Unemployment line U.S. 2010

Last week the number of people filing unemployment claims jumped by 25,000—the largest increase in three months. As I write this, news pundits are already spinning this unexpected statistic into a positive sound byte.

Here’s the schtick:

The new numbers, which will almost certainly push the ‘official’ unemployment rate to over 10%, are actually a good thing because they show that discouraged workers—those workers out of the job force for six months or more—are now out there actively looking for work instead of sitting at home eating Cherry Garcia ice cream right out of the container while weeping profusely in front of ‘Biggest Loser’ reruns.

Right. I’m sure that’s it.

If you believe that (and does anyone believe anything on the news anymore? I mean, seriously?) then you probably also believe that Rand Paul is a political genius and BP is the eco-friendly branch of Big Oil (haven’t you seen their nice commercials?)

Since the crash, the single question I’ve been asking—and that I’m still asking it because no one is answering this question—is where are the recovery jobs coming from? What are these jobs? Name them.

Tell me what they are because I want to go apply for one and get myself off the internet—where I’ve written nearly 200 articles on yeast infections over the past two years in order to grub up money to help pay the avalanche of medical bills our household is still experiencing (WITH health insurance) after a family member survived (thank God) a catastrophic illness this past year. (Inside tip: Eat more yogurt.)

Are these recovery jobs retail jobs that are coming back because ‘consumers’ are now out there spending again with their increased ‘consumer confidence’? Really? If confidence can now be used as a medium of exchange, that is good news, because most of us for damned sure don’t have any money! Forthwith I am going to start sending some confidence to the electric company every month:

Dear Electric Company,

I regret that I will not be able to comply with your last three requests for money, but I want you to know that I do have total confidence in your ability to use your individuality and ingenuity to keep that plant running without it. We are Americans after all, the best people on Earth!

Good luck and God Bless,

Pam :)

I know the nice folks at the nuclear power plant will understand, just like the lab and the hospital and the specialist all appreciated the Peeps I mailed them last month in place of real chickens, which are unfortunately not allowed in the declining suburb where my house is located.

The grim truth is that as of the beginning of the this year, the financial industry accounted for 41% of U.S. Gross Domestic Product. (Double what it was when Bill Moyers spoke with Kevin Phillips only two years ago!) Forty-one percent!

What does this statistic mean, exactly?

Banks make money through 1) investment and 2) lending. Banks are not lending. That’s right—even though we forked over $700 billion of taxpayer money no questions asked, banks still are not lending to working people or small businesses.

One out of ten homeowners are now delinquent on their mortgage payments, mostly due to unemployment or underemployment. Over one third of all mortgages are under water (Elizabeth Warren expects this could increase to 50% in the near future), and although real estate is dirt cheap now and mortgage rates are low, getting a mortgage is next to impossible.

So that leaves investment.

‘Investment’, in the current economic climate, is a euphemism for ‘gambling.’

So the 41% figure refers mostly to the 1/10th of 1% of incredibly wealthy traders who continue to enrich themselves at our expense by extracting profit without adding anything to society.

In 1950, finance accounted for 9% of GDP, and that was mostly lending. High-paying manufacturing jobs created a vibrant middle class in the U.S. and an exuberant consumer culture that peaked just before Reagan. When manufacturing left, the consumer culture floated along on credit for 30 years, while real wages declined and families got deeper and deeper in debt.

Manufacturing jobs are gone and they are not coming back. Part time retail and customer service work isn’t going to support a lot of consumerism. Yet the corporate-owned news media keep feeding us this expectation that things will get back to the way they used to be at some point in the very near future.

Henry Ford was not a very nice man by all accounts, but he did have several business insights that arguably changed America and later the world. One of those insights was that he’d sell more cars if he paid his assembly line workers enough to buy one.

America can’t be the world’s consumers if we don’t have any money or any credit. China is already scrambling to create a domestic market for their cheap crap and is actively courting India and South America so they can ship their plastic widgets THERE. What does that tell you?

Perhaps—and this is just a wild guess from an admitted amateur—perhaps more people are looking for work because more people are now in desperate financial straits and need money from somewhere, somehow, ASAP. I cautiously predict we will see more of this desperation, and even more false happy talk from our government and the press in response.

Not to worry. We can start our own businesses, pull ourself up by our bootstraps as it were. I myself am thinking of opening a coffee shop.

Just one thing:

No Libertarians Allowed.

(The competing businesses that serve Libertarians will balance it all out. Theoretically speaking, that is.)