Friday, April 24, 2009
Our plunge into national poverty
Der Spiegel is running a story about how dire things are in the United States -- "Soup Kitchens and Tent Cities: Crisis Plunges US Middle Class Into Poverty." No excerpt can really capture the tone of the thing -- which seems a lot like schadenfreude to me -- so click through if you are interested. There is an audience in Europe for American failure, no doubt about it.
There is no question that the economic downturn is extremely tough on some people, those who have lost their jobs or their houses or have struggled to keep businesses alive. On the one hand. On the other hand, it does not yet seem to be worse than the grinding economy of the late seventies and early eighties, when I (at least) came of age. The unemployment rate was in double digits and inflation had imposed a 15% tax even on cash, a delight that we have not (yet) endured in the current crisis. My sense is that it sucked more then, but I have also changed so it is difficult to judge. I am at once much more aware of economic conditions -- growing a business has become terribly difficult -- and personally less sensitive to them.
The question, it seems to me, is not how difficult things are now. Tough times are tough times. The question is how long it takes us to recover, or whether we are watching a transformation to a permanently lower standard of living. There are many people in the chattering classes both here and in Europe who seem to welcome the idea. Not me, I think it would be a tragedy. I quite enjoy the fruits of the mass consumer economy (even if I also believe that people need to relearn thrift and financial wisdom).
And, of course, there is the point that troubles most conservatives: Are the government's programs to revive the economy and engineer hope and change now condemning us and our progeny to a permanently lower standard of living? That is my great fear as my own children embark on the journey of life.
CWCID: Dum Spiro Spero.
44 Comments:
By 
Dawnfire82, at
Fri Apr 24, 08:04:00 AM:
Germany's economy is expected to contract by 6%(!) this year. They need their comfort where they can find it.
By Christopher Chambers, at
Fri Apr 24, 08:37:00 AM:
Must be bad for a new demo, for there seem to be a lot of white males who've been used to calling the shots, now unemployed/under-employed/broke/underinsured/upside down on mortgages...and rather than endure (as minorities have, for decades, for centuries) they kill themselves. Worse, they kill themselves and their whole family! Or they decide to buy up guns and start reading blogs like Tigerhawk.
So yeah, something's happening. I guess conservatives have been right along: poverty IS a character issue, not economic? lol
By 
Barbara, at
Fri Apr 24, 08:44:00 AM:
I knew you would distill the mood of the article!
If I hadn't been living in the US right now, I would have wondered at the accuracy of the report.
Unfortunately, the "American failure" audience is not just in Europe.
By , at
Fri Apr 24, 09:46:00 AM:
CC, what is the purpose of the "lol" at the end of the post? Is it supposed to indicate you were somehow trying to be humorous with your implication that anyone concerned about the economy or the administration is a racist or a murderer? Or, are you awkardly trying to convey a wry giggle over some comment you made there that you think is ironic or superior in some way? Odd, given the self satisfied twit that you are on the internet, but I still hold out hope that in person there is more to your personality. Maybe you could try to give some indication of that and stop being such an ass.
By , at
Fri Apr 24, 09:47:00 AM:
Don't mind chambers, clearly he was dropped on his head as a child, or born addicted to crack or something.
I liked this line: "Ironically, the mission's donations have fallen by 13 percent from last year, says outreach director, James Macklin."
Indeed. Donations for pieces of crap who deal drugs or got chased to a NY homeless shelter. My wife worked in one during her nursing training ... most of them are 'stains who wound up there after burning all the bridges across their families, friends, community. They do not deserve your pity IMO.
As for all those middle class workers, displaced after decades of overconsumption and irresponsibility, I similarly have little pity for them. With almost half paying in nothing, they stand to benefit from the safety net the other half pay to create, and this administration enhances with trillions of dollars being printed. It's not a race thing, in spite of how CC might troll it. And it'll not be a race thing when employers start increasing their ranks again, selecting those experienced, educated, capable, motivated, humbled workers (of course they'll all be white, pushing the lowly black man further down the ranks of the oppressed and suffering). You know, companies need crackheads, belligerants, etc. but there's just fewer of those jobs available. We are all vulnerable in this economy, and the impact of the US economy worldwide could drive another big war. The German cars sitting unsold in warehouses here aren't a good thing for Germans, whose unemployment rate is HUGE.
