A Recession Perspective

Two years into the great recession and there's no end in sight for millions of Americans. Just weeks before Christmas, two million Americans will lose the unemployment benefits they've relied upon for as long as 99 weeks. They will be joined by millions more in the months ahead.
In Washington, the Congress has decided that the federal government cannot afford to provide additional assistance to millions of unemployed Americans. The same Congress appears ready and eager to approve continuing tax breaks for the nation's wealthiest taxpayers.
The same government that can find billions to bailout Wall Street and General Motors; the one that spends millions a day waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan, can't find any additional money for the unemployed. The very same people who point to the federal deficit and insist we can't afford extending unemployment would have the government borrow additional billions to fund tax breaks for the very wealthiest taxpayers.

Government statistics say the unemployment rate is around ten percent, but such figures don't count discouraged unemployed workers who have given up looking for work. They also don't take into account millions more under-employed workers, people like myself. These folks are working in part-time jobs, sometimes two or three part-time jobs, because they can't find full-time work.

Opponents of extending unemployment benefits only encourage the jobless to remain jobless, rejecting low-wage work in favor of a government check. This is a ridiculous argument. In most states, the unemployment benefit tops out at around $300. While there are certainly a handful of folks who would rather collect a check than work, I don't think most Americans would reject a job with decent wages and benefits in favor of a government check. No one is "living large" on $300 a week.

As a child of the 50s, I grew up hearing about the Great Depression. It was still recent history then and its affects on people who lived through it still lingered. My dad told stories of homeless men who'd show up at his home in Astoria, NY looking to do work in exchange for a meal.

As an adult, I studied that period in our history. I loved "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" by James Agee and "The Grapes of Wrath." I thought that the 30s would have been an interesting time in which to live. And to this day, I believe that Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents.

I don't believe that the Great Recession aka the Bush Recession has produced the same results as the crash of 1929. At least not yet, I don't believe that the suffering is nearly as widespread. Watching the Black Friday crowds that jammed our malls here in Memphis, I had to wonder if perhaps the recession ended and I wasn't notified. In a time when many of their neighbors are struggling just to keep their homes and feed their families, thousands of shoppers filled the parking lot as early as 5 am. A drive down to Tunica will find the casino parking lots filled every weekend. While the recession has brought misery to millions, there are millions more who have survived unscathed.
I suppose that is why extending unemployment benefits is proving to be a tough sell in Washington. The politicians react to their most vocal constituents and apparently it is the wealthy who are making the most noise. It is a truly sad commentary on this country.

I think it's time for the middle class to stand up and make their voices heard. It is time to send notice to Washington that class warfare as waged by conservative Republicans will only further divide the nation at a time when we need to come together. Perhaps 2011 is the year when the working class takes to its feet and hits the street to demand affordable health care, unemployment benefits for the jobless and better schools for our children. Demand an end to war in Iraq and Afghanistan and punishment for the thieves on Wall Street who plundered the treasury and nearly destroyed the American economy.
Perhaps there still aren't enough Americans suffering. Perhaps things will have to become much worse before the middle class is stirred to stand up against an unjust government controlled by corporate titans and their lobbyists. If and when the working people of this country decide to take back their country, there will be blood on the streets in Washington and lower Manhattan.