At least soldiers have people advocating for them. What about the rest of the casualties of the economic warfare that the majority of the American people are losing? The number of people doing without health care is staggering - and growing.
While the well-connected continue to suckle on the public teat, more than 10,000 of New Hampshire's 39,290 citizens seeking employment showed up to claim 1,500 full- and part-time jobs offered by 150 companies at a job fair held at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester. This in a state whose most recent figures showed only 5.3 percent unemployment in February. That so many showed up shows the desperation upon the workers of our land. Many job seekers have been denied unemployment benefits. According to government numbers, out of 13.2 million people unemployed in March, maybe 5.8 million were collecting unemployment benefits at the end of the month - less than half.
There's Still More!
For those who have nowhere else to turn, strapped states are cutting back on assistance for the elderly despite clear indications that such neglect will only cost more in the long run. Are we to throw the old folks over the rail to continue to feed the already-sated economic sharks who caused this crisis with their irresponsible gambling with our pensions? Since it becomes more clear by the day that we can't trust the regulators, we might as well fire the whole lot and take up meeting the needs of our society ourselves. With the money we save not paying for poor governance, we could fund many things We, the People find necessary but are denied.
We need not be concerned with those we send packing, for they will quickly find other things - like certain serious societal problems - to keep themselves amused.
Article comments
1 - roger nowosielski
A very touching article, Realist. These are the hidden, rarely talked about casualties of the present crisis, and their numbers are certainly growing. There used to be a saying that only one or two paychecks stand in the way of the person from becoming homeless; by today's standards that would be considered a luxury. And part of the problem here is, the homeless have become invisible in our society, like an outcast, a minor inconvenience or a nuisance only only looks past - nor real human beings. And it's so easy to explain it away by referring to their drug-problem, which is to say, they brought in on themselves.
I've lived in the Bay Area for the past thirty years, the first ten years in San Francisco until the Loma Prieta. Then I forced to move to Oakland. A few times I was down and out and was forced to live in residential hotels, month to month; and they make you move out before thirty days expire less you gain residential status. And a few of those times I stayed in the SF residential hotels. I wouldn't live there any longer even if I had the money - so depressing it had become. The homeless live from day to day, blank expression on their face, like walking zombies. And we've all learn to accept it.
Gavin Newsom has been doing some things, like turning these residential hotels to the city's administration; and if you're on a general assistance or some kind of disability, you stand a chance to get in. But it's a slow and arduous process to accommodate the growing armies of the homeless. And SF is an exception.
You may have just given my an incentive to write a piece of this very topic. Take care, buddy.
2 - roger nowosielski
Your last link is an eye-opener, BTW:
"Sarah Palin's pick for Alaska's Attorney General: 'If a guy can’t rape his wife…who’s he gonna rape?'"
This should convince almost anyone about the integrity of Ms Palin. She indeed is and ought to remain a fair game.