...The movers and shakers of our society seem ...oblivious to the terrible destruction wrought by the economic storm that has roared through America. They’ve heard some thunder, perhaps, and seen some lightning, and maybe felt a bit of the wind. But there is nothing that society’s leaders are doing — no sense of urgency in their policies or attitudes — that suggests they understand the extent of the economic devastation that has come crashing down like a plague on the poor and much of the middle class.
The American economy is on its knees and the suffering has reached historic levels. Nearly 44 million people were living in poverty last year, which is more than 14 percent of the population. That is an increase of 4 million over the previous year, the highest percentage in 15 years, and the highest number in more than a half-century of record-keeping. Millions more are teetering on the edge, poised to fall into poverty.
More than a quarter of all blacks and a similar percentage of Hispanics are poor. More than 15 million children are poor.
The movers and shakers, including most of the mainstream media, have paid precious little attention to this wide-scale economic disaster.
Meanwhile, the middle class, hobbled for years with the stagnant incomes that accompany extreme employment insecurity, is now in retreat. Joblessness, home foreclosures, personal bankruptcy — pick your poison. Median family incomes were 5 percent lower in 2009 than they were a decade earlier. The Harvard economist Lawrence Katz told The Times, “This is the first time in memory that an entire decade has produced essentially no economic growth for the typical American household.”
If you notice the worsening weather- and refuse to become a Republican- you get left out in the rain
...there is no acceptance whatsoever of responsibility (I've failed in some critical areas; we could have/should have done better). There's not even any base-motivating vow to fight to fix these particular failures (we'll keep fighting for a public option/to curb executive power abuses/to reduce lobbyist and corporate control of our political process). Instead, he wants you to know that if you criticize him -- or even question what he's done ("well, I don't know about this particular derivatives rule, I'm not sure that I'm satisfied with that") -- it's your fault: for being some sort of naive, fringe-leftist idiot...
Our betters stay warm, dry, and sheltered from the storm, and if you aren't in their house playing their games of dominion, they feel it's a character fault of your own, and it's easier for them if the wind just sweeps you away.
2 comments:
I love these "statistical" references to "poverty."
The only way someone can see only 14% of Americans in "poverty" is to redefine "poverty" as being pretty damned well-off.
Perhaps the word "poverty" should be retired in favor of what actually lays behind the statistic supposedly representing the idea of "poverty."
It's ironic that in the land of The American Dream, which supposedly includes college education, a house of one's own, 2.5 kids and a Golden Retriever or Labrador Retriever, only 14% of the populace lacks those indicators.
My travels suggest the number is more like 25-30%, but I'm not an "economist" so what do I know?
"Leading Economists" never get out of their limos or even their taxicabs when being ferried from hotel to hotel or to their nice suburban or exclusive gated communities.
And even that doesn't count the greater portion of society that basically lives as wage slaves from paycheck to paycheck to keep paying their bills.
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