And yes, I'm being a wise guy ... I happen to have worked in many companies, and done hiring. If anything, I went out of my way to hire to enhance the headcount of women and minorities - but they had to be competent and ready to contribute.
Finally ... perhaps we all will have to get used to "living on less of OUR money" as MO said ... guess that's where the 'irony' of less charitable contributions comes in. The guvment gots my munny, go git it from them. This little bit I have left is for me.
By , at
Fri Apr 24, 09:48:00 AM:
A question for Mr Chambers. When you lump all white males together -- and then make generalizations -- isn't that rascist?
If it bleeds it leads. Our news media like to make sensations out of isolated individual tragedies. A large number of white males didn't kill themsleves yesterday nor their families.
Some poor schmoo at Freddie Mac was in over his head and lost it. Understand that David Kellermann only became CFO because the players at Freddie have been leaving in droves -- until recently Kellermann was just a bean counter. Had he been a player at Freddie Mac he'd have already made his f*ck you money and be laughing his ass off right now -- like Franklin Raines. -- Mr Chambers ... Raines is black, if you didn't know. He should be in jail -- I'd bet that Kellermann got less bonus in his Freddie Mac career than what Rahm Emanual got in just over a year for being a director.
The allure of socialist politics -- that we're all in this together -- is that it appeals to the better angels of our nature. The harsh political reality is that it leads to concentrated political power -- the connected and the "organized" win ... the rest of lose. Some even get thrown under the bus -- ask a smoker.
Link, over
By TOF, at
Fri Apr 24, 09:54:00 AM:
TH: You are correct that this is not as bad as the Stagnant Seventies and early Eighties, but then the early Eighties were the result of Volker squeezing inflation out of the economy and getting price levels stabilized.
Volker raising interest rates sky high had the effect of boosting the dollar and attracting a lot of foreign investment. Investors all over the world took Volker seriously. How many take Geithner seriously?
When I returned from a three-year stay in the UK in 1982 a mortgage was going for 14 1/4%; how's that for affordable? Over time the economy got back on track and things got better than they had been for decades.
I think we're in for another teaching session for the young and ignorant in our society.
By Escort81, at
Fri Apr 24, 09:55:00 AM:
I think my father (an FDR Democrat who, while in the U.S. Navy, introduced more than a few U-boat inhabiting Germans to Davey Jones's Locker) would say, "Who cares what the Germans think?"
As to your larger question, I think that by the time your son is your age, the present-day actions of the administration won't matter a great deal, both as a matter of recent history and of dramatic effect on the then-existing standard of living. Praises will be sung of the groundbreaking nature of the Obama presidency, and schools will be named after him, but the complex and robust nature of the modern American economy is such that a single president a generation removed is not likely to have a significant legacy vis-a-vis the economy.
By Georg Felis, at
Fri Apr 24, 10:13:00 AM:
There is a great difference between having to put up with a lower standard of living, and living within your means. A *whole bunch* of people recently discovered that they were living *far* beyond their means, particularly in Iceland (about the only country the US can point to and say “At least we didn’t do that!”) I’m not going to hijack the thread and talk about Dave Ramsey’s town hall meeting last night, but the simple and unbreakable rules of the economy are: “Live below your means and your means will get larger, live above your means and your means will get smaller until Something Bad happens.”
As somebody who is attempting to get larger means, I’m teaching my children a very valuable word that they don’t hear very often. “No.” Now if only that word could be taught to a bunch of Bankers and Congresscritters.
By , at
Fri Apr 24, 10:34:00 AM:
Link:
If we left things alone, what we're experiencing should play no worse than the 1970s. Rates are low, oil is cheap.
