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Barbara Ehrenreich hits the economic nail on the head for a whole lot of America:
But hellooo, we've had brisk growth for the past few years, as the president has tirelessly reminded us, only without those promised increases in personal income, at least not for the poor and the middle class. According to a study just released by the Economic Policy Institute, real wages actually fell last year. Growth, some of the economists are conceding in perplexity, has been "decoupled" from widely shared prosperity.
I first began to sense this in the boom years of the late 1990s, when I was working in entry-level jobs for my book "Nickel and Dimed." While the stock market soared and fortunes were being made in the time it takes to say "IPO," my $6-to-$8-an-hour co-workers lunched on hot dog buns because that was all they could afford and, in some cases, fretted about whether they could find a safe place to sleep.
Growth is not the only economic indicator that has let us down. In the past five years, America's briskly rising productivity has been the envy of much of the world. But again, there's been no corresponding increase in most people's wages....
So thoroughly is the economy decoupled from ordinary experience that according to a CNN poll, 57 percent of Americans thought we were already in a recession a month ago....most Americans have been living in their own personal recession for years.
I could see this when I was doing research for a book on white-collar unemployment in 2004. Although the economy was officially on an upturn, I met laid-off people who'd been searching for a job for more than a year and often ended up -- after selling their homes and borrowing from relatives -- taking low-wage work as big-box sales clerks or even janitors.
In the months ahead, we can expect the hard times to spread. Citigroup has announced plans to eliminate 21,000 jobs; investment banks in general will shed 40,000. The mortgage industry is in a meltdown; Business Wire predicts a 37 percent increase in the number of companies planning layoffs this year. This is what a stimulus package needs to address: the persistent and growing struggles of the middle class and the working class, which is increasingly conterminous with the working poor.
Welcome to reality. All those golden parachutes come at a steep price for someone, and you can sure as hell bet it isn't the folks with the multi-layered compensation packages. For everyone who is taking a tumble without that executive parachute for their fall and that of their families? It's going to be a wild ride...
But don't fret, Bush feels your pain. (H/T Norwegianity.) Yeah...right.
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‘allo…
Christy!
Hello again…
preview is your friend…..Hi Christy…
It seems a bit evil, but those cookie cutters just cracked me up…
LOL — I fixed it for you.
btw, I made a salad the other day out of recipe from that greek cookbook you gave me at YKos. Very yummy stuff. Thanks again for it.
All those golden parachutes…
And not a one with my name on it… And yet, somehow I just know that I’d look good in one. *g*
btw, gang, a lot of this goes part and parcel with what we’ll be discussing later in Book Salon with Free Lunch. Jane will be hosting at 5 pm ET/2 pm PT. Thought folks might appreciate a reminder — should be a good discussion.
This is so true. And so sad. And yes, bush has endlessly acted as if the “economy” (meaning big business) was the same as how “people” are doing economically. (It is verbal slight of hand.) There have been few jobs created, compared to past administrations, during bush’s 7 years. Meanwhile the rich grow so rich that they should all be ashamed. Some people earn in a year more than most people would ever earn in many lifetimes!
Change is needed. We were discussing this in our house at about 5:30 am this morning. I am depressed on behalf of the poor!
You’re on fire today Christy. Briefly discussed Ehrenreich’s work with EE one night. Seems her work really intrigued her and John.
We read Nickel & Dimed in my Manhattan book club quite a while ago. I was stunned how little insight/experience my friends had with the world it revealed. After all, we all shop — and most of these people have houses in rural areas. They are not confined to the NYC “bubble.”
We all need to start paying very careful attention. The MSM is not going to completely acknowledge our economic realities.
I am glad you liked it…. I brought back 5 cookbooks (backpack weighted a ton) but love sitting around finding something lovely to cook….
What I do is look at my family….. The two girls…. both ASU grads are still working at their college jobs…. have NOT been able to obtain work outside retail….. one has become an assistant manager and they both have full benefits…. still you don’t spend tons on college tuition to sell clothes and coffee.
My oldest son who is supporting a family used to be a project manager for a big home builder in the Seattle area. A year ago last December when his project was completed they pink slipped him and his whole crew. They did it as each subdivision was completed.
