As the media relentlessly chants about “economic recovery”, at least one article (from the AP) notes that those “new jobs” aren’t really doing much for the lower-middle-class – people who may be doing OK on the surface, but are only a missed paycheck or two away from depending on someone else.
And it’s worth noting that every previous sharp recession – like 1982 – had a correspondingly sharp rebound; within two years of the bottom of that recession, the economy was adding 500,000 jobs a month.
The 2007 recession was, along with the Great Depression, part of a tiny, exclusive club; sharp corrections that didn’t bounce back fast – as in, almost like an inverted bell curve. And what did they have in common?
Govenment efforts to “help”.
The same people who say that the current vicious employment market is the “new normal”, and nothing can be done about it, are the same people who said that $100/bbl oil was the “new normal” and nothing could be done about it.
Intented consequences – creation of a permanent underclass of DemoncRat slaves, see Greece. It is sad to watch the birthplace of Democracy being killed by Soci@list pigs.
Good points, Mitch. One of the more frustrating aspects of discussing the Obama economy with the low information types who vote Democrat and get their news from the Democrat Party Dominated Media Culture is their willingness to believe but not think about what they are bragging about – ex: “the stock market is doing great” and then not recognize that this benefits so few people. Here’s an interesting article regarding this (hat tip to/blatantly ripped off from Prof Insta):
http://www.newgeography.com/content/004833-us-economy-needs-hardhats-not-nerds
Salient quote…
“One consistent theme of blue-state pundits, such as Richard Florida, is that blue states and cities “are pioneering the new economic order that will determine our future.” In this assessment, the red states depend on an economy based on energy extraction, agriculture and suburban sprawl. By this logic, growing food for mass market consumers, building houses for the middle class, making cars, drilling for oil and gas—all things that occur in the red state backwaters—are intrinsically less important than the ideas of nerds of Silicon Valley, the financial engineers of Wall Street, and their scattered offspring around the country.
But here’s a little problem: these industries do not provide anything like the benefits that more traditional industries—manufacturing, energy, housing—give to the middle and working classes…”
The tech industry doesn’t provide jobs for they middle and working classes, it’s automating them out of existence. Many semi-rote office jobs are being automated, and manufacturing is heading to much greater automation.
Obama has pumped money into the financial industry at the expense of the rest of the country, mostly on the advice of folks who came directly from the financial sector. It’s been an incestuous, self-serving, self-dealing relationship between ruling elites and the wealthy. So is it any wonder that stocks and the financial industry are flying high while the rest of the economy barely muddles through?
It strikes me that every once in a while, we ought to consider the premiss that the exact same dollar, going through the exact same banks, businesses, and checking accounts, will do more for the economy if it is spent by the government than if it is spent in the private sector. Logically it is nonsense, and that charitably speaking.
A second premiss we ought to consider is whether someone will spend money better if it is his own, or if it is not, and ask whether we might (Solyndra, Tesla, Spendumore plan, etc..) see some bad economic effects if we send that dollar down the low-return path.