But we won't leave it alone ... instead we have the Obama-Pelosi experiment.
We've had a growing imbalance between government spending and government revenue for a very long time ... but it's been obfuscated in a variety of ways. For the last 60 years or more, federal revenues have been 19% of GDP ... with little variance ... it's almost a scientific law. Spending has been higher than that ... Obama will jack it much higher still. That can't not have consequences. I expect it will blow up within five years with some combination of inflation and ruinous tax increases.
Our leaders in the 1970s were reacting to real world problems. Jimmy Carter had stupid ideas about energy ... but he was responding to a real crisis. Obama wants to create his own crisis.
Like the 1930s, this is not a good time to be in business ... unless it's a connected business. I find it interesting that GE hopes to suck on the government tit -- windmills and electronic patient records, etc -- ... and that CEO Immelt recently had a private dinner with the top suits at NBC -- I wonder what message Immelt was delivering.
Add it up, we'll see very little innovation ... and little true economic growth. Obama's spending is intended to goose things from 2010 until 2012, mostly with the worst kinds of government spending ... and paid for with post-dated checks. After that expect stagflation.
How this plays out is more a political question than it is economic. If voters continue to be beguiled by Obama & Co ... we'll follow the path of Argentina with Peron ... just on a grander scale. If voters instead wake up and realize that liberty is important ... that pain trickles down too ... ... that government spending always carries an opportunity cost -- that there are no free lunches ... we'll have a different outcome. Politically, it'll be a fight between those who get government checks and those who pay for them. The Republican party should naturally represent the latter -- but they've been corrupted ... and may no longer be an effective national party.
By Andrew Hofer, at
Fri Apr 24, 12:34:00 PM:
Volker was at the Fed. His current counterpart is Bernanke. Geithner is a political appointee, and could never have the credibility of an independent Fed Chair. Let's hope it remains independent. Apparently Barney Frank can regulate credit card companies with a phone call (google Frank and Capital One). Once that sort of behavior takes hold, credibility will take wing pretty fast.
Chris I find it gruesome that you derive some glee from Freddie Mac's CFO's tragic suicide. Jack thinks you aren't a bad guy in person, but that kind of repulsive remark makes it harder to believe.
By , at
Fri Apr 24, 01:28:00 PM:
" There is an audience in Europe for American failure, no doubt about it. ".....Well, you know, if you want to make waves in the pond, you sink a battleship not a rowboat. I wonder if the europeans, and others, are cognizant of their own ,moribund economies ? A swedish paper was commiserating an >8% unemployment rate. Another paper contained an article describing the burning of more vehicles and instances of violence and vandalism in the streets. So, for all of their pontificating about the greatness of europe and applauding their perception of an American collapse, the situation in europe, and elsewhere around the world, is as bad or worse than it is here.
By Dawnfire82, at
Fri Apr 24, 01:40:00 PM:
Most indications are that not only are things worse in Europe, they're going to GET worse. There have already been mass protests, collapsed governments, and/or incidents of violence in UK, France, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Iceland, Latvia, Georgia, and Greece. There were some big protests in Germany a few weeks ago as well, but they were controlled.
By Escort81, at
Fri Apr 24, 03:00:00 PM:
*(Swallowing hard)*
Mindles and JT - in partial defense of CC, he probably was not referring to the suicide of Freddie Mac CFO David Kellerman, which thankfully was not a murder/suicide. Anyone who has ever worked in a high-stress finance job had to cringe when first reading that story. There is no indication in the stories about Kellerman what his political affiliation was, but it is at least a coin flip that he was a Democrat. (The story that most lefty bloggers and journalists jumped on in blaming the right was the shooter in Pittsburgh at the beginning of April.) Even so, the comment is off-putting in terms of relishing the exteme misery of others. Also, JT, since Christopher was born in the early 1960s, he couldn't have been born addicted to crack, since crack (cocaine in rock form) hadn't been invented yet, and in fact there was relatively little cocaine in the United States at that point in time. So, anyway, that's not the underlying cause.
