Why Washington Doesn't Care About Jobs

[kpete]

Why Washington Doesn't Care About Jobs
Christopher Hayes
March 3, 2011 | This article appeared in the March 21, 2011 edition of The Nation.


This disconnect between the jobs crisis in the country and the blithe dismissal thereof in Washington is the most incomprehensible aspect of the political moment. But I think there are two numbers that go a long way toward explaining it.

The first is 4.2. That’s the percentage of Americans with a four-year college degree who are unemployed. It’s less than half the official unemployment rate of 9 percent for the labor force as a whole and one-fourth the underemployment rate (which counts those who have given up looking for work or are working part time but want full-time work) of 16.1 percent. So while the overall economy continues to suffer through the worst labor market since the Great Depression, the elite centers of power have recovered. For those of us fortunate enough to have graduated from college—and to have escaped foreclosure or an underwater mortgage—normalcy has returned.

The other number is 5.7 percent. That’s the unemployment rate for the Washington/Arlington/Alexandria metro area and just so happens to be lowest among large metropolitan areas in the entire country. In 2010 the DC metro area added 57,000 jobs, more than any in the nation, and now boasts the hottest market for commercial office space. In other words: DC is booming. You can see it in the restaurants opening all over North West, the high prices that condos fetch in the real estate market and the general placid sense of bourgeois comfort that suffuses the affluent upper- and upper-middle-class pockets of the region.

What these two numbers add up to is a governing elite that is profoundly alienated from the lived experiences of the millions of Americans who are barely surviving the ravages of the Great Recession. As much as the pernicious influence of big money and the plutocrats’ pseudo-obsession with budget deficits, it is this social distance between decision-makers and citizens that explains the almost surreal detachment of the current Washington political conversation from the economic realities working-class, middle-class and poor people face.

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http://www.thenation.com/article/158992/what-social-network

[Brigid]

1. Just let any of them try doing some of the jobs I've had.

They wouldn't last a day. I'm sure most DUers could say the same thing.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. I'm sorry, Chris, but you missed the point entirely

It's not that the DC folks are disconnected from the rest of the economy. The various puke governors are well aware of the unemployment numbers in their states, mayors know their communities, etc.

You have to step back, Chris, and look at the much larger picture, which is of an aristocracy that doesn't need full employment of the masses and doesn't want a middle class.

Look at what the aristos are doing, Chris. They are NOT implementing policies that will create jobs. They are NOT legislating to make service jobs in the private sector pay as much as manufacturing jobs used to pay. They are NOT going after taxes on the uber-wealthy.

They are implementing policies that will DESTROY a solvent middle class. DESTROY, Chris. Do you know what that word means? LOOK IT UP.

When you get over the notion that the aristos are just misguided in their attempts to restore American properity and when you understand that they do not WANT and do not INTEND to do anything that will restore American middle class prosperity, THEN you will be able to address the situation. Until then, STFU.


Tansy Gold