America In Decline: The Soul Crushing Despair Of Lowered Expectations

All over America tonight there are people that believe that their lives are over.  When you do everything that you know how to do to get a job and you still can't get one it can be absolutely soul crushing.  If you have ever been unemployed for an extended period of time you know exactly what I am talking about.  When you have been unemployed for month after month it can be very tempting to totally cut yourself off from society.  Those that are kind will look at you with pity and those that are cruel will treat you as though you are a total loser.  It doesn't matter that America is in decline and that our economy is not producing nearly enough jobs for everyone anymore.  In our society, one of the primary things that defines our lives is what we do for a living.  Just think about it.  When you are out in a social situation, what is one of the very first things that people ask?  They want to know what you "do".  Well, if you don't "do" anything, then you are not part of the club.  But the worst part of being unemployed for many Americans is the relentless pressure from family and friends.  Often they have no idea how hard it is to find a job in this economy - especially if they still have jobs.  Sometimes the pressure becomes too great.  Sadly, we are seeing unemployment break up a lot of marriages in America today.  Things are really hard out there right now.  A very large number of highly educated Americans have taken very low paying service jobs in recent years just so that they can have some money coming in even as they "look for something else".  Unfortunately, in many cases that "something else" never materializes.  In the past, America was "the land of opportunity" where anything was possible.  But today America has become "the land of lowered expectations" and the worst is yet to come.

We live during a time when "the American Dream" is literally being redefined.  In the old days, just about anyone could get a good job that would pay enough to make it possible to buy a house, buy a nice car and raise a family.

Read More:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/america-in-decline-the-soul-crushing-despair-of-lowered-expectations

Robert Oak - You Can't Blame The Economy On The Weather

The pathetic jobs report has ushered in a whole new blame game on the weather. January through March 2012 had the warmest temperatures on record for the United States.

Most economic data, including the employment report, is seasonally adjusted. The algorithm is called X-12-ARIMA and is maintained by the Census. Without going into the mathematics, this algorithm takes past cyclical patterns that are predictable and adjusts those spikes, attributed to the seasons. The algorithm takes out of an economic data series those wild swings, so one can more easily compare real growth instead of, say, fall harvesting or Christmas hiring. Construction employment, for example, is highly cyclical due to the nature of the work. Below is a graph of not seasonally adjusted construction employment.

Read More:

http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/you-cant-blame-economy-weather

The Bad Jobs Report Is Just A Very Small Taste Of The Nightmare That Is Coming

Another month, another bad jobs report.  For the month of May, the U.S. economy only added 69,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rose to 8.2%.  Many are calling this a total "disaster" and are worried that the U.S. economy could be headed back into another recession.  Economists had been expecting 150,000 payroll jobs would be added, so the 69,000 number really shocked a lot of people.  The truth is that the economy needs to add approximately 125,000 new jobs every single month just to keep the unemployment rate steady.  So yes, this bad jobs report is not welcome news at all - especially for the Obama administration.  When Barack Obama first took office the unemployment rate was sitting at 7.6 percent and now it is sitting at 8.2 percent.  Some "recovery", eh?  But the reality is that this jobs report was really not that "devastating" even though the stock market had its worst day of the year.  Unemployment in America is still about at the same level as it was back at the beginning of 2012.  The tough stretch that we are going through right now is only a very small taste of the economic nightmare that is on the horizon.  If you think that things are a "disaster" right now, just wait until you see what is coming.

At the moment, 53 percent of all Americans with a bachelor's degree under the age of 25 are either unemployed or underemployed, and there are more than 100 million working age Americans that do not currently have jobs.

Read More:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-bad-jobs-report-is-just-a-very-small-taste-of-the-economic-nightmare-that-is-coming

Stephen Lendman - Predatory Capitalism Failed

Listen to Stephen every Thursday @ 11am and Saturday & Sunday at 1pm (All Eastern Time) on his show "The Progressive Radio Hour." 

