"The Art of Survival" in economic bad times, Jeff Largcoon for Insights on PBS Hawaii.org
Depression? Recession? Stagnation? What difference does it make what you call it, when the economy is hurting workers more than anyone else, when more than 15 million Americans are unemployed or have given up looking for work, when new jobs are not being created, companies are not hiring, and don’t have to, and there is little hope on the horizon. Call it what you like. It’s all the same to those most affected: working people, the middle class, the elderly, women and children, homeowners, the most vulnerable. And there’s no end in sight. Just more haggling about the definition of this bad economy, like philosophers in the Middle Ages debating how many angels were on the head of a pin.
Now Republicans are calling for huge cuts, but won’t tax the super rich, won’t listen to the likes of Warren Buffet, refuse to provide stimulus to boost opportunities for the average middle-class American and the working poor. Look at the growing and huge number of workers who have to be on food stamps in order to survive (Kristina Cooke, "Food Stamp Nation," http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/22/us-usa-poverty-foodstamps-idUSTRE77L45Z20110822).
The rich get richer, the working poor poorer. There's no sense of "the common good," economic justice, or "the greatest good for the greatest number," at least among those extreme Republicans who have held us hostage over economic issues. Paul Krugman calls them "America's #1 political problem now." Call it what you will, the economy sucks, and it is hurting ordinary, hardworking Americans most of all.
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