Now That the Economy’s Officially Bad, All These Stories Come Out About How It’s Been Hard on Some People All Along
Posted by Richard S. on January 23, 2008
Yes, funny how that goes. Now that the well-to-do and heads of state also are experiencing worry and dissatisfaction with the direction of the economy, a bunch of news comes out from the mainstream/corporate press about how it hasn’t been so good for so many workers and poor people for quite some time. Nonetheless, it is good that they’re publishing these stories:
Highly Skilled And Out Of Work: Long-Term Joblessness Spreads in Middle Class - from the Washington Post. Correct for the most part, though I don’t know why most of these long-term jobless would still be defined as “middle class.” Maybe because we’re in a country that’s still so stuck on cultural definitions of class.
Poor People Still Suffering from Last Recession - from Reuters/Yahoo. Nice that they’re mentioning this. Though yours truly is tempted to answer this with a loud “Well, doh!” But there probably are a good number of people who’ve been sheltered from this reality.
Blue-Collar Jobs Disappear, Taking Families’ Way of Life Along - from the New York Times, found through a reference from Our Man Flint. A central theme to this story is how people in their 30s and 40s have to move back in with their parents rather than helping their elderly parents out while living in their own homes, which used to be the more normal case. Actually, it’s nice that they have that option to move back in with their parents. But not nice that a guy with an associate’s college degree is working in a McDonalds and another guy who earned $66,000 a year before now must settle for $20,000. (Though $20K doesn’t look like total poverty to me, because I had to settle for less than that for quite a few years (albeit working fewer hours than a full-time worker in fast food), and it is still a lot more than a lot of people are earning. However, it’s a little disturbing if this decline from $66K to $20K is the sign of a major trend - especially considering that the rich have been getting far richer all along.)