Independent observers knew it long ago. Today's global economic crisis provides added confirmation. In 2008, a staunch champion of the system expressed second thoughts. More on him below.

An ideology based on inequality, injustice, exploitation, militarism, and imperial wars eventually self-destructs or gets pushed. Growing evidence in America and Europe show systemic unaddressed problems too grave to ignore. They remain so despite millions without jobs, savings, homes or futures.

Imagine nations governed by leaders letting crisis conditions fester. Imagine voters reelecting them despite demanding change. OWS aside, one day perhaps rage will replace apathy in America. The latest jobs report alone provides incentive enough to try and then some.

On May 4, the Labor Department reported 115,000 new jobs. It way overstated the true number. Official figures belie the dire state of things. At most, two-thirds the headline total were created. Even that's in doubt. 

Most were low-pay, part-time, or temp positions with few or no benefits. Decades ago, workers would have avoided them. Today, there's no choice.

The report also showed economic decline. Expect much worse ahead. In 2008, Main Street Americans experienced Depression. It rages today. Poverty's at record levels. Real unemployment approaches 1930s numbers. Dire conditions are worsening.

Read More:

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30763

Andre Damon - Obama’s jobs program: A laundry list of corporate handouts

On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama made his first speech on economic policy since the official start of his reelection campaign, calling on Congress to enact a list of corporate handouts in the name of “creating jobs.”

Obama kicked off his proposals with a right-wing tribute to the profit system, repeating his mantra that “the true engine of job creation in this country is the private sector; it’s not Washington.”

The entire speech was built on the assertion that government spending is not a legitimate means of putting people to work. He even went as far as to boast that the period of his administration was “the only time that government employment has gone down during a recession.”

The speech comes four days after the Labor Department announced that the US economy added only 115,000 jobs in April, significantly less than the amount needed to keep up with population growth.

Read More:

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30780

Dean Baker - Everyone Agrees That the Decline in Private Sector Pay Has Been Understated

Jason Richwine and Andrew Biggs have a piece [1] saying that many public sector workers are overpaid in which they also say that I agree with them in much of their analysis. This is true.

Let me outline what I think are areas of agreement. First, we seem to agree that if we just compare the straight wages paid to public sector and private sector workers, the latter do better. When we adjust for education and experience, private sector workers tend to get higher pay than their counterparts in the public sector.

This is not true across the board. My colleague John Schmitt has found that while workers with college and advanced degrees (e.g. doctors and lawyers) get less in the public sector, less educated workers get paid the same or slightly more [2] than their counterparts in the private sector. In other words, there is less inequality in public sector wages than we see in the private sector, with the average being somewhat lower.

We also agree that the lower wages for public sector workers are largely or completely offset by higher benefits. The key difference here is that public sector workers are far more likely to have a traditional defined benefit pension plan. Most workers in the public sector still have defined benefit pensions, while less than 20 percent of workers in the private sector do. (The difference is considerably less stark if we restrict the comparison to large private firms, where defined benefit plans are still common.)

Read More:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/dean-baker/42963/everyone-agrees-that-the-decline-in-private-sector-pay-has-been-understated

'The Austerity Trap Has Sprung': Countries Should Choose Growth-Oriented Policies

The current global jobs situation is "alarming," and many countries have fallen into the "austerity trap," according to the new report “World of Work Report 2012: Better Jobs for a Better Economy” from the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The report finds the path of austerity that many countries have chosen to address fiscal crises  simply has not generated jobs and has worsened the economic situation. 

"The narrow focus of many Eurozone countries on fiscal austerity is deepening the jobs crisis and could even lead to another recession in Europe,” said Mr. Raymond Torres, Director of the ILO Institute for International Labour Studies and lead author of the report.

In contrast to the austerity chosing countries, "countries that have chosen job-centered macroeconomic policies have achieved better economic and social outcomes,” added Mr. Torres.

