I miss you Sam!!

I miss you Sam!!
I miss you Sam!!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

America –Land of the Shortsighted

The catastrophic job losses of this recession – the worst since the Great Depression just haven’t sunk into the public’s consciousness and one can’t help but wonder just what it’s going to take to wake this country up. Bob Herbert had a great Op-Ed column in the NYT yesterday regarding this and according to him the ground has not been prepared for the kind of high-powered remedies needed to get the economy back into some kind of reasonable shape.

More and more homeowners, who once had solid credit, are falling seriously behind on their mortgages, thus amplifying the foreclosure crisis.

The Center for Labor Market Studies has compiled data showing that the recession’s effects have been “disastrous beyond belief” for some groups, including young men, men without college degrees and black men. These job losses among young workers have ominous long-term implications for American families and the economy as a whole.
But there was a development in Congress last week that should have been seen as significant, but as usual, the media is still obsessed with Limbaugh, Cheney and swine flu. Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut, introduced a bill to establish a national infrastructure development bank that would use public and private capital to fund projects of regional and national significance – projects that are badly needed and would be a boon to employment.

We have become self-destructively shortsighted in recent decades and that has kept us from acknowledging the awful consequences of joblessness that has swept the nation since the beginning of the recession in December of 2007. This is keeping us from understanding how important the maintenance and development of the infrastructure is to the nation’s long term social and economic prospects. We’ve been told over and over by many that the infrastructure in our country is seriously damaged, but it just doesn’t seem to be making enough of an impression for us to seriously look at making the changes we need.

And, as Herbert says, it’s not just about roads and bridges, although they are important. It’s also about schools and the electrical grid and environmental and technological innovation. It’s about establishing a world-class industrial and economic platform for a nation that is speeding toward second-class status on a range of important fronts.

It’s about whether we’re serious about remaining a great nation. We don’t act like it. Herbert quotes a staggering statistic: According to the Education Trust, the US is the only industrialized country in which young people are less likely than their parents to graduate from high school.

We can’t put our people to work. We can’t educate the young. We can’t keep the infrastructure in good repair. It’s hard to believe that this nation could be so dysfunctional at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. And it’s tragic!

We’ve already lost nearly 5.7 million jobs in this recession and those losses have been overwhelmingly concentrated among male workers, especially among men under 35.

Herbert says, and I couldn’t agree more, that If the US is to have any hope of getting its economic act together over the next few years, there will have to be a much greater focus on putting people back to work. Rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure is the place to start.

9 comments:

Deborah Godin said...

It just bugs me that the infrastructure was let go this long, til it got this bad in so many places! You can't let that happen to a country any more than you can to your house! Preventative money spent and spread out over decades would have been the way to go...it's to stupid!

bobbie said...

I second that, Deborah. I see it in the overall picture, and I see it in my own neighborhood, among my friends and acquaintances. Otherwise intelligent people seem oblivious to the need around them. "They" should be doing this or that, but "we"? - oh no, "we" can't change our habits or way of thinking.

Peggy said...

Great points Sylvia...I so agree with these issues that you brought up. Our infrastructure has needed help for decades....we need the private money too now more then any other time now to rebuild.

underOvr (aka The U) said...

Hi Sylvia,

One action which continues to undermine employment in this country is the practice of outsourcing jobs to cheap labor in foreign countries. It is a practice used in both the IT medical profession.

It provides a significant reduction in a company's labor costs. Corporations seem oblivious to the fact that as more and more Americans become unemployed, sales from their products or services will correspondingly shrink.

Layoffs of American labor will translate into fewer:
1. Cars being sold
2. Homes bought
3. Vacations taken
4. People who commute
5. People who dine out

I just realized this reads more like a blog post than a comment. This subject stimulated my thoughts; apologies for being so wordy.

U

Darlene said...

I read Bob Herbert's op-ed piece and I want to thank you for writing your post on this.

Unless the unemployment situation has hit you or someone you know you can't begin to realize what a disaster this is. If it isn't solved soon the Great Depression may pale by comparison.

Q said...

Shortsighted is right!
Very sad too.
A sustainable economy is what I am hoping for.
Sherry

Margie's Musings said...

When Clinton left the presidency, there was enough money in the surplus to resurface every federal highway in the country with money left over for other infrastructure. Bush spent that and billions more on his war.

EG CameraGirl said...

Not just the U.S. was short-sighted, I'm afraid. Interesting post, Sylvia.

Inday said...

I guess when you are rich, or well off or one living with too much; you tend to take things for granted...ditto with a country. Before long, a dream turns into a nightmare and like the five virgins who were stubborn to fill their lamps with oil in preparation to the arrival of the groom, they missed out, and that exactly what is happening among rich nations.

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What Can I Say?
I'm interested in almost everything. Use to like to travel, but it's too expensive now. I take Tai Chi classes, swim, volunteer in a Jump-start program for pre-schoolers. I'm an avid reader and like nearly everyone these days I follow politics avidly. I'm a former teacher and Special Projects Coordinator for a Telecommunications company, Assistant to the President of a Japanese silicon wafer manufacturing company. Am now enjoying retirement -- most of the time. I have two daughters, one son-in-law and two sons scattered all over the country. No grandchildren.

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