It is the main reason why Edwards message spoke to me…..
I ran out to the grocery store late last night to pick up another gallon of milk and a couple of things for gameday snacks for today. (Neither Mr. ReddHedd nor I really give a crap about the teams in the Superbowl this year, but we want to watch the commercials. *g*)
There was a couple in the check-out line ahead of me trying to decide what items to put back because they didn’t have enough to pay for their groceries. I stood there, trying to figure out a way to offer to pay the difference without offending their dignity, when they decided to give up their case of beer saying “it was healthier for him to drink water anyway,” and the whole issue was resolved within minutes. It was, from everything that I had seen as their groceries trickled down the belt ahead of mine, the single extravagance of the lot of them — otherwise it was a lot of dried rice, dried beans, and other cheaper diet staples.
For people who have never had to count down to the penny on how much they could spend to feed their families, this never even occurs to them, I don’t think. But for those of us who have played the “creative ways to dress up a cheap pack of ramen noodles for dinner again” game, as I did all through graduate school and a lot of law school on a tight budget, you learn all too quickly what is or is not within the budget range. And when that happens because your job has been suddenly and without warning downsized, and you have children to take care of, that hits at a gut level for everyone.
At The Peanut’s preschool, they provide breakfast in the mornings now because there were so many kids who were coming to school starving. And this way the kids at least start the day with something in their bellies.
The MSM is not going to
completelyever acknowledgeourany economic realities other than “their own”, or those that they’re ordered to espouse.Better?
1,744 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Hardin Smith and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
We have reached the end of corporate capitalism but NOT the end of corporate power…the next several decades are gunna be bloody and chaotic until the planet either settles inta a new “Dark Ages” or an extended Pax Chinese. We do have a moment here to save what’s left of democracy and maybe get onto the road of a new co-operative world economy but I jest don’t think Barak O’Lieberman has the chops ta pull it off…oh Al Gore where are ya when we need ya??!!!
KEEP THE FAITH AND IMPEACH THE BASTARDS!!
Much better! I’m no spring chicken and my southern raisin’ (of a certain era) contributes to a certain difficulty with anger/clarity. *g*
Yep. The economic downturn is affecting MN as well. Unemployment rate is up a little bit, though still below the national average:
I am currently recovering from a debilitating on-the-job injury, and am collecting Workman’s Compensation Temporary Disablity. With what I stand to be able to collect in final settlement, along with potential State Disablity and SSI, it’s a wash on whether to try to return to work, as I would have to put in over 40 hours a week at my last wage level to beat what I can collect for sitting on my butt the rest of my life.
Early forced retirement sounds alluring, yet I’m not really ready to stop working. But the point is, what would be the point?
Christy here is a wonderful orzo salad that is so good it will be hard not to eat it in one sitting…. I didn’t have mint and used cilantro instead
Warm Orzo Salad
And the Repugs want to cut out food stamps from the stimulus package…As I said the other day: disgusting…
In terms of the cost of food, you haven’t seen anything yet. Over the next few months this is going to become a vey big issue.
Since Marie Antoinette lost her head, every competent nation state has maintained a policy of inexpensive food. Leave to it to Bushco to abandon this policy.
HRC is such a progressive.
AP - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to have workers’ wages garnisheed if they refuse to buy health insurance to achieve coverage for all Americans.
DO you have a link on that? Because I’d like to see the by-line…
Sorta the icing on a post cookie, so to speak. *g*
Read Eirenreich’s piece only a few minutes before you put this up and thought, “Right on, sister!” I’m going to start volunteering at the food pantry in the eastern end of the state on return; a friend just e-mailed saying they are in need of bags to package the items being distributed…..they are surely even more in need of food stuffs to put in those bags. As more and more people who have considered themselves well-off join the laid-off line, it will be interesting to see whether their attitudes about government assistance in time of need change.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....mpaign_rdp
Absence of a single payer medical program leads to a cul-de-sac. For Hillary’s manadatory program, it is enforcement. For Obama’s non-mandatory program, it is the free rider (and thus emergency room treatment) problem.
