NYT's Bob Herbert: Employment situation is a 'horror show'

[Newsjock]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/opinion/10herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

The employment situation in the United States is much worse than even the dismal numbers from last week’s jobless report would indicate. The nation is facing a full-blown employment crisis and policy makers are not responding with anything like the sense of urgency that is needed.

... They may be thinking about this in Washington, but they sure aren’t doing much about it. The politicians’ approach to the jobs crisis has been like passing out umbrellas in a hurricane. Millions are suffering and the entire economy is being undermined, and what are they doing? They’re appropriating more and more money for warfare while schizophrenically babbling about balancing the budget.

At some point we’re going to have to claw our way out of this denial. With 14.6 million people officially jobless, and 5.9 million who have stopped looking but say they want a job, and 8.5 million who are working part time but would like to work full time, you end up with nearly 30 million Americans who cannot find the work they want and desperately need.

... We’re not heading toward the danger zone. We’re there. The U.S. will not remain a stable society if this great employment crisis is not addressed head-on — and soon. You cannot allow joblessness on this scale to fester. It’s wrong, and the blowback will be as destructive and intolerable as it is inevitable.

[villager]

1. King wanted a poor people's march on Washington -- perhaps it's time right the hell now...

His next project, on the eve of being "coincidentally" assassinated as he moved from a race-based, to a class-based analysis of American politics, was to organize a poor people's march on Washington.

If the unemployed got to Washington and didn't leave - especially around "election" time -- well, that'd be quite interesting, wouldn't it?

[dkf]

2. Jobs jobs jobs. When are they going to be the object of our focus?

I'm still waiting.

[lovuian]

3. when 90% of the assets of a country is owned by a few

you have a Depression
economics 101

[flyarm]

4. Don't worry, be happy, Michelle is keeping Spaniards in jobs!

It's what all my friends are angry about! And very very VOCAL about!

In fact it is all the talk I keep hearing!

I guess others are hearing it as well!

While the lights are being turned off in this country, library's closing, stores boarded up,Millions of Americans afraid to take their legal vacation in fears that if they take their vacation , they will lose their job when they would return, families living in cars and kids in high numbers in poverty, and parents struggling to put s roof over their kids heads and food in their stomachs.

Not a very smart move.

Trip after trip after trip..kinda gets people struggling pissed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/opinion/08dowd.html?_r=1&ref=maureendowd

[Zoeisright]

5. Oh please, what bullshit.

As though the First Family not traveling is going to make a dime's worth of difference in this economy the repukes ruined. If you and your friends are angry about THAT, you need to learn more about what really matters in the world.

[flyarm]

6. It is called Perception, My sisters boss has not been able to make payroll for 3 weeks...my sister

a single mom has not been paid for 3 weeks..she lives paycheck to paycheck. It doesn't play well when you turn on the TV and see the hotel the First lady is in when you can't buy groceries! Or pay your bills! And know that you will be delinquent on your bills and mortgage because your boss can't make payroll!

And you can't quit or turn the guy in because you need the health benefits. My sister had a freak accident a few years back and lost a kidney, she can't be without heath care!

But you might not understand that ..would you?

[LooseWilly]

7. I'm sorry for the awful situation your sister finds herself in...

but, and I apologize for bringing this up... but the Democrats aren't in the business of doing stuff for the poor. Nor the Left. (Sometimes seems like they're one and the same...)

If you (or your sister) aren't "swing voters"... voters that have been identified (by mystical statistical methodologies) as being listen-worthy (because all the votes on the "Left" and the "Right" have been accounted for)... then you are better off just forgetting about any political action government help.

It was the same way when Clinton was in office... except that he had the good sense to/ was lucky enough to preside over a bubble in the economy, rather than a bubble-burst.

Sometimes bad news is better gotten over with quickly. I would love to be proven wrong, but at this point I see precious few trends suggesting I will be. Good luck. If you aren't in a cubicle job at the very least, I sense it will be needed...

[northernlights]

8. when, oh when, oh when????

"but say they want a job, and 8.5 million who are working part time but would like to work full time,"

will journalists STOP BEING FED THEIR LINES and start writing the reality? :grr: :grr: :grr:

Saying people "want" a job and "would like to work" full time is like saying people "want" to breathe" and "would like to breath" every day.

FOR FUCKS SAKE, MOST PEOPLE *NEED* JOBS AND *NEED TO WORK* FULL TIME to make a living wage.

JESUS F CHRIST stop making jobs sound like a goddam hobby and people who "want" them sound like a bunch of whiners.

PEOPLE NEED JOBS TO SURVIVE. Give it the goddam terminology and meaning it deserves.

rant over. carry on.