By , at
Fri Apr 24, 03:33:00 PM:
Surely the economy in the late 70s and early 80s was worse than this. The statistics would bear that out. If there were still actual journalists in the mainstream media this would have been public knowledge by now...but "public knowledge" is that this is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, because there are only shills in the mainstream media.
By , at
Fri Apr 24, 04:14:00 PM:
In '04 we were hassled by custom's officers in Nice, France. They were startled to find Americans that could afford to travel. They truly believed the U. S. economy had crumbled and were not to happy when we indicated otherwise.
Who knows where people get their information. It's clear their sources don't cover global markets. You can call it the global economy, but it's carried on the backs of U. S. consumers. Without us everyone else suffers. I, thus, don't understand the gleeful reports of our economic demise. Deflection maybe.
By , at
Fri Apr 24, 05:36:00 PM:
Der Spiegel is right. The USA is starting to look like a ghetto.
By , at
Fri Apr 24, 06:17:00 PM:
Link again,
Terry Tate hits on an important point. Our predicament isn't yet as dire as proclaimed, and needn't be. Our journalists are mostly idiots, biased or both.
My paranoid side sees a deliberate manipulation of MSM going on. I know that media have been biased and manipulated since time began ... but this feels different. It's a big echo chamber ....
To anon 5:36pm, we're pretty far from the Bronx of the 1970s I grew up in. You don't know from ghetto. We don't want to go back
By JPMcT, at
Fri Apr 24, 07:31:00 PM:
"I know that media have been biased and manipulated since time began ... but this feels different. It's a big echo chamber ...."
I couldn't agree more. The upcoming release of over 2000 photos from Abu Garib is interesting, given the Hooplah about the White House "mismanagement" of the Waterboarding issue.
One would think that a smart politician would not fan the flames by revisiting Abu Garib.
Unless that "politician" is just a cog in a big wheel....and is expendable.
By Kinuachdrach, at
Fri Apr 24, 07:46:00 PM:
The Soviet Union was a superpower for decades -- then suddenly it ceased to exist.
General Motors was the largest auto manufacturer in the world only 2 years ago -- now it is on death row.
Big systems can take a lot of punishment before they break. But when they do finally break, history shows that the speed can be awesome.
My guess is that we & our children are going to live through one of those sudden discontinuities -- unexpected by everyone who has been ignoring the growing signs. Encourge your children to learn real skills -- there probably is not going to be much room for Equal Opportunity Outreach Coordinators on the other side.
By , at
Fri Apr 24, 08:01:00 PM:
From Link:
Chris Chambers should feel free to say whatever pops into his head ... but to get called on it.
To Kinuachdrach: It's not that bad ... yet. When the time comes, my family can survive on suburban venison for awhile.
Reagan beat Carter ... but it was close until the last debate. Giuliani beat Dinkins in Round 2 ... by 1%. Get political. The future isn't written.
I would be interested in Chris Chambers response to the following: If Obama was 100% white, could he have gotten away with what he has so far? "Six degrees" anyone ...
By JPMcT, at
Fri Apr 24, 10:23:00 PM:
Funny about Mr. Chambers comments re: minorities enduring poverty for "centuries"...it does ring true, but how does he blame "White Males" that Africa has been in the stone age for thousands of years? Weren't those distasteful white guys the "minority"?
Sorry, Mr. C, but your comments explain why incompetents like Barack Obama can rise to the position of undeserved political power...because idiots like you vote for him.
Society can put up with idiots as long as they remain a small part of the landscape....but when incompetent education and social engineering result in a majority of unskilled, uninformed idiots....what do we do then?
We FAIL...and everybody suffers.
By , at
Fri Apr 24, 10:41:00 PM:
Link again,
A counter to JPMcT
I don't think Obama is incompetent. Quite the contrary. I actually think he underplays deliberately -- nothing with him is by accident. He's as smart a President as Clinton and Nixon. I do think he gets away with a lot -- especially with the press and many segments of white voters because of "Six Degrees."
