After the crash: the pauperisation of middle-class America

[stockholmer]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/27/economics-useconomy#start-of-comments


"The current global crisis of capitalism began with the severe contraction in the housing markets in mid 2007. Therefore, welcome to Year Five. This inventory of where things stand may begin with the good news: the major banks, the stock market and corporate profits have largely or completely "recovered" from the lows they reached early in 2009. The US dollar has fallen sharply against many currencies of countries with which the US trades, and that has enabled US exports to rebound from their crisis lows.

However, the bad news is what prevails notwithstanding the political and media hype about "recovery". The most widely cited unemployment rate remains at 9% for workers without jobs but looking. If instead, we use the more indicative U-6 unemployment statistic of the US labour department's bureau of labour statistics, then the rate is 15.9%. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm The latter rate counts also those who want full-time but can only find part-time work and those who want work but have given up looking. One in six members of the US labour force brings home little or no money, burdening family and friends, using up savings, cutting back on spending, etc.

At the same time, the housing market remains deeply depressed http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/25/us-usa-economy-geithner-housing-idUSTRE74O3SG20110525 as 1.5-2m home foreclosures are scheduled for 2011, separating more millions from their homes. After a short upturn, housing prices nationally have resumed their fall: one of those feared "double dips" downward is thus already under way in the economically vital housing market http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/housingmarket .

The combination of high unemployment and high home foreclosures assures a deeply depressed economy. The mass of US citizens cannot work more hours – the US already is No 1 in the world in the average number of hours of paid labour done per year per worker. The mass of US citizens cannot borrow much more because of debt levels already teetering on the edge of unsustainability for most consumers. Real wages are going nowhere because of high unemployment enabling employers everywhere to refuse significant wage increases. Job-related benefits (pensions, medical insurance, holidays, etc) are being pared back.............................."

snip

[postulater]

1. Where do they count the number of small businesses that

are failing or closed?

I know of a bunch of them. The owner doesn't count on any unemployment roll but is making no income.

[ThomWV]

2. It makes me think that what counts is what kind of President you have as the depression ends

We are not in the fifth year of some great recession, we are in a Depression and no one wants to call it that.

The last time we had a Depression and were coming out of it we had a President who pushed and gave us the the beginnings of the great social programs we have the remnants of today - all of which are under attack by the capitalist party. So I'd say that the sort of society you have is dependent on the sort of President you have as you emerge from a Depression. He is supposed to lead, well, if there was ever a time when we needed leadership it is now. What we do not need is bipartisanship just for the sake of including those politicians who are either corrupt or offer up ideas and plans which are clearly bad for the majority of Americans. So, how will Obama fare? Well, so far the once-great American middle class is rapidly being reduced to serfdom.

[xchrom]

3. If only centrist dems thought this were so. Nt