Thursday, June 24, 2010

Unemployment

Three comments in Firedoglake on the failure of the jobs bill:

As a 4 year college grad who has been unemployed for nearly a year, I guess I am a dead man now. I have been without benefits for 2 weeks and even though I finally have a good job prospect coming up, the job is not starting until the end of next month. So what do I do until then? How do I pay bills, put gas in the car and oh yeah…eat?? These are the people in power? Those who would take away from the “have nots” Who should I be more angry at…The President, the Congress, this country??
*
I’ve been unemployed for about 18 months. I had an interview yesterday but that job is almost certain to go to a younger candidate. I’m 50 and have been working since I was 15. I have never seen a job market this bad or a Congress this ineffective. I quit. Screw it. They aren’t going to change anything and I can no longer devote any energy to advocating for it as I’ll need to use that just to survive.
*
The unemployment rate in my county is 14.1%. I haven’t worked in over two years; my son in a year and a half. I’m trying to help him out as much as I can but I can’t keep two households going. He will soon have to move back home.

I hope they all die in their fucking sleep tonight.

The thing to remember is, this is completely unnecessary. Per economists like Paul Krugman, the US has the resources to fund unemployment and another stimulus package. We could bale out the states, rebuild the infrastructure, convert the economy to clean energy, create a modern mass transit system, make sure everyone has food, clothing, shelter and medical care... Also per Krugman, if the government does not spend money, the country will sink back into depression.

1 Comments:

Blogger Lamont Cranston said...

What public transportation the USA does have, the rolling stock is imported.
The Lightrail Vehicles that will operate on the new Washington DC Streetcar? Manufactured by Skoda in the Czech Republic.

6:50 PM  

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