Can’t find anything to support it but I thought that when there was a downturn in the economy the SSD (social security disability) claims increased.
This doesn’t look good … Backlog of Social Security disability claims likely to grow
ty
Digg this
Bush’s economic policies, costing you an arm and a leg. Love the photo.
What a touching story. It’s heart-breaking to live in a wealthy country and provide so little for the majority of our citizens.
I hope it gets to the point where people are embarrassed to spend money on lots of lavish things. I’d like to see a “giving race” where the wealthy compete to be of service.
Linky…
Although I understand and agree with everything you say, the paragraph about putting beer back may be co-opted by right wing fundies to show that tricle-down economics work precisely as they should and John Calvin would approve.
The need for growth is the real problem in economy metrics. What the hell is growth if it doesn’t mean growth in the incomes or buying power of the people?
Corporations can grow by cutting wages and jobs. They measure growth by profit! They can close factories and open up one and use slave labor and show growth in profits.
The truth about our economy is that is it all driven by what’s good for corporations and investors… not workers and wager earners.
By THAT metric the us economy has been shrinking for decades.
Clearly, Kiddo, there is no question; we shall have need of more prisons and workhouses as well as serious financial consequence to effectively deal with the anti-social lower classes.
Note: The preceding is entirely snark, on my part, at least.
Yes, well, on Superbowl Sunday weekend, I’d like to see the GOP make a stand on “no beer for the regular folks.” Because I can tell you how that would go around here in the real world…
Isn’t Obama’s plan more like he wants to make sure that everyone can afford to buy health insurance–through subsidy programs? Is this latter what you call “free rider”? Do you know how he plans to set up these programs?
My response was to eCAHN at 25. I don’t know what happened…hiccup?
We are not a wealthy country. We are a country that has many wealthy people… and 40 million poor people and 2.5 million in prison and hundreds of thousands homeless and higher infant mortality that some “third world” nations. We have slower internet, than Japan, lousier cell phones than many countries, worse rail system. Our students are not the best performers either and our private universities are costing what many people earn in a life time!
i have followed BE for years a personal hero of mine,thanks Christy!
The idea of Bush-era “Growth” is pretty much a crock also. For the stock market: S&P 500 numbers:
Wonderous Chimp Administration: Start approx. 1334
Close last Friday: 1395 …for a 4.5 percent total gain in seven years.
The Hated Clenis Administration: Start approx. 432
For a 308 percent total gain in eight years.
Third world Preznit. Third world economy.
Every adult American who likes to drink beer should be able to afford to buy and drink beer while watching Superbowl…
The price of corn is at the root of the coming shock at the grocery store. Farmers can’t afford to feed their livestock $4.00/bushel corn. They are actively liquidating their breeding stock. Their is such a glut of sows and boars on the market the price has fallen to 2 or 3 cents a pound. In some cases they are simply being given away to the slaughterhouses. In about 6 months this will result in finanacial pain for consumers of meat products.
Attempting to use grain for fuel is going to prove to be a disaster. It isn’t going to produce very much energy, if any, and it is going to inflate the cost of basic food stuffs dramatically.
The for profit health care delivery system has to be taken apart. All workers need to be paid according to their skills. Let’s have a real meritocracy and get the leeches out of the system.
Just a thought:
If we ended our occupation of Iraq, etc. we could save around $15,000,000,000 per month. We could plow some of that savings into providing health care for the people of America.
Way OfT - Just noticed an add over at HuffPo from draftbloomberg.com. It says “Mayor Bloomberg, we need you to run for President”, and “Sign up here”… 5,237 Signatures so far!”…
Now that’s a run-away train of a campaign, huh?
The ethanol thing is another scam brought to you by ADM and their ilk.
We are feudal vassals in the new feudalism.
No Logo my friends. See the Century of the Self
THE MIC is like a cancer through the nation. If you cut it out you will destroy the country. How cleaver they were to addict us to their murderous jobs.
Why do we need nuclear subs?
