? Think about it, has the worm turned?
Course there is. They need to shill for the Comrades in 2014 and 2016.
Wow!
There is so much to do to get America back to the powerhouse it was:
•Invest in the national electricity grid and in a high-speed internet grid; in bridges, roads, tunnels, airports, and high-speed rail; in fracking; in education for science, technology, engineering, and math; and in training programs tied to unemployment.
•Add thousands of annual visas for foreigners with science and technology skills to work here, while allowing international graduates to stay rather than return home or settle elsewhere to compete against us.
•Simplify or abolish the regulations that foreign companies cite as the principal impediment to investing and creating jobs here.
•Broaden our tax base and get rid of loopholes, deductions, and credits and the inherent corruption related to them so as to enable lower marginal tax rates.
The Republicans should agree to this, but they won't.
Boehner's feelings are hurt, dontchaknow.
I still don't understand the whole "Fiscal Cliff" negotiations. If the "President his is revenue" as Boehner says over, and over, and over again - and Obama has agreed to at least some Entitlement reform, then what is the problem? These two sides are talking past each other.
The Sequester is going to cost 2 million jobs, hundreds of thousands of layoffs, and will gut a loyal Defense Dept that is already reeling from a $487 Billion cut that began 2 years ago in 2011.
The public is sick of it all. Now we have yet ANOTHER "cliff" crisis coming in another 25 days!
Reform tax rates and get rid of ridiculous things such as carried interest that even Conservatives like Michael Medved say are ridiculous.
Obama is a wicked, narcissistic homosexual, Boehner is an manic-depressive drunk, Pelosi is a delusional Marxist mafia princess, and Reid is a corrupt megalomaniac.
But if God could get through to even King Nebuchadnezzar, He can crush the hearts of these morons to make them do the right thing. They might, however, not want to keep testing His patience and see how that turned out.
Amen - and prayers to you.
Like you, my faith is in our Lord and I’m ready to take the next step in our eternal journey.
God Bless you, my friend!
I don't think so. We have enough unemployed engineering and scientific talent. The purpose is wage suppression, in a recession this is treasonous....
Zuckerman! You are guilty of counter-revolutionary activities. You will be re-educated.
In order to figure out what to fund and what to cut, you first need a BUDGET. It starts there. We haven’t had one since this creep took office. Make Reid get off his ass.
Budget first, then discussion. That is the line in the sand and I hope the Republicans hold to it.
And...now that Hillary is no longer part of the administration, it is time to start blaming Obama and his policies to help Hillary win the dem nomination for the 2016 election.
5.56mm
The difference between now and then is fraud.
Fraud is tolerated now. Then it was not.
Fraud is promoted for political power.
The fraudsters must be eliminated to right the wrong
It will only result in job losses because Obama didn't take the advice of the debt reduction council; Harry Reid didn't put the House solution uo for a vote (twice); and finally, Obama demanded tax increases in return for spending cuts, then sat on his ass and did nothing to formulate "smart cuts" (which is actually only a reduction in the future growth of spending).
There doesn't need to be a single layoff (not that there shouldn't be a reduction in the size of the federal government). Here's my motto "Attrition and contrition". Freeze wages and when non-essential personnel retire, do not replace them. If we allowed energy development and got rid of all the over-regulations of that industry, the economy would be at full employment in two short years.
What you have noted is the process begun by industry in the late 90’s.
Offer buyouts and early retirement, get rid of the alcoholics,
deadwood and superfluous. Induce people to work.
Rather than indoctrinate 4 year olds, pare the ranks of teaching and makework administrators. Pay for graduate degrees in Chemistry or Math, but not Educational Process Mutualization or Theoretical Classroom Blackboard Decoration .
IMHO you're 100% correct in that statement.
This not an urban story. I was at the grocery store, yet again, and witnessed the woman in front of me buying food with her “food stamp card”. She had expensive taste. She then produced a 100$ bill and purchased 2 cartons of smokes.
I am not against her paying to smoke if she so chooses. But why should I pay for her food?
i thought all of these federal workers were part of a union that kept them in their jobs
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