Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs

nytimes.com ^ | 2/20/2010 | Staff

[Red in Blue PA]

BUENA PARK, Calif. — Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, 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.

Economists fear that the nascent recovery will leave more people behind than in past recessions, failing to create jobs in sufficient numbers to absorb the record-setting ranks of the long-term unemployed.

Call them the new poor: people long accustomed to the comforts of middle-class life who are now relying on public assistance for the first time in their lives — potentially for years to come.

Yet the social safety net is already showing severe strains. Roughly 2.7 million jobless people will lose their unemployment check before the end of April unless Congress approves the Obama administration’s proposal to extend the payments, according to the Labor Department.

Here in Southern California, Jean Eisen has been without work since she lost her job selling beauty salon equipment more than two years ago. In the several months she has endured with neither a paycheck nor an unemployment check, she has relied on local food banks for her groceries.

She has learned to live without the prescription medications she is supposed to take for high blood pressure and cholesterol. She has become effusively religious — an unexpected turn for this onetime standup comic with X-rated material — finding in Christianity her only form of health insurance.

“I pray for healing,” says Ms. Eisen, 57. “When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got to go with what you know.”

[Theodore R.]

How many of these unemployed are going to be foolish enough to vote for the incumbent Democrats

I believe studies show that most unemployed do not vote in a regular fashion. Most just roll with the punches, as Susan Hayward used to say her her films.

[Iron Munro]

The DemocRATS need to make as many people as they can become dependent on BIG government.

I agree with your observation.
They want people on the government plantation living on handouts, in busywork government jobs or in unions that are totally in the bag for democrats.

Democrats and other socialist politicians are interested in power and control and don't care about the well being of the country or the citizenry other than as a way to further their own agenda.
.

[Theodore R.]

There is no way God will continue to honor or bless a nation that elevates perversion, murder of the unborn and partial born, the elderly and infirm to a "right".

As I understand Scripture, God has allowed America to fall sharply into the gutter without closing the final door because there are still several million righteous people left. But His patience could subside with so much ignorance, selfishness, and apathy.

[Theodore R.]

Would that we had a Calvin Coolidge instead of the second coming of Hoover (even though I live in his former hometown).

Some have speculated that Coolidge in 1928 distrusted Hoover as his successor and actually himself voted for Al Smith, an old-fashioned Democrat. Coolidge's in-laws, the Goodhues, were Democrats.

[Las Vegas Ron]

Call them the new poor: people long accustomed to the comforts of middle-class life who are now relying on public assistance for the first time in their lives — potentially for years to come.

Mission accomplished. (no reference to Bush intended)

[ExpatGator]

As a self-employed gunsmith I know what you mean.

However, look at it this way: you are uniquely positioned to move into the one market that grows in bad times. The Black Market.

[Bean Counter]

There are people in their late 40’s and early 50’s who face the prospect of never being employed again. That sounds extreme, but it is probably true.

[ETL]

Saul Alinsky on "Change"...
From Rules for Radicals, Alinsky outlines his strategy in organizing, writing:

"There's another reason for working inside the system. Dostoevsky said that taking a new step is what people fear most. Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution."

Saul Alinsky, The Latter Rain (Latter-Rain.com is a "Liberation Theology" commie-left website -etl)
http://latter-rain.com/ltrain/alinski.htm

[Bean Counter]

There are people in their late 40’s and early 50’s who face the prospect of never being employed again. That sounds extreme, but it is probably true.

[ETL]

"This president can be a transformative leader (he has that potential in my view), but only if he embraces and fights for a transformative agenda."--Sam Webb, chairman, Communist Party, USA, Jan 29, 2010, in response to Obama's first State of the Union address

Article title: "Obama State of the Union: He got the ball rolling"
By CPUSA Chairman Sam Webb

http://cpusa.org/obama-state-of-the-union-he-got-the-ball-rolling

_______________________________________________________________________

"We are 5 days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America"
--B.H.Obama, 2008

YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-k04caUt84&feature=related

A second video of same in case the first 'disappears' from YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cqN4NIEtOY

Yahoo search results for "Fundamentaly Transforming The United States Of America":
http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&fr=moz35&p=%22Fundamentally+Transforming+The+United+States+Of+America%22&SpellState=n-2204099546_q-bsN.LA3I3%2F%2FdGaQgkeauogAAAA%40%40&fr2=sp-top
_____________________________________________________

From the website of the Communist Party, USA...
(prior to the election)

"The Communist Party USA views the 2008 elections as a tremendous opportunity to defeat the policies of the right-wing Republicans and to move our country in a new progressive direction.

The record turnout in the Democratic Presidential primary races shows that millions of voters, including millions of new voters, are using this election to bring about real change. We wholeheartedly agree with them."

http://cpusa.org/cpusa-2008-electoral-policy/
_____________________________________________________

After the election....