Drive by and OT: Dear lord, I could end up with Chris Matthews as my Senator:
http://cliffschecter.bravenewf.....the-senate
and as an extra-special two-fer,
E. coli 0157:H7 Increased by Corn Ethanol Byproduct
‘A potted adult in every house!’ No, that did not come out quite like the slogan I was reaching for… jeez.
Belated, good day all!
Christy your posts today (as usual, of course) are most thought-provoking.
They’ve got the American consumers right where they want them - bashing Canadian and European Health Care systems they know nothing about AND fooling them into believing that Health Insurance is National Health Care. People like Russert help with the dissemination of such propaganda.
Thanks, mucho. It’s always tough to tell if a topic is just grabbing me — or if it takes on a life of its own and spawns a lot of thought for everyone. Nice to know they hit you just right, today — and nice to hear. Thanks.
To start with, if we want the for-profit health care system to be abolished, then we need to make medical education affordable. And medicine a field where dedication and giving predominates over becoming wealthy. You may need to literally recruit different kinds of people. People whose main desire is to be of service. Give them the training. But help them understand they can’t all be specialists. And they can’t all live in big cities.
As a psychologist, I would be delighted to work for what Medicare pays. I mean this in all sincerity. It is less than my full fee, but it is easy to bill Medicare and there are no hoops to jump. If people need therapy, they can get it. The only problem with mental health under Medicare is that reimbursement is at a lower percentage than for physical health care. That would need to change… for fairness sake. Reasonable copays is the solution.
If the program is not mandatory, no matter how “affordable,” some will not participate. After all, paying zero & going to an emergency room if every you need it is still cheaper than buying insurance the the got has determined is affordable for you.
I know people who have worked as security guards (for not much money) for a while, and also as part-time/temp office help, to keep ends from getting too far apart. All those wonderful reforms that we got in the 90s, intended (they said) to keep people from becoming welfare queens, are now hurting a lot more.
I wish some of the people who told everyone how wonderful things would be, with welfare reform and tax cuts in place, actually had to live like Ann and Joe Average: paycheck to paycheck, with no raises in sight and increases in the cost of everything.
Yes, ethanol is a bad idea that just keeps giving.
Ehrenreich is right as far back as she goes but the class warfare that Republicans have been waging against us of The Great Unwashed has definitely been going on since St. Ron was coronated in 1981. the mystery to me is how long does this have to go on until people start really fighting back. is a Bolshevik Revolution simply no longer possible no matter how bad it gets? why didn’t more people get John Edwards message? we really needed that guy and he’s not there any more …….
From kiddo’s AP link on Hill’s health plan:
My bold. Canshe really pull that off?
“In the past five years, America’s briskly rising productivity has been the envy of much of the world. But again, there’s been no corresponding increase in most people’s wages”
Can you see the connection? Between increasing productivity & stagnant wages negative when inflation adjusted)?
Oy bad typos. Last part should read: buying insurance that the govt has determined is affordable for you.
American consumers are lied to about Ethanol in the same way that they are lied to about National Health Care. People like Chris Mathews disseminate the propaganda.
Thanks. My question @ 57 is also for you…
Drive by and OT: Dear lord, I could end up with Chris Matthews as my Senator:
maybe the voting populace would eventually come away with this thought (shamelessly stolen from Lewis Black):
“I listened to the first two paragraphs of his speech, and realized that - fuck! - I don’t have enough breadcrumbs to get back home!”
I’m not participating because my choices of providers are all in legal trouble: one of them for trying to avoid reimbursements, one for poor patient service, and one for cancelling coverage illegally.
This does not make me want to sign up with them, and it makes mandatory insurance a non-starter.
Why I want single-payer, version 2008.
If you’re going to go that far, why not be honest, raise taxes and provide single payer?
Years ago I decided to provide my employees and their families with health insurance. At the time it was a bit spendy, but very doable and helped keep me keep my best people. But, let me tell you, the last few years, it has been a real struggle to keep this benefit. Something has to give and soon. I am sure there are a lot of employers out there, like me, who are at about ready to say uncle on this important benefit.
