If you want to understand where the U.S. job market is headed these days, and by extension, the direction of the entire U.S. economy, you need only look at the two top headlines on today’s New York Times website. The first reads “U.S. Economy Added 216,000 jobs in March: Rate at 8.8%”; the second reads “Many Low-Wage Jobs Seen as Failing to Meet Basic Needs.
There it is. The new economy, the two-tier economy of our once overwhelmingly middle class national lifestyle is fast evolving into a two-tier one in which for more and more of us you can work as long as you work cheap, and are diligent or cunning enough to a) get a second job or b) somehow tap into the pool of shrinking government benefits or c) become a top manager who lives really well at the expense of underlings.
There is no likelihood that this process will be turned around anytime soon. Our political system is no longer capable of doing anything but speeding up or slightly slowing this process. But…
But if you’re old enough you still have the memory of a better time in this country, a better political order, a period of years when you could still believe in the American Dream without being totally oblivious to contemporary realities. A time when (and you young folks have to believe me about this) when a political party that claimed to fight for the poor and middle class actually did so, and gave those at the bottom and middle real hope for the future.
From morning in America to mourning in America in only three decades. Interesting to watch. Not so interesting to experience.
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