A Landslide Mandate For Change

A breakthrough election
Congratulations on an extraordinary history making election!

We can think back with pride to decades of hard work toward our strategic goal of a big enough, broad enough and united enough labor and all-people’s movement that could overcome the ultra-right blockage to all progress. That all people’s movement has come to life, it is dynamic and it has the potential to keep growing.

The election of Barack Obama and a strengthened Congress creates new conditions in our country. There is now the possibility to shift gears and move forward. This new day requires us to further develop our tactics in order to continue to deepen and broaden labor and people’s unity.

There are thousands of experiences that we all have had in these momentous days, some large, some small, all of which express the enormity of change in thinking and readiness for involvement that is underway and that steels us for the battles ahead.

The tears of joy we all shared as crowds gathered to watch the election results here and throughout the world dramatize the new moment we are in.

http://cpusa.org/a-landslide-mandate-for-change-report-to-the-national-committee-meeting-11-15-08/
_____________________________________________________

July 1, 2009...

Change is Here, Change is Coming

Sam Webb, National Chair, Communist Party, USA:

Let me begin with a simple observation: If the last 30 years were an era of reaction, then the coming decade could turn into an era of reform, even radical reform. Six months into the Obama presidency, I would say without hesitation that the landscape, atmosphere, conversation, and agenda have strikingly changed compared to the previous eight years.

In this legislative session, we can envision winning a Medicare-like public option and then going further in the years ahead.

We can visualize passing tough regulatory reforms on the financial industry, which brought the economy to ruin.

We can imagine the troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan while U.S. representatives participate in a regional process that brings peace and stability to the entire region.

In the current political climate, the expansion of union rights becomes a real possibility.

Much the same can be said about winning a second stimulus bill, and we sure need one, given the still-rising rate, and likely long term persistence, of unemployment.

Isn’t it possible in the Obama era to create millions of green jobs in manufacturing and other sectors of the economy in tandem with an attack on global warming?

Can’t we envision taking new strides in the long journey for racial and gender equality in this new era, marked at its beginning by the election of the first African American to the presidency?

And isn’t the overhaul of the criminal justice and prison system – a system steeped in racism – no longer pie-in-the sky, but something that can be done in the foreseeable future?

All these things are within reach now!

http://cpusa.org/change-is-here-change-is-coming/
_____________________________________________________

"Barack Obama told supporters that
'change has come to America' as he
claimed victory in a historic presidential election."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/election.president/index.html

[ottbmare]

There are jobs out there. They just pay a heck of a lot less than the jobs people were used to.

Really? I don't see any jobs out there for me at any price point. Many of us have long since stopped saying, "I want to make $X per year." We're willing to take jobs doing pretty much anything. I'd do manual labor if my health could bear it. But we can't even get jobs at Walmart, or stocking shelves at the grocery store. They don't give those jobs to former white-collar workers who have more education than the department manager.

[RC one]

exactly. how can they pass a radical communist agenda if capitalism is thriving? they’ll beat the capitalists over the head and blame George Bush when they die off and then they’ll build their communist utopia on top of the remains.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

“There are people in their late 40’s and early 50’s who face the prospect of never being employed again. That sounds extreme, but it is probably true.”

I think you are absolutely right.

[Tolsti2]

It’s as bad now as it was right after 9/11. Maybe worse.

My dad at the time hadn’t lived through anything like it and told me ‘get ANYTHING’ and I was like ‘THERE’S NOTHING NOW’. The illegals have all the low end, the high end is tightly controlled by nepotism and so on, and everyone’s scrambling for the middle bits. I can’t believe we’re back at this point only 7 or so years later. BLAH

[LuvFreeRepublic]

They don't give those jobs to former white-collar workers who have more education than the department manager.

Nor do they give jobs to white-collar workers who have more experience than the department managers.

[353FMG]

“Until we can fumigate Congress and get the ‘RATS out of there...”

.
And don’t forget the RINOs — their destructiveness to our freedoms is just as detrimental. Lump them in with the RATs.

[gitmo]

What I'd like to know is how being religious and moral would create jobs and shrink the government. It would do wonders to end crime, stop abortions, and make for a more politie society... but that's all I can see.

Being religious and moral will never create jobs and shrink government. But God might as a result of a nation truly seeking Him.

[hellbender]

You should read what many of the Founding Fathers said about religion (by which they meant Christianity). They feared (justifiably) that republican govt. would not survive if the population became morally corrupt.

The Patriot Post has many quotes from the Founders on this issue.

[brushcop]

Yes exactly right. I agree, at some time, the “restrainer” will be removed and then the weeping, wailing and knashing of teeth will truly begin and I cringe with that thought.

[hellbender]

I know a former neighbor who i guess is in his 50s and was unemployed for months even before 0bama was inaugurated. An honest, decent person. If the stupid Pubbies had stood up against bailouts for Wall St. speculators, they would own the votes of people like that for years.