Whatever is happening is a mix of things. Gloom does seem to have taken over
-- a general feeling that even when you really try, you're not going to get
anywhere, so why bother. Things afflicting the US economy, and parts of Canada
as well, include the growing power of the 1%, the loss of jobs because of
automation, the sending of jobs abroad where they can be done more cheaply, the
purchase of products we used to make from foreign sources, and a general
uncertainty about where things are going.
The proportion of the labour force that has stopped looking for work has grown,
as has unemployment among those who still want to work. And college degrees
don't seem to matter much anymore. The old system of middle class propriety
and sobriety is fading out, as is the middle class itself. However, something
else that isn't given much attention as yet may be happening. In his "Coming
Apart", Charles Murray refers to groups called something like "street corner
gangs" that are increasingly present in Fishtown, where his poor whites of
America live. These guys don't want steady jobs or responsibilities, but they
will take advantage of whatever may come their way -- welfare, petty crime, or
whatever -- and they are learning to stay afloat quite effectively in the
increasingly depressed economy. Yet one has to wonder what would happen if
their numbers grew. Might they move society away from it's present state of
manageable disorder and more deeply toward chaos?
Ed
----- Original Message -----
From: de Bivort Lawrence
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 12:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Gloomy America
Gloom is popular these days....
Not that there is not good reason for concern, more for some than others. It
is when gloom and pessimism become a psychological condition and displace the
natural abilities of a person or community to be proactive in resolving the
reasons for concern that gloom-as-fad becomes dangerous, and perhaps fatal to
the person or community.
I see such self-defeating levels of gloom in some people and some communities
in the US and Europe, and, to refer to some of the messages posted here, to
Canada as well.
To an interesting extent, the nature of this gloom is ironic: wealthy
societies and their members falling into gloom because their levels of wealth
have fallen, while in poorer parts of the world optimism reigns as people
experience and expect relative progress, though the level of progress they may
achieve will still be far below that thought of as the norm in the wealthy
societies.
Is there some karmic justice in this? Have the wealthy merely become spoiled,
and in their ensuing gloom they guarantee their further fall toward the global
median?
I've always credited Canada with better political discourse, cleaner and
less-selfish motives than the US, and better (foreign) policies. It saddens me
to see Canada seemingly sink into the political and psychological norms of the
US. I so much hope that I am overstating the case.
Cheers,
Lawry
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Weick
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 7:45 AM
To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION';
[email protected]
Subject: [Futurework] Gloomy America
Worth reading, but brace yourselves, it's gloomy.
Ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/us/many-american-workers-are-underemployed-and-underpaid.html?_r=1&hp
Sample:
Now, with the economy shaping up as the central issue of the presidential
election, both President Obama and Mitt Romney have been relentlessly trying to
make the case that their policies would bring prosperity back. The unease of
voters is striking: in a New York Times/CBS News poll in April, half of the
respondents said they thought the next generation of Americans would be worse
off, while only about a quarter said it would have a better future.
And household wealth is dropping. The Federal Reserve reported last week
that the economic crisis left the median American family in 2010 with no more
wealth than in the early 1990s, wiping away two decades of gains. With stocks
too risky for many small investors and savings accounts paying little interest,
building up a nest egg is a challenge even for those who can afford to sock
away some of their money.
Expenses like putting a child through college — where tuition has been
rising faster than inflation or wages — can be a daunting task. When Morgan
Woodward, 21, began her freshman year at the University of California,
Berkeley, three years ago, her parents paid about $9,000 a year in tuition and
fees. Now they pay closer to $13,000, and they are bracing for the possibility
of another jump next year. With their incomes flat, though, they recently
borrowed money to pay for her final year, and to begin paying the tuition of
their son, who plans to start college this fall.
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