The Real reasons

[Jeffery]

Everyone has been talking about a recession lately, but nobody has given a good explanation "why". Oh yes, they pull out arcane answers about the market forces and how energy demand outpaces supply and how the Federal Reserve is doing this or that to control inflation, blah blah blah. Whether those theories are true, false, or humbug, God only knows. But there are several other, more obvious causes which I believe are causing the current economic downturn. I'm not an expert, and I could be "full of it", but here they are:

1. The Iraq War ($530,470,000,000 all told), along with the Patriot Act extension programs, are milking us dry. Need I say anything more?

2. Stay-at-home parents. In the past five years, their numbers have been increasing, for the first time in five decades. While homemakers should be appreciated for what they contribute to their families, it must at the same time be recognized that their efforts usually do not contribute to the general economy, and that large numbers of them are a burden thereupon. Furthermore, an increasing number of stay-at-home spouses creates a vacuum in the labor market, and this contributes to the third problem...

3. Fifteen million illegal immigrants, who cost more to the nation than they contribute to it. Not to mention the five million children, born to these immigrants, who are jus soli citizens and therefore entitled to public school education. If the government spends 2K on each pupil each year, that's $10,000,000,000 (ten billion) annual total.

With all these things happening at one time, how can you expect NOT to have a recession?

[uppityperson]

1. Because the economy has allowed some parents to not work, it caused a recession? Proof of claim.

I would like to see proof of what you claim in #2 "In the past five years, their numbers have been increasing, for the first time in five decades".

I would like to see proof of your claim in #3 also.

[Jeffery]

9. Don't have any

As I said, I don't have any proof, and I could be full of it.

Claims 2 and 3 come from expert guests I have heard on radio talk shows.

[uppityperson]

13. I disagree with the basis of #2.

Having some people stay out of the job market rather than competing for jobs would not cause a recession.

I also disagree that there are more single working families in the last 5 yrs than in 5 decades.

[caledesi]

2. Thank you for your concern. NT

[Warpy]

3. Your number 2 is in error, which makes your number 3

ridiculous.

If anything, the stay at home parent (you're blaming Mom again) is taking pressure off a tight job market, especially since Mom is generally middle class and educated, not the type of job applicant whose position is going to be filled by a semiliterate illegal alien. After all, only the upper middle class can make this choice. It's been removed from the rest of us, who have to return to work as soon as we can walk after childbirth.

You're also assuming that raising the next generation of workers is not contributing to the economy, that people who do this are parasites on society. Yes, it's slave labor, but it's also the real work of the human race, so you might want to rethink that part.

The truth is that illegal immigration is being fueled by a government that is failing to enforce the laws against exploitation, refusing to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, and refusing to fine employers who hire illegal aliens. We have a huge illegal alien problem in this country because business and government have joined hands to create it.

Mom had nothing to do with it.

[fasttense]

7. Well said Warpy.

You said what I was thinking.

The stay at home spouse goes out and buys groceries, the kids clothes, and supports the after school events and church socials with their free labor. They contribute much more than the idle rich or wealthy Paris Hilton wannabes who lay about the pool or party all night waiting on those dividend checks to arrive in the mail.

[Jeffery]

10. Yes,

You've got a point there.

[Nay]

17. Zackly, Warpy--plus some parents are staying home because the job

they could get doesn't even cover daycare for the kid(s). My DIL is staying home for exactly that reason. It would cost them MORE money for her to go to work!

[Hugin]

4. I was just doing a little MATH with the numbers you cite...

If we stopped the war we could afford:


Almost a BILLION more lazy lay-a-bout House Spouses!

or

Almost TEN BILLION more worthless Illegal Immigrants!

I say we go for it!

[Theres-a]

5. Aye Dios Mio, Lou is that you?

[Jeffery]

11. Who's that?

Who is this Lou everyone keeps talking about?

[libertypirate]

6. You people need to grow up

You idiots keep trying to blame the majority for problems caused by the minority wealthy.

[villager]

8. how dare any parent stay home with a growing child! Evil bastards!

Surely they are more to blame than corporate greed for our current woes!

[Jeffery]

12. No

I didn't say that. I said that they SHOULD BE APPRECIATED for what they do for their families.

And yes, corporate greed is another big problem, but that's old news, and doesn't explain the current recession.

[emmadoggy]

14. Yeah, you're good at talking out of both sides of your mouth because in the

next breath you called them a burden on society.

Your contention that stay-at-home moms are one of three causes of the current recession is just so laughably ridiculous and frankly insane that.....well, I don't think that anything I were to say to you would matter.

Your posts make me :puke:

[Jeffery]

15. That wasn't it

I didn't say a burden on society, I used an economic term: a burden on the general economy. Schools, roads, and other things are burdens on the economy as well; it doesn't mean anyone should be against schools and roads. It's economic vernacular.

[emmadoggy]

16. What bullshit.

Burden on society; burden on the economy - same freaking thing.

Yeah, and the notion that SAHMs are a burden on the economy is utter bullshit too.

[Hannah Bell]

23. It explains EVERY recession. They're regular occurrences, no

special explanation needed.

Business cycle: expansion, overcapacity, bust, consolidation, expansion.

[leftofthedial]

18. actual unemployment is somewhere between 25 and 45%

(by the bush cabal's own cooked numbers),

so how can stay-at-home parents be a cause of the problem? They often are victims of the problem in that there is no job available that exceeds the cost of daycare.

[Pale Blue Dot]

19. Wow. You nailed it. Stay at home parents and illegal immigrants.

Seems pretty easy to fix. I wish we had heard from you sooner.






















:eyes:

[NMDemDist2]

20. are you freaking KIDDING me??? did it take a metal file to get your head that pointy?

OK, let me ask you a serious question, back in the 50s and 60s when stay at home moms were the norm, where was the recession? it was the greatest boom time ever seen.

so that makes #2 complete bullshit.

and #3 is total bullshit too. cite me ONE source (other than your "radio talk shows" who are almost to a person a bunch of bigoted assholes) that shows that undocumented workers cost more than they contribute. study after study has show that UWs add MUCH more to the economy than they take.

You may not realize it, but you have bought the right wing's "It's not our fault, the aliens are evil" bullshit hook line and sinker.

If you want to know why our economy is in the crapper, it's because all our jobs have moved to Asia (thanks largely to the Walton family) and the only thing the USA produces is guns and debt.

Enjoy your stay on DU.

[TalkingDog]

21. Sayyyy..... THIS wouldn't have anything to do with it...... would it?

from: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080630/extreme_inequality






Good times at the tippy top = sucky times for guess who????





and if all those charts are too confusing, here's a really simple one:



or, simpler still:




Any questions?

[Hannah Bell]

22. So you feel business activity is slowing because 2) parents are

choosing to stay home with their children & 3) immigrants aren't working, just leeching off public services?

[sendero]

24. I personally believe..

... that stay at home parents is a symptom, not a cause. When a spouse cannot get a job that pays enough to pay for day care, plus something reasonable left over, then there is no incentive to go to work.

[sendero]

25. My version of what's happening..

.... debt at every level, personal, corporate and governmental.

It is unsustainable, and the unwinding of said debt has begun, and it is going to be painful.

The reasons for the debt are multifaceted, but it comes down to bad decisions on the part of people everywhere.

[adnelson60087]

26. Don't forget that high value jobs are ever decreasing

here in the US and until the majority of Americans can get jobs that actually allow them to LIVE and not just "make it', our economy is going to be in the toilet. Corporatism and straight pure greed are making us all poorer. I suspect our kids may not live a life better than we do now.