'Unemployment spreads as Foreclosure storm hits major cities
By Deirdre Griswold
Sour. That’s been the taste of the U.S. capitalist economy for some
time now for a large and growing sector of the working class.
Real wages have been declining ever since the 1970s, so that now most
families/households need more than one wage earner to get by.
Pensions, paid vacations and health coverage seem like fairy tales
from a golden past for millions of full-time workers, let alone the
millions more who are part-time, self-employed or work for “temp”
agencies.
Yet all the suffering caused by plant closings, by job losses due to
high tech, and by the shift of industry and services to lower-wage,
non-union areas had seemed to be off the radarscope of establishment
politics. The politicians didn’t want to talk about how the high-paid
CEOs of the transnational corporations would commit any crime against
the workers to increase the profits raked in by their bosses.
That was yesterday. As though overnight, the economy now looms very
large as a political issue as a tide of mostly younger people floods
into the primaries. All the candidates of the big business parties,
Democrats and Republicans, are honing their I-understand-your-pain
demagogy, hoping to catch this new wind in their sails.
It can’t be avoided any longer. The evidence pointing to an economic
meltdown grows stronger every day.
Rising unemployment and the ‘R’ word
The most recent statistical development is a rise in the monthly
unemployment rate to an official 5 percent, with a simultaneous drop
in new jobs created, to only 18,000 in December. It bears
remembering, however, that these figures way understate the true
jobless rate in this country. They don’t count the “discouraged”
workers who have given up looking for work. They don’t count the
people who can’t get enough work to survive. In fact, a person is
considered employed if s/he worked just one hour in the week.'
By Deirdre Griswold
Sour. That’s been the taste of the U.S. capitalist economy for some
time now for a large and growing sector of the working class.
Real wages have been declining ever since the 1970s, so that now most
families/households need more than one wage earner to get by.
Pensions, paid vacations and health coverage seem like fairy tales
from a golden past for millions of full-time workers, let alone the
millions more who are part-time, self-employed or work for “temp”
agencies.
Yet all the suffering caused by plant closings, by job losses due to
high tech, and by the shift of industry and services to lower-wage,
non-union areas had seemed to be off the radarscope of establishment
politics. The politicians didn’t want to talk about how the high-paid
CEOs of the transnational corporations would commit any crime against
the workers to increase the profits raked in by their bosses.
That was yesterday. As though overnight, the economy now looms very
large as a political issue as a tide of mostly younger people floods
into the primaries. All the candidates of the big business parties,
Democrats and Republicans, are honing their I-understand-your-pain
demagogy, hoping to catch this new wind in their sails.
It can’t be avoided any longer. The evidence pointing to an economic
meltdown grows stronger every day.
Rising unemployment and the ‘R’ word
The most recent statistical development is a rise in the monthly
unemployment rate to an official 5 percent, with a simultaneous drop
in new jobs created, to only 18,000 in December. It bears
remembering, however, that these figures way understate the true
jobless rate in this country. They don’t count the “discouraged”
workers who have given up looking for work. They don’t count the
people who can’t get enough work to survive. In fact, a person is
considered employed if s/he worked just one hour in the week.'
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