Things are looking grim for the U.S. economy these days, the politicians and the MSM pundits tell us.
I'm glad they finally noticed. The fact is, tens of millions of Americans have already been living through increasingly lean times over the past decade.
It took a stock market crisis for the Wall Street crowd to finally notice that the nation's economy is going down the tubes.
But that's hardly news for millions of average American workers, who've seen their incomes stagnate since 1980.
For years, the pundits and the politicians celebrated "strong" economic growth when the rest of us were wondering what they were talking about. The pundits also cheered America's low jobless rate. But the rest of us knew it was all a sham, in an era when millions of jobs pay such low wages that nobody could possibly live on them.
Hard economic times are nothing new for the tens of millions of Americans who already work two or three jobs, just to make ends meet. Or the nearly 50 million Americans who can't afford health insurance. Or the 2 million Americans who are about to lose their homes in the mortgage crisis.
I once had a friend from Europe who came to visit me in New York City. He told me that the American economy was widely celebrated then in Europe and that many Europeans marveled at America's entrepreneurial spirit and low unemployment rate.
I explained to my European friend that although America's economy was then in the midst of what the pundits called "prosperity" and was enjoying a stock market boom, the reality was that millions of Americans were left out in the cold and were still struggling.
At the time, my friend and I were in a bustling, prosperous part of Manhattan. Looking around, it appeared that the nation was indeed economically prosperous. I then took my friend on a short tour through surrounding areas, including Harlem, Brooklyn, and Newark. My friend was astonished at the stark difference between the prosperity he'd just seen in Manhattan and the horrible, Third World-like poverty that was only a short distance away.
This episode reminds me of what is going on today. The pundits and politicians are finally starting to wake up to something that's been obvious to millions of us for years. The American economy is in the toilet.
Sure, a tiny elite wealthy class has been enjoying strong stock market gains for years. Now, they're going to have to share some of the pain, like the rest of us.
In fact, in looking at the economic hard times ahead, I think there's actually a silver lining to all of this. That is: an economically distressed America will finally be forced to end its illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq.
The creator of the progressive site, BeggarsCanBeChoosers.com, Marc McDonald is an award-winning journalist who worked for 15 years for several Texas newspapers, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, before he quit his day job and set up shop in cyberspace in 1995. McDonald's articles have appeared in a number of popular progressive Web sites, including OpEdNews.com, BuzzFlash.com, Crooks and Liars, Salon.com, Progressive Daily Beacon, The Neil Rogers Show and The Raw Story. McDonald's Web articles have also been featured and reviewed by various national and international media, including CNN Headline News, the BBC, the Washington Post, USA Today and many more.
Good concise article. The news and politicians know about the poverty in the U.S., it would simply be inconvienient to address it.
The world can no longer support America's average living standard. Why do our wages not increase? Chinese assembly plant worker $30 cents per hour, 10 hour day. Detroit auto worker, $78.00 per hour (loaded rate) 8 hours per day.
With WTO and NAFTA rules in play, Middle Americans have no hope of returing to past granduer. Pandora's box has been opened and there is no going back.
You talked about your European friend; Americans spend 77% more money in their lifetime than a typical European. The U.S. uses nearly 10 times per capita, what the remainder of the people on this planet consume.
The world can no longer afford the average American lifestlyle. If China, India and Korea are any example, it seems that they may now want their share of the loot.
by
Mike Folkerth (120 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 566 comments)
on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 8:09:29 AM
I know a lot of people and not one of them makes $78 per hour. One friend is freezing in an old store front and barely able to pay for rent, utilities and food. Another is near retirement age and can barely make the mortgage payments on her little house that has no bathroom sink and a stove on which only one burner works. Several of my relatives are on the ropes from huge property tax increases due to the housing bubble. Even the more prosperous of my friends don't have that "average American lifestyle" you mention and are scared to death of what is going to happen to them when theyare old like me and can't work like maniacs anymore. The average "American" lifestyle is a myth created to spread the guilt of the filthy rich around to the rest of us.
by
memary (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 70 comments)
on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 9:54:51 PM
Go down to the local mall or high school parking lot and take a look around. Look at the autos, the merchandise selling in the stores, the kids with i-Pods and cell phones, the crowds at the restaurants, the full football stadiums...no, it's not a mirage orchestrated by the rich, it's America.
Your personal situation and that of your family and friends sounds dismal, but take a look around. Americans consume 10 times the average of the world population and it's time to pay the fiddler.
by
Mike Folkerth (120 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 566 comments)
on Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 10:49:44 AM
Thanks for your comment and kind words. I would like to respond to one point you made in your previous comment:
>>>no, it's not a mirage orchestrated by the rich, it's America.
It may not be a "mirage orchestrated by the rich," but it IS a mirage that is the result of trillions of dollars in foreign capital flowing into our nation and creating an illusion of prosperity.
In reality, America is a bankrupt nation. All this "consumption" we're doing is paid for by the central banks of China and Japan, among other capital surplus nations.
It's an unsustainable system and it's bound to come all crashes down to pieces, when the East Asians get tired of propping up our dollar and our economy. I look for this to happen within the next decade---and when it does, the dollar will crash and America's resign as a superpower will be over.
by
Marc McDonald (50 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments)
on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 8:57:47 PM
4 comments
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