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Mass unemployment and capitalism
The right to employment is the most basic of all. Without a steady, good-paying job, it is impossible to satisfy all other needs. The loss of a job means the loss of self-esteem and social connection, immense psychological distress, along with the elimination of health care coverage, the destruction of life savings, and vulnerability to poverty and homelessness for oneself and one’s family.
Millions of Americans confront this desperate situation. What was once considered unacceptable in the US is now proclaimed the “new normal.” The official unemployment rate is close to 10 percent, while real unemployment is much higher. Half of the jobless have been without work for more than 27 weeks, and the average length of unemployment is nine months—a level of long-term unemployment unseen since the Great Depression. Some 26 million people are unemployed or underemployed. In some states, official unemployment is over 14 percent, while real unemployment in urban centers can approach 50 percent.
Against mass unemployment, layoffs and workplace shutdowns, the working class must defend unconditionally the right to a job. Every worker who is laid off and all those entering the workforce must be guaranteed paid job training and employment.
Related Articles:
The two Americas
Written by Tom Eley on April 6, 2011“It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times.” Charles Dickens’ famous opening line to his fictional treatment of the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities, applies with equal force to contemporary America. A number of recent reports document how a tiny layer of the US population has monopolized society’s wealth to a degree that would have made the courtiers at Versailles blush.
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TwitterThe corporate looting of America
Written by Barry Grey on April 4, 2011Ford CEO Alan Mulally received a pay package worth $26.52 million in 2010, a 48 percent raise from the previous year, according to a Friday filing by the US auto company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This is in addition to a stock bonus of $56.6 million the chief executive was awarded in March, bringing his total take for the year to more than $83 million.
Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. also received a hefty raise to $26.46 million on top of a stock award of $42.2 million, for a total of nearly $69 million.
Poverty, homelessness climb among US schoolchildren
Written by Debra Watson on March 30, 2011In the two years since the onset of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008, the number of children living in poverty increased from 14 million to 16 million, the US Census Bureau reports. The US government estimates that 25 percent of children in America will soon be living in poverty.
2010 sets US home foreclosure record
Written by Andre Damon on January 14, 2011US home foreclosures hit a new record in 2010, as millions of families faced a disastrous combination of joblessness, falling wages, and plunging home values. The latest foreclosure figures, released Thursday by Realtytrac.com, come amidst a bout of negative economic statistics that underscore the depth of the social crisis.
Approximately 2.8 million properties had foreclosure actions taken against them in 2010, about 1 in 45 US households in all and an increase of 2 percent over 2009. The number of properties repossessed by banks jumped 14 percent, to over one million.
Christmas in America
Written by Jerry White on December 24, 2010Christmas in America this year reveals two starkly different social realities.
Three years since the onset of the recession in December 2007, the majority of the US population is facing staggering levels of unemployment, home foreclosures, hunger and poverty. For millions of working-class families, buying gifts this year required scraping together scarce dollars, borrowing from friends and relatives or adding more debt to their already overloaded credit cards.
One third of working families in US struggling to meet basic needs
Written by Jerry White on December 22, 2010Nearly one in three working families in the United States are struggling to meet their most basic needs, according to a new analysis of US Census data by the Working Poor Families Project. Between 2007 and 2009, the share of working families that were low-income—earning less than 200 percent of the official threshold—increased from 28 percent to 30 percent.
US Congress slams door on the unemployed
Written by Tom Eley on December 2, 2010On Wednesday, 800,000 unemployed US workers woke up in the morning having lost for most what is their only source of income—jobless benefit checks that average about $300 per week. By Christmas, another 1.2 million workers will follow them into the cashless economy, where they will join the far larger number of jobless workers who receive no benefits at all. Millions more will follow next year.
