September 23rd, 2010
Given these days of endless unemployment benefits for those that were lucky enough to become unemployed at the proper time for these endless benefits, I have to ask, what about those that became unemployed before the endless benefits were approved and are not privy to such benefits? Given that we seem to be emerging as a welfare state, maybe its time we bring back the soup kitchens of the 1930’s Depression to ensure the populace and their children don’t starve – regardless of whether these folks qualify for food-stamps or not. And, what of those that are unable to walk around with their hand-out for free money from the government such as with endless unemployment benefits? Soup kitchens might be the answer. Furthermore, maybe its time we begin to ‘set in for the long haul’ and address the rampant and ever-increasing levels of poverty in our nation. To ensure that people can eat, soup kitchens seem to be an idea whose time has returned.
Clearly, entire industries and segments of the economy have gone away with no return in sight. And, with as many as 75% of the workforce unemployed or under-employed, we are blessed with a government that has become so out of touch with reality that it likely relies on organizations such as the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The NBER is widely reported to have claimed the ‘recession’ has ended as of sometime last year. I mean…, this bureau – though merely a nonprofit organization - seems as useless as the Federal agency that was supposed to be controlling the off-shore drilling over the recent years – the MMS (Minerals Management Service, Dept. of Interior). (See: http://engineeringandcommerce.blogspot.com/2010/06/deepwater-horizon-bp-us-mms-agency-why.html , also See: http://www.nber.org/cycles/sept2010.html)..
I understand that much of any macro-economic condition is a likely result of perception. That is, if the banks, businesses, and general public were to believe that the economic situation was better, banks would lend money to businesses again, businesses would likely hire additional employees, and many would begin spending additional monies which would likely help to end the current recession/depression. Sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy type of thing. But I think the timing for such an orchestrated smoke-screen of deception (or tepid inspiration) by any economic reporting agency or by the Federal government has long since passed.
Of course, maybe the recession has long since ended for the wealthy that surely became smart enough to follow the lead of the Federal Reserve System and put all their money in gold – surely the wealthy and The Fed have made unimaginable profits of late with the never-ending devaluation of the U.S. Dollar. And maybe the ‘recession’ is over for the corporate leaders that refuse to hire employees and prefer to work their current employees ‘to the bone’ with massive amounts of overtime to squeeze more profits – as productivity is reported to be at an all time high! (As one example see: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/09/20/san-francisco-fed-warns-job-quashing-productivity-to-remain-hot/ . ) But those wealthy folks were likely never seriously affected by the on-going ‘recession’ like the average citizen anyhow.
But with the numbers of people living below the poverty level reported to be at an all-time high and looks to ever-increase for the near-term future, maybe its time we start to rethink everything! (See: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/us/17poverty.html, and see: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty.html . ) Soup kitchens would seem to be an idea worth considering.
Adam Trotter / AVT