The report states bluntly:  "The austerity trap has sprung. Austerity has, in fact, resulted in weaker economic growth, increased volatility and a worsening of banks’ balance sheets leading to a further contraction of credit, lower investment and, consequently, more job losses."

However, the report notes that "it is possible to move away from the austerity trap."  And "more fundamentally, it is high time for a move towards a growth- and job- orientated strategy.

A growth-oriented strategy could bring about the creation of between 1.8 and 2.1 jobs over a one year period, the ILO states.

The report also finds "the weakening of collective bargaining likely to provoke a downward spiral of wages, thereby delaying recovery further."

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/04/30-3

European, US Austerity Drive is Suicidal: Nobel Economist Stiglitz

Europe is headed down the same path that most Republicans -- and many Democrats -- are suggesting for the US: reductions in the public sector, cuts in benefits, slashing investments in infrastructure and education.

Nobel Prize-winning U.S. economist Joseph Stiglitz speaking in Vienna, Austria Thursday night said that it's a suicidal path for Europe -- and that such a policy has never worked in any large country.

Youth unemployment in Spain has been at 50 percent since the crisis in 2008 with “no hope of things getting better anytime soon,” said Stiglitz, who is a professor for economics at Columbia University. “What you are doing is destroying the human capital, you are creating alienated young people.”

In an interview earlier this week in The European, Stiglitz said, "When you look at America, you have to concede that we have failed. Most Americans today are worse off than they were fifteen years ago. A full-time worker in the US is worse off today than he or she was 44 years ago. That is astounding – half a century of stagnation. The economic system is not delivering. It does not matter whether a few people at the top benefitted tremendously – when the majority of citizens are not better off, the economic system is not working."

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/04/27-1

John Amos - The Marginalization and Disenfranchisement of Young America

We old folks complain loud and often about the state of our society. Often, we read and hear about our young not working at making a place for themselves in this world. Believing this propaganda, however, in my view, is very erroneous.

Here where I live, and elsewhere, I see capital that would allow the development of progress and livable jobs for our younger generation being withdrawn and moved to places offshore and out of reach of our own younger citizenry.

Only when our capitalists see a need to engage our young people in specific tasks that benefit the capitalists themselves, do they pony up barely enough capital to employ and engage our younger generation in viable pursuits that will allow them to progress and enjoy a full life. But, in most cases, our young are underpaid and marginalized even when they are employed. It is as if American society and American corporations want to suck the life out of them before they ever get a chance to make their mark in the world

We can speculate that the 1% of super rich at the top is doing this intentionally.

I have long suspected that the present deconstruction of our society and the destruction of the US middle classes is a convenient way that our present day upper crust (read our old money billionaires and our new-money, digital-age nouveau riche’ super wealthy) can sustain their empires that do little to sustain or progress humanity.

Read More:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/johndamos/42841/the-marginalization-and-disenfranchisement-of-young-america

General Electric is moving its X-ray division headquarters from Wisconsin to China

GE Moving from Wisconsin.  Keep your eye on Waukesha, Wisconsin......Their biggest employer just moved out.  General Electric is planning to move its 115-year-old X-ray division from Waukesha, Wis., to Beijing.   In addition to moving the headquarters, the company will invest $2 billion in China and train more than 65 engineers and create six research centers.

This is the same GE that made $5.1 billion in the United States last year, but paid no taxes - the same company that employs more people overseas than it does in the United States.  So let me get this straight. President Obama appointed GE Chairman Jeff Immelt to head his commission on job creation (job czar).  Immelt is supposed to help create jobs. I guess the President forgot to tell him in which country he was supposed to be creating those jobs.

Thanks Jeff, you're a "real" American....give Barrack our Best!  If this doesn't show you the total lack of leadership of this President, I don't know what does. Please pass this information to others and think about it before you buy a GE product.

Read More:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/ge.asp