Lewis Black is my therapist. without him i’d be crazier’n a shithouse rat, instead i’m just barking mad ……
Its possible to provide a low premium for the first year, then each successive year your premium would increase by the growth in the GDP plus ten percent. /s
How on God’s Brown Earth will she get Health Insurance Companies to “cover” people with expensive pre-exisiting conditions like AIDS or cancer, ferchrissakes. Sombody call her out.
Health insurance discriminates against older Americans by making it harder to find a job. Employers don’t want to pay the premiums.
I don’t think this country will do anything about our health care industry. The plan in California just died after a year of compromise. The plan was so laden with bullshit that it became unworkable. And I think that was the intended result.
Don’t love Black too much. He said Kerry was just as bad a choice as Bush on his comedy show.
There are. Small businesses, especially, have a huge struggle with it — but larger businesses increasingly see health care benefits as more and more expensive, but with corresponding reductions in what is offered in terms of actual coverage for employees. It’s bizarre how ass-backwards things have gotten — “Pay more, get less!”
Price controls and rationing are the typical ways that single-payer plans work in developed countries. Whether that’s politically acceptable in the U.S. we’ll see if H or O is elected.
Black hates both parties with the same fervor.
Health care is rationed in this country now. And there are no price controls.
(I know you know all of this but I just had to say it.)
Just to add myself to the statistics: I have been out of work for over 3 months. My kids did not have much of a Christmas. While my pay over the last 4 years has gone up (while I had a job); my rent and groceries have actually gone up more. My last job literally went to China without me.
In the next few days, our eviction notice will be coming, in spite of paying at least half the rent for the last few months, and I was never even a day late for the 4 years prior to that. Just to add insult to injury; the guy who is worried about “losing” all the income is an Attorney that owns one of the biggest personal injury firms in the New-England states.
Thanks again… (pace: nonplussed @ 64)
Another excellent point. Older workers premiums can be 10 times or more than the cost of a young worker. A 21 year old can get a crappy plan with a $3000 deductible for $60 per month. A 58 year old’s insurance cost for a crappy plan would be $600 or more per month. Who would you hire?
As I understand the arguments, which are political, many who have insurance are happy with it and any govt program to change that would run into a lot of pissed off voters. Thoe other is the political power of all the medical providers, not limited to insurance corps. Of that you are all well aware.
Don’t love Black too much. He said Kerry was just as bad a choice as Bush on his comedy show.
I believe that what he said was something along the lines of “How could the Democrats choose a candidate who couldn’t beat George W. Bush? That’s like a normal person losing at the Special Olympics”.
(ok - so that’s almost certainly offensive to many - but hey - I’m just reporting here…)
John — I’m so sorry to hear that for you and your family. No chance of getting a one-month reprieve? have you contacted him (her?) in writing? Sometimes a written explanation can help smooth the way for a little leeway…not always, but sometimes.
i didn’t see that so i don’t know how to respond. was he serious? i have seen him eviscerate fuckwad and the rest of the Cheney Administration.
Just about nothing is right with the U.S. “system.” Name it and it’s wrong. Higher costs, lower quality in every way, including the rationing you mention. All related to the Mafia of the Intelligentsia.
I am not much for supply side economics, but I think increasing the size of state supported medical, dental and pharmaceutical schools by about 50%, would over time help a great deal.
Recently, I was involved with several freshly minted doctors going to work as emergency room docs. Their starting salaries were extraordinarily high. It is not unusual for pharmacy school grads to start at $10k a month.
Too bad for Black. He can’t see the forest for the trees. Here’s a guy who might have been helpful in preventing the hideous neocon agenda, but no, both parties are equally bad. When I hear that, I turn it off. Its simply not true. There are 14 or so democratic senators that are bad. We’ll clean them out. We’ll clean the house too.
Supply creates its own demand in medical industry. You know, the doc who’s colleague just opened up a new imaging facility in the same strip mall & who needs to pay his bills?
Found out something that shocked me. I am in the process of getting on Medicare and was talking with a guy at Social Security. He asked me if I had insurance now and when I said yes, he told me that it is much harder to get medicare if you have NOT had insurance
because they sort of assume that you didn’t need it. So a warning, if you are going to be applying for Medicare any time soon, get some kind of insurance before you do.
