The Ronald Reagan crowd loved to talk about morning in America. For millions of individuals and families, perhaps the majority, it’s more like twilight — with nighttime coming on fast. Look out the window. More and more Americans are being left behind in an economy that is being divided ever more starkly between the haves and the have-nots. Not only are millions of people jobless and millions more underemployed, but more and more of the so-called fringe benefits and public services that help make life livable, or even bearable, in a modern society are being put to the torch. Employer-based pensions, paid vacations, health benefits and the like are going the way of phone booths and VCRs. As poverty increases and reliable employment becomes less and less the norm, the dwindling number of workers with any sort of job security or guaranteed pensions (think teachers and other modestly compensated public employees) are being viewed with increasing contempt. How dare they enjoy a modicum of economic comfort? It turns out that a lot of those jobs were never so secure, after all. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities tells us: “At least 44 states and the District of Columbia have reduced overall wages paid to state workers by laying off workers, requiring them to take unpaid leave (furloughs), freezing hew hires, or similar actions. State and local governments have eliminated 407,000 jobs since August 2008, federal data show.” We have not faced up to the scale of the economic crisis that still confronts the United States. Standards of living for the people on the wrong side of the economic divide are being ratcheted lower and will remain that way for many years to come. Forget the fairy tales being spun by politicians in both parties — that somehow they can impose service cuts that are drastic enough to bring federal and local budgets into balance while at the same time developing economic growth strong enough to support a robust middle class. It would take a Bernie Madoff to do that. In the real world, schools and libraries are being closed and other educational services are being curtailed. Police officers are being fired. Access to health services for poor families is being restricted. “At least 29 states and the District of Columbia,” according to the budget center, “are cutting medical, rehabilitative, home care, or other services needed by low-income people who are elderly or have disabilities, or are significantly increasing the cost of these services.” For a variety of reasons, there are not enough tax revenues being generated to pay for the basic public services that one would expect in an advanced country like the United States. The rich are not shouldering their fair share of the tax burden. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue to consume an insane amount of revenue. And there are not enough jobs available at decent enough pay to ease some of the demand for public services while at the same time increasing the amount of taxes paid by ordinary workers. The U.S. cannot cut its way out of this crisis. Instead of trying to figure out how to keep 4-year-olds out of pre-kindergarten classes, or how to withhold life-saving treatments from Medicaid recipients, or how to cheat the elderly out of their Social Security, the nation’s leaders should be trying seriously to figure out what to do about the future of the American work force. Enormous numbers of workers are in grave danger of being left behind permanently. Businesses have figured out how to prosper without putting the unemployed back to work in jobs that pay well and offer decent benefits. Corporate profits and the stock markets are way up. Businesses are sitting atop mountains of cash. Put people back to work? Forget about it. Has anyone bothered to notice that much of those profits are the result of aggressive payroll-cutting — companies making do with fewer, less well-paid and harder-working employees? For American corporations, the action is increasingly elsewhere. Their interests are not the same as those of workers, or the country as a whole. As Harold Meyerson put it in The American Prospect: “Our corporations don’t need us anymore. Half their revenues come from abroad. Their products, increasingly, come from abroad as well.” American workers are in a world of hurt. Anyone who thinks that politicians can improve this sorry state of affairs by hacking away at Social Security, Medicare and the public schools are great candidates for involuntary commitment. New ideas on a grand scale are needed. The United States can’t thrive with so many of its citizens condemned to shrunken standards of living because they can’t find adequate employment. Long-term joblessness is a recipe for societal destabilization. It should not be tolerated in a country with as much wealth as the United States. It’s destructive, and it’s wrong.
You can always count on objectivity from an article that starts with "the <insert soandso here> crowd." Bull****. The country is divided between the responsible and the irresponsible, and unfortunately the latter greatly outnumber the former.
Pretty par for the course for the NYT. Lots of bitching and whining, no actual ideas, plans, or solutions.
You are correct. The op-ed piece doesn't describe any changes as much as it forecasts a revolution. You have to admit, real class warfare would be fun to watch.
I wish I could agree with you but I simply cannot. Have you seen the qualified competition for open spots? I think we are far beyond bootstraps at this point. I'm not so simple minded as to blame it on one president, party or policy, but history is an indicator of what happens when the population splits too widely, it's generally unfavorable, regardless of what the root cause was.
Is it full of illegal aliens that shouldn't be here, foreign workers we don't need but keep letting in, or affirmative action cases? Or maybe it's a trick question, cause there aren't any open spots (unless you work in Government anyhow).
Tuba, do you remember who let the first 3 million illegals in the country, and why he did it? Yes, there are many open spots that would be available in roofing, landscaping, construction, etc. The pay is minimum wage. There are no benefits. There is no paid vacation, no sick leave, etc. But, it is work and there are openings. Ending illegal employment is easy. When an owner of a company is caught with illegal workers, fine them $100K per illegal and give them 1 year in federal prison. I am not talking about a manager or assistant manager. I am talking about the CEO and/or President. Put the white collar fellows in the pen, and illegal employment will come to an end.
The article only addresses one side of the equation. Just as you can't cut your way out of the economic mess we're in, you can't tax and spend your way out either. The government leaders need to step up and make some hard choices as do the American people. Self discipline and personal accountability need to move front and center.
While president, Ronald Reagan proposed and signed into law a "Deficit Reduction Tax." Is this type of tax in order today?
Why do you try to make everything partisan or political? I just stated that there are jobs out there, and what kind of jobs there are.
This article is spot on. It is horrible out there right now. I attend one of the nations elite law schools and about 50% of my class has been unable to obtain employment. One of my friends in the law school runs a telecommunications business in New York City. He advertised a position for a secratary, and received 400 applications in the first day, many of whom from people with professional degrees. It's not about responsibility or irresponsibility.
The bad news for you is that there are too damn many lawyers. Law schools are going to have to wise up and reduce the amount of students they have in each class.
This oughta tell you that there's WAY too many lawyers out there. There's no shortage of work for folks in the health care industry.
If you aren't familiar with his schtick, let me break it down for you. Republicans: good, Democrats: bad. The end.
