This chart is downright troubling. Who would have thought that Michigan and California would lead the way in 2009 with underemployment rates over 21 percent? Michigan has had issues for many years and their economy pulls in a GDP of $380 billion. But California being the biggest economic state in our country with a GDP of $1.8 trillion should make you pause before you think we are somehow in recovery mode. And from the looks of it, California with their historical housing bubble looks to have years of financial trouble to work through. These issues are large and we haven’t even begun examining their state budget issues that are projected to come in at $21 billion.
Having a job is the cornerstone of our economy and also our vibrant middle class. This has been the case for multiple decades and actually has been part of our identity since the disastrous years of the Great Depression. Having a job is a pact with our country and Wall Street has taken this for granted in the last thirty years. Slowly we moved from an economy that valued work to a casino like economy that funneled money into Wall Street and whatever demand came after the spending of the corporatocracy was given as crumbs to the public.
This notion of “jobless recovery” is such an oxymoron. How can we have a recovery while losing 8 million jobs? Just because bank bonuses are back to record breaking levels does not mean a recovery is in place. Statistically we can massage the numbers however we like. And what else would you expect? We pumped $14 trillion in bailouts, backstops, and gifts to bankers so of course something was bound to happen. Even a mountain can move with enough force. Yet where are the jobs?
We should examine job gains after previous recessions to see the erosion of our middle class base:
(snippet)
People are focusing on places like Greece, no doubt a big problem but California has an economy that is 13 percent of U.S. GDP! Michigan has a bigger GDP than Greece ($357 billion) yet so much attention is being given to this issue. Our nation’s number one GDP state has an underemployment rate of 21 percent and is on the precipice of financial insolvency. Not only California, but other states. In fact, many have been borrowing for their unemployment insurance funds trying to keep those long-term unemployed from going into despair:
More Here..
5 More Banks Shut Down On Friday
Link Here
this is coming to a city near you when the dollar bubble pops and exterminates our economy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq2I2XX3ves
ReplyDeleteThe smart people have already planned immigration out of this country. Sure, it's a global crisis, but this country is being hit the hardest. Might as well go somewhere were at least you can survive when it gets really tough.
ReplyDeleteMarcus is correct.
ReplyDeleteIn less than two years, the majority of americans will see the federal government as an unwelcome occupying power.
People get ready, a train/change is coming, you don't need a ticket, because your butt will already be on board. Act now before it is too late.
ReplyDeleteDown with the middle class! They are eating up all our resources.
ReplyDelete3:56 What are you talking about? We are your resources. I think you need to go back to school? Who's paying the taxes? The rich? No. The poor? No. ME? YES! If I eat a resource, it's because I earned it.
ReplyDeleteI can only hope that this entire country is not
ReplyDeleteA) judged by what california is and/or does
B) In any way influenced by same - although I know that's alot to ask.
These states are totaly out of touch with reality. california, nevada, florida, n.mexico
sorry to include texas.
On a prior post i was following a heated exchange
which eluded to this point. I think instead of population density we should switch to the coplete opposite because it is acutely aware at this point that where ever we have these huge population densities we have huge problems because we have all these ethnic groups vying for the same limited resources and they cannot agree on anything about nuthin'.
You never hear of this bullshit in friggin; Des Moines Iwoa or Friter S,Dakota.
You start mixing and matching 7 different ( very large) ethnic groups in one city /state however
and it seems we end up with commeseurate problems EVERY time.
So many programs - so few worker bees - when the economy is bustin' right along - no problem - when we're heavy in the red these inequities will just continue to be exaserbated.
PEOPLE ARE NOT RESOURCES as much as they are CONSUMERS of resources. Go back to school, fool. Unless we may use your children as meat or fuel.
ReplyDelete3:08
ReplyDeleteOh that's right; how silly of me ----------
Save a bean plant ! Shoot a human !
You--- have a serious set of problems & I'm talking real big. I also think you should not be allowed within' - oh say 2 miles of any public schools.
If I was allowed within 2 miles of your junior high I would stop in and give you a lecture about reality, but I suppose that might hurt your feelings too much so I won't. But it is ironic that you consider people as mere resources and then say I am the one with the set of problems. You must be living in the dark not to think that what humans are doing with the planet is a problem. Therefore you are part of the problem and not the solution. Wake your ass up.
ReplyDeleteI don't really care for beans. And I never shot at a person, something many posters on this blog would love to do come Survival Time.
You are a resourse 3:08. Who's the first person you call when something goes wrong with your paycheck at work? HUMAN RESOURCES. It takes a real fool to think that the gov't might see you as a person, but they dont because your just a tax paying resource. Are you in the 6th grade or something?
ReplyDeleteYou are not the government. Therefore, I ask, why do you refer to humans only as resources? I'll tell you why. Because you are a brain-washed conservative who thinks only in terms of capitalistic paradigms. Even a 6th grader knows that workers/labor are considered "human resources" in the work-place. But the world is not so simple as to be reduced to labor and resources, quantatative figures, and numbers. Such abstracts are why human casualties in famine, disease, and war are conveniently over-looked and the evironment neglected in favor of short term "progress".
ReplyDeleteStop being immature and dense.
12:49
ReplyDeleteI do not think you posess the capacity to lecture me or anyone else about much of anything; given your your comments on this post.
I never said I consider people mere resources - I said in certain places in this country we are packed together like sardines and then vying for the same resources.
The ENTIRE state of Montana has less than 950K
have you ever been to montana ? It's HUGE !
My city of Cincinnati has well over DOUBLE that
population ! That's one stupid city in the entire US.
Mother nature is smarter than we'll ever be and unfortunatly for us ------- we are the weakest link. LONG before we even come close to destroying anything; we'll be the ones on life support.
Trust me - my ass is awake and I am an accomplished rifleman who reloads my own ammo. I even shot a buck this year with a flintlock muzzleloader.
that oughta really make you wince !
I was replying to 6:01. If that was you, you said:
ReplyDelete"We are your resources. I think you need to go back to school? Who's paying the taxes? The rich? No. The poor? No. ME? YES! If I eat a resource, it's because I earned it."
...refering to natural resources and human resources as if the two should be compared equally, and stating that humans deserve to eat only if they work.
If that was you then you ought to think twice. And you only affirm my point that all you posters with guns are quite READY AND WILLING to use them on other human beings with scarcely a question asked, even going so far as to seemingly threaten people with them on this very blog, or should I just be congratulating you on your old school hunting skills?
In any case, it pays to think before you knee-jerk react.
I responded to 12:49 above who is WAY off base with not only the comments; but then the rebuttals are even worse.
ReplyDeleteGuns --- all I can say is re-read the constitution and ANYONE out there who thinks they are even CLOSE to the intellect of the founding fathers ( any/ pick one) PLEASE step forth. They KNEW what they were doing.
Old school hunting skills beget the finest lean meat you can get in my part of the country - venison - yum, yum.
So all you can say is the comments are way off base, ie you disagree with them. Thanks for the feedback and great contribution. Now go back to your regularly scheduled mind numbing activity, coupled with guns, constitution, and founding-father worship like a good patriot.
ReplyDelete