Just a note for all those who yearn for a single-payer medical system: consider having one where W gets to determine what & how much medical care you’ll get.
My husband just lost his health insurance (again). He is 62 and has a heart condition and other problems. His meds are $300 a month. We have already filed for bankruptcy three years ago due to bad coverage.
This corrupt government does not care and I think it wants to cull out the “unproductive”. Problem is we are all unproductive since there is no viable economy in this country. A service economy combined with an endless war eats its own. The coming storm will be the Katrina of economic events, unnecessary and tragic.
TheraP@ 52
ahem…Bush budget cuts funding to teaching hospitals.
No problemo.
Just go to the emergency Room.
Word of advice, talk with your regular pharmacist about any medications you take and which plans work with them for that medication — and which don’t. I’ve been at the drug store on more than one occasion when zn elderly customer found out his or her blood pressure meds or heart meds or what have you weren’t paid for by whatever plan they picked.
It’s waaaaaaay too complicated. And one of the links above talks about the Bush plans for the budget — and how cutting Medicare drug benefits is one of his plans for balancing the budget. So that nasty donut hole is about to get larger, I’m afraid.
How right you are. Insurance has absolutely nothing to do with health care.
Budget cuts? Where’s all that revenue from cutting taxes for himself, his family, and his cronies?
OT..The FOX crew thinks Kristol is really funny:
C&L
Except, if you live in the real world.
Of course, I understand your point.
the gist of what i’m hearing here is that we really, really do have class warfare in the USA. too many of the wealthy and the power brokers, the corporate and political movers and shakers, are quite willing to let the working class and the lower middle class sink deeper and deeper into barely getting by or outright poverty and starvation. the war is waged in a very subtle way sometimes, more overtly at other times. meanwhile, the democrats in congress are just fiddling while more and more Americans either fall further and further behind or give up and end up on the streets. if Lewis Black is equating Republicans and Democrats, maybe this is why he’s talking this way ……
Hi Firepups!
An interesting and sad footnote to this thread was covered in an article in the AJC Friday I think. People all over the state are having to give up their horses, either selling them cheap or giving them to animal rescue places. The cost of hay and feed has risen so sharply in the last year that many people just can’t afford to feed them. I know it doesn’t compare to human families losing jobs but is just another symptom of the negative changes and how they are affecting all aspects of our lives. One of my daughter’s “horse” friends has been rescuing horses that people are giving up and now has over 70 most of which are for sale. The article also mentioned the plight of pets that are being abandoned because people are losing their homes.
The insurance industry didn’t pay in Katrina either.
Mandatory insurance doesn’t work. Home owners are required to buy insurance.
The insurance companies are not required to pay. Even Mississippi sued
State Farm. Unfettered capitalism is not life affirming.
I get the same thing through 1199… they decide not to pay for one rip off drug and I have to switch to another one. I am taking meds I don’t even need since my blood pressure is hardly above normal. I am going to stop.
Thanks. My supplemental will pay for my drugs - at least the ones I take now. Fingers crossed. The process of getting on Medicare is far more complicated than I knew. I have to take my birth certificate (not a copy) and my marriage certificate. They don’t tell you all of this up front. It kinds dribbles out and you have to make numerous calls and visits to SS. Why make it simple for the elderly? That would be too nice. Thanks for the advice.
Maybe Bush believed the old “prime the pump” theory… The trouble is, the money that is used to prime the pump goes overseas to invest in markets with greater opportunities.
I commented on another blog the other day that this economic incentive package that is getting pushed through sounds wonderful on paper — but there will be some kind of “energy crisis” or something else that will funnel all of that money into the pockets of those who need it least. The information about the crisis began appearing yesterday with the announcement of the lack of an additive.
Most corrupt administration ever!
So, John J puts up a powerful (if appalling) personal comment @ 74, adding himself and his family ‘to the statistics’. And, you know what? There is precious little to say, except, ‘Sorry for your pain.’ Or offer what small practical advice as may be useful, as Christy has done.
But, folks, this is ‘REALITY,’ it is NOT ’statistics, it is people just like you and me.
For all our verbosity and ‘opinion’ we’ve really, very little to say.