From AOL NEWS:
The nation’s epidemic unemployment knocked nearly 4 million more Americans into poverty last year, swelling the ranks of the poor to the largest number in at least half a century.
And if the depth of the pain wrought by the financial crisis is already familiar, what’s emerging is a new picture of how that pain has undermined the economic recovery and complicated government efforts to get the country back on track.
The Census Bureau today said the poverty rate climbed to 14.3 percent, or roughly one in seven people living in the U.S., from 13.2 percent in 2008. That’s the highest poverty rate since 1994. Moreover, the official poverty threshold — annual income of $10,956 for an individual or $21,954 for a family of four in 2009 — is cleared by many Americans who barely eke out enough to support their families. Among other findings, the Census reported a significant increase in the tally of Americans who have no health insurance…
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I read a comment on this disheartening news item in another publication which simply said “Mission accomplished!” It is impossible to tell if the remark was meant to be serious or a joke or a combination of both, as in, satire. All are possibilities. Adding 4 million to the unemployment ranks does significantly increase the pool of labor and thus becomes a factor in lowering wages, wages already lowered in the past couple of years. Higher unemployment tends to keep working people on the job, working longer and harder and being more passive in their wage demands. It drives another nail in the coffin of the labor unions. With less money in circulation the value of money increases for those who have it and it keeps inflation at bay for the holders of debt. The prison of indebtedness closes in even more on both the poor and the middle class.
Money moves around the world without barriers and so do those who have it. It, and they, are not bound to the neighborhood or to the country.
So, “Mission accomplished”? You tell me your answer and I will tell you who you are and how much money you probably have, or who it is you have chosen to serve or are being paid to serve. A ditch digger, afraid for his job, may well choose to defend the hand that feeds him and his family. Slavery we may discover, is very much alive and well. Unemployment serves a purpose. It is the “invisible hand” of the tyrants among us.