Half Way There

The economy is tough everywhere for most people anyway.  People are living their lives on a prayer and a shoestring budget a far cry from what they are used to.  We've seen a stubborn unemployment rate hovering around nine percent for nearly two years now and the numbers that seem to be shrinking are still not getting to the real picture of hardship that most families are going through.

Unemployment itself is of course misinforming.  The rate of unemployment is calculated with quite a few omissions.  Firstly, the rate only reflects those who are actively looking for work, as in filling out resumes, writing cover letters and attending job fairs.  Those people who have given up or have stopped actively pursuing work are not counted.  So that means that anyone who is homeless, anyone who is living off of a loved one, relative, or acquaintance or anyone who is infirm or unable to work is not counted.

Also, the unemployment rate does not discriminate between someone working full time or part time.  The people who have work that is under twenty hours count as fully employed.  Those who work more than one job due to economic pressure do not count for more than one, but they reflect the fact that many people may be working and not earning a living wage.

One callous congressman, who shall not be named, once boasted that the United States had ninety one percent of people working failing to realize the insensitivity of such an asinine statement.  The amount of living wages in the United States has been dropping faster than we can replace them.  We have seen good paying work being replaced by either technology or outsourcing and that is simply a matter of economics.  I am not one who believes we can or even should bring back manufacturing jobs if we cannot make products that are superior or more cost effective.  Our future does not lie in the past "glory days" of manufacturing, but in the future of ideas and innovation.


Perhaps the most unintentional effect of the economic downturn has been the idea that no class, no socio-economic class is safe from the potential of economic harm.  Many people in the "Middle Class" have had to come to grips on the lack of choices and options many of their fellow Americans have had to face for their entire lives.  The problem in the United States is that many people have to experience the hardship themselves before they can have compassion for the less fortunate.  However, the haves are beginning to cling to what they have even more so. 

On the political side congressmen and women are taking aim at teachers, policemen, firemen and trying to label them as "elite."  The struggling middle and lower middle class is a bit too eager to believe the hype surrounding state workers and they are forgetting that those who work for the state are fellow citizens as well. 

The unemployment numbers are misleading in that they equate simple employment with success when the story is much more complicated than that.  The real story that is not being told is the loss of livable wages and a society that is still riding on a consumption train off the cliff.  Until we solve the underlying problems of over consumption and an economy based on throw away items and throw away people the numbers will continue to misinform us.  We need to take a real look at where our economy is headed and we need to re evaluate the idea of "winners" and "losers" when it comes to economic opportunity.