The really sad thing about economic recoveries that few "experts' ever mention

[SoCalDem]

Layoffs for a month or two will wipe out most families, and when and if the wage earners are put back to work, they are playing catch-up for a very long time. Some will NEVER truly rebound.

Think of a family with a house and a few teens. If they are out of work long enough, they may end up losing their house. For many formerly middle class people, that home represented their security...for now and for their future.

Home equity was often a way they helped finance their kids' educations, or their own retirement, since many (most?) no longer have pensions to count on.

Once that house is lost, it takes a LONG time to save up (or repair credit) enough to ever buy again (for many of them).

Savings get gobbled up with daily living expenses, so there's no extra for any emergency.

Jobs offered to long-time laid off people are often backtrack jobs. A person who had worked their way up to a certain level, and then was jettisoned, will have a very hard time ever getting back to that place they used to be.

Replacement jobs, are often lower paid and come with few if any benefits.

Children of these parents often drop out of college or never even go, and they too fall into the "any-job-for-any-pay-anywhere" trap.

Many think it will just be for a little while, and then they'll get back on track, but once you step off the path, it's very easy to just never get back on.

Every bad recession has a ratcheting-back effect, and every time one "ends" people are scrambling just to try & regain what they had...never mind trying to actually improve.

For those of us who have been through 6 or 7 of these "modern" recessions, we know the drill, but many younger folks are just now learning about it first hand..

The only ones who truly bounce back, are the business owners & corporate finaglers, since they have their hands on the tiller...they steer the ship...the rest of us are below-decks, trying to figure out a way to get out of the hold..

[lunatica]

1. And there's a point of no return in the mix

When you're in your 50s and 60s or older you don't have the time left for a do over.

It has a name. It's the cycle of poverty. It's where most of the world's poor are stuck. Some of us are and will be joining them no matter how hard we try or work or sacrifice. And we'll be blamed for it.

[zipplewrath]

4. Yup just entering my '50s

I've been dreading this fiscal hell for a few years now. Any major distruption in the money department and I could be screwed for a couple of decades. Getting too old to find new work at this level. Too young to lock in any pensions. This last down turn pretty much extended my working years by at least 3, maybe 5, years and that's if there are no more major collapses. And a major illness could be a major disaster.

[SoCalDem]

7. I just turned 61 last Friday, & I never thought I would be wishing to be a year older

but I wish it was my 62nd birthday, so I could start collecting SS..

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. Communities should help each other in these times

it would appear that it is every man (or woman) for himself (herself). Community associations could at least know of the people who have their homes and jobs and try to help them out.

[ipaint]

3. This is my seventh and this one got me.

Exactly how many times does one need to "recover" only to have them steal it all away again. At some point you have to come to the logical conclusion that the system works as it was planned to. Funnel all wealth to the top.

[glitch]

14. This last one was the most blatant.

I thought it was the sacking before the looters left town but they're still here.

[Lyric]

5. It's not enough for the wealthy to rob us of the products of our labor anymore.

Now they have to try and suck the marrow out by robbing us of what little compensation we received for said labor, too. Jesus.

The Teabaggers have it all wrong. The government is not the problem. The WEALTHY are the problem. Eugene Debs knew this 100 years ago. It's a shame that the populist movements of today don't have a leader like Debs.

[HughBeaumont]

10. As long as they cling to the belief that they too will be wealthy someday, they'll never change.

Horatio Alger is a hell of a drug.

[raccoon]

6. Rec'd. Let's get this on Greatest! Every WORD of your post rings true. nt

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. Everything you say is true, yes; however, outliers do not deny the general trends.

And most of the economists are talking about the overall economy itself, not individual people.

[MadHound]

9. Great post, one thing I would like to add

That is an economic recovery is never evenly distributed. While the overall economy may be climbing, there are often large pockets of the country that never truly recover, or if they do recover it is a long, slow process.

I live in the Midwest, and we're always one of the last to feel the effects of an economic recovery. Generally this comes just a year or three before the next bust sends us all into the crapper again. I've watched this cycle here for the past thirty years, and it has devastated entire populations.

[Lyric]

12. I dunno, MadHound. I think Appalachia might just give the Midwest a run for its money.

*sigh*

:(

[SoCalDem]

13. Appalachia has always made me sad.. It's such a beautiful place

but the poverty never seems to end:cry:

[lapislzi]

11. Throw in a divorce or an illness...

and you're looking at a death spiral.

It's a wonder anyone can sleep at night. I'm an auto accident away from debtors' prison.

[The2ndWheel]

15. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation"

[Newest Reality]

16. Yup

Imagine being in your mid-fifties and having to avoid thinking about the future at all. Imagine having no: job, pension, property, savings, Social Security to look forward to, spouse, family, etc., has to take it day-by-day. All your friends are either dead or have moved away.

Contemplating that in solitude leaves one devastated and layers of what you thought you were and what life is peel away like rotten layers of an onion. The options are few and the road sign says: Dead End Ahead.

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. ..

:hug:

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

17. I largely agree, but why gin up anti-intellectualism?

The "experts" on economic recoveries are not a particularly cruel lot and expertise is not the problem.

Politicians and media mouth-pieces are not "experts" on economic recoveries. Neither are the people who shill for the stock market on TV. And a lot of experts in government have to mold their expert opinion to political realities that steer us in precisely the wrong direction.

Several notable "experts" have been among the most effective voices saying that protracted high unemployment is not acceptable while a lot of politicians (who are supposed to be more connected to the people) bloviate about the deficit.

You are correct to note a national cluelessness about the real and long-lasting effects of this economy on real people.

But that cluelessness is not a top-down thing coming from an expert class.

Experts have surprisingly little power in our system, so I would say: The really sad thing about economic recoveries that the powerful seldom mention

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. Thank you for that post - the anti-intellectualism is problematic to me as well.

The problem isn't with "experts" - the problem is with the liars and the uncompassionate and the criminal.

As you say, many people with expertise know precisely what's happening - and many tried to warn the politicians and the banks before the economy went to shit, and have been trying to get them to do the right thing since the economy went to shit, and continue to do so. But the words fall on deaf ears.

I'd rather have more experts in charge than fewer; and more experts than bloviating political dipshits who don't give a rat's ass for the people they're supposed to be serving.

[proudohioan]

20. K&R!!!! Every word is so (sadly) true......

I am almost 50, unemployed and have little hope of finding any kind of "real" employment again.

The last "real" job I had was in August of 2005, and BOY how quickly I discovered how rotten the economy was even back then! I have gone from earning almost $40K per year to living at or below the poverty level, working shit jobs that I ended up having to take (I'm a single mom, you see) until "something better" came along, which of course has never materialized since the economy has worsened.

Another poster said that this was the new cycle of poverty; so true! I am almost ashamed to say that I am the first in my family to receive Food Stamps (SNAP) and Medicaid. My formerly good credit is shot to hell, and but for the grace of God (and my best friend), I am not homeless, but I don't think that I will ever TRULY recover from the past four years; not this time. I am facing the cold, harsh reality that I may never be self-sufficient again, or at least until the youngest of my three kids is out of the house and I would have the option of renting a studio apartment.

Thank you for posting!!!! This needs to make it to greatest threads!

T.