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.
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