The New Poor: Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs
February 22nd, 2010Economic Recovery, New York Times style: “You basically don’t want workers. You hire less, and you try to find capital equipment to replace them.”
Via: New York Times:
Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits.
Economists fear that the nascent recovery will leave more people behind than in past recessions, failing to create jobs in sufficient numbers to absorb the record-setting ranks of the long-term unemployed.
Call them the new poor: people long accustomed to the comforts of middle-class life who are now relying on public assistance for the first time in their lives — potentially for years to come.
The interviewee in the article:
“I’ve got 10 bags of pinto beans,” she says. “And I have no clue how to cook a pinto bean.”
Things are starting to get weird … like I’m living in a Neal Stephenson novel.