NY Times: Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs

[MannyGoldstein]

"BUENA PARK, Calif. — Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits.
“There are no bad jobs now. Any job is a good job,” said Jean Eisen, who became unemployed more than two years ago.

Economists fear that the nascent recovery will leave more people behind than in past recessions, failing to create jobs in sufficient numbers to absorb the record-setting ranks of the long-term unemployed.

Call them the new poor: people long accustomed to the comforts of middle-class life who are now relying on public assistance for the first time in their lives — potentially for years to come.

Here in Southern California, Jean Eisen has been without work since she lost her job selling beauty salon equipment more than two years ago. In the several months she has endured with neither a paycheck nor an unemployment check, she has relied on local food banks for her groceries."

More at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/business/economy/21unemployed.html?hp

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http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/07/0082562?redirect=1982284879">Barack Hoover Obama - the only thing he changed was his mind: about being a Democrat, that is.

[xchrom]

1. Both political parties and their corporatist over lords

Engineered this.
A pox on them all.

The sad part is America can't build political energy out of
these folks.

[heli]

2. Pretty soon we'll have bankrupt and homeless people dying in the gutters

just like in Calcutta.

[MannyGoldstein]

3. I Expect That's When The Masses Will Finally Stir

Just my guess.

[Jim Sagle]

4. He didn't change his mind. He never WAS a Democrat.

[katandmoon]

5. Yup. And Obama continues to fiddle while the middle class and poor burn,

[TrogL]

6. Oh, gee thanks. Just what I wanted to hear

I was just laid off a 20+ year job.

[Psephos]

7. Damn, Manny, that Harper's article is excellent. n/t

[flyarm]

8. Just exactly what the NWO elite want and wanted..and the new boss..is owned too! eom

[TheMadMonk]

9. And next comes National Service. /nt

[Bennyboy]

10. This is me. I am on my fourth year of unemployment or partial

employment. Been trying to get SSI but without an attorney that ain't gonna happen. And all I got is a caregiver job that barely pays me now (hours cut). I just got a job at a local tap house that may lead to something but I don't know...

Good thing I am creative and can manage and saw all of this coming January 20th 2000.

The Solstice in June of 06, I saw that housing was OVER, and never did another sealing job after that. Tried to but didn't. And things weren't that good up till then. But I saw how much inventory was out there and it was OVER and I knew it.

[scentopine]

11. Our MBA driven world... embraced by democratic and republican leadership.

This about sums it up from the article-

"Large companies are increasingly owned by institutional investors who crave swift profits, a feat often achieved by cutting payroll. The declining influence of unions has made it easier for employers to shift work to part-time and temporary employees. Factory work and even white-collar jobs have moved in recent years to low-cost countries in Asia and Latin America. Automation has helped manufacturing cut 5.6 million jobs since 2000 — the sort of jobs that once provided lower-skilled workers with middle-class paychecks."

Shakespeare wrote: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" That's only because he never met an MBA.

The MBAs told us get rid of unions and America will be prosperous. So we let them and our net worth declined and the rich grew richer and more powerful.

The MBAs told us ship jobs to Mexico and America will be prosperous. So we let them and our net worth declined and the rich grew richer and more powerful.

The MBAs told us to ship jobs to Asia and America will be prosperous. So we let them and our net worth declined and the rich grew richer and more powerful.

The MBAs told us to cut taxes on the rich and America will be prosperous. So we let them and our net worth declined and the rich grew richer and more powerful.

The MBAs told us to let them invest workers 401k and bank savings in risky stock schemes and America will be prosperous. So we let them and our net worth declined and the rich grew richer and more powerful.

The MBAs told us to give tax breaks for H1B visas and out sourcing and America will be prosperous. So we let them and our net worth declined and the rich grew richer and more powerful.

The MBAs told us to let them deregulate banking, energy, airlines and America will be prosperous. So we let them and our net worth declined and the rich grew richer and more powerful.

The MBAs told us to give them trillions in interest-free loans from our tax dollars with secret agreements on how the money will be spent or whether the money will be paid back and America will be prosperous. So we let them and our net worth declined and the rich grew richer and more powerful.

The MBAs told us to let them design our health delivery and health payment systems and America will be prosperous... any guesses on how this will end up?

[MannyGoldstein]

12. +6.02^23

Deserves a post of its own.

[girl gone mad]

13. That makes me think of an interview I heard on NPR a couple of weeks ago..

where a reporter was talking to Haitian-Americans who now plan to return to Haiti. One of them was a young woman who said she wants to finish her MBA first, then go back to her ancestral home and use her new skills to help out.

Haven't the Haitian people been through enough already? The last thing that country needs is a swarm of MBAs descending on their shores like a plague of disease carrying parasites, counseling the factory managers on how to maximize productivity so that the lazy entitled class can squeeze every last drop of profit out of the misery of the working poor.

[scentopine]

14. Interesting - yes, MBA as parasite is good analogy, I've seen it over and over...

they need architects, engineers, mechanics, agriculture, civil engineering.

MBAs? They need that about as much as malaria.