By JPMcT, at
Fri Apr 24, 10:57:00 PM:
Maybe so, Anon.
Maybe Obama isn't an inexperienced, incompetent fool...he just plays one on TV.
By , at
Sat Apr 25, 04:26:00 PM:
From what I hear, this sort of thing is constant on Russian television (i.e. government television). It is a way to deflect attention from the state of the local economy.
By , at
Sat Apr 25, 04:32:00 PM:
The 4% unemployment rate among college educated Americans kind of debunks that story... but why are you arguing Spiegel anyhow? It's the most non-credible source imaginable, kind of like if the National Enquirer, the Village Voice and Newsweek were in a polygamous relationship and produced a love child. I'm probably being a bit unfair to the National Enquirer there, whose staff has in the past admitted that they make shit up for giggles...
-Another Anon
By , at
Sat Apr 25, 04:43:00 PM:
You can practically smell the contempt in the voice of Christopher Chambers: there seem to be a lot of white males who've been used to calling the shots, now unemployed/under-employed/broke/underinsured/upside down on mortgages...and rather than endure (as minorities have, for decades, for centuries) they kill themselves. Worse, they kill themselves and their whole family! Or they decide to buy up guns and start reading blogs like Tigerhawk. "Endure", you say? Minorities in this country are no slouches when it comes to killing. FBI statistics show black men are about seven or eight times more likely to commit murder than white men. Yet there have always been the likes of Christopher Chambers who excuse this as the natural consequence of poverty.
At best, according to this type of liberal apologist, white America should more diligently and empathetically work to solve the "root causes" of such anti-social behavior. At worst, they declare it a justified or even glorious resistance to oppression, and hence white America's fault rather than the sin of the black man who pulls the trigger.
Now that more white men are finding themselves in similar poverty, you'd think these ever-so-compassionate liberal apologists for black criminality would have some sympathy for their plight. But no, it's still all about the melanin with this kind of person. White men can never do right in their eyes.
I don't know if Christopher Chambers is a black hater like Rev. Wright, or a white self-hater like so many people I knew in college, but I reject his argument. One day white men may tire of being the whipping boy for all of society's ills, and bring about changes that will make Christopher Chambers wish for the good old days of George Bush.
By Unknown, at
Sat Apr 25, 04:45:00 PM:
Obama is a politician and a narcissist with no understanding of anything else. He is expanding the government, raising taxes (cap and trade) and doesn't seem to care that revenues will fall . But others will care and the dollar is going down. Carter like inflation is a sure thing and the economy will be too weak to tolerate a Volker-like cure . It wont be pretty.
By , at
Sat Apr 25, 05:28:00 PM:
Question #1: What do you call a 10% unemployment rate in the U.S.?
Answer: A recession.
Well then....
Question #2: What do you call a 10% unemployment rate in Germany?
Answer: FULL EMPLOYMENT!
By , at
Sat Apr 25, 05:36:00 PM:
"Are the government's programs to revive the economy and engineer hope and change now condemning us and our progeny to a permanently lower standard of living? That is my great fear as my own children embark on the journey of life."
Yes. And it is deliberate.
You, your children, all of us, are screwed.
America has been defeated. It's gone. We live in the post-American Era.
It won't be back.
Liberalism has won.
By , at
Sat Apr 25, 05:37:00 PM:
The problem for Mr. Chambers's worldview on minorities is that Asians (BTW Chambers, Asians are a minority too) falsify the basis of his worldview.
By , at
Sat Apr 25, 05:52:00 PM:
Germany's unemployment rate has been over 10% since 1989. Much of it is hidden by make-work programs, or young people staying in school into their 30's.
The reality has begun to set in, that the German government has spent all the money made and saved since 1945.
By , at
Sat Apr 25, 06:14:00 PM:
There is no question that Obama and the Democrat party are actively working to permanently reduce the American standard of living and greatly increase government dependency.
By , at
Sat Apr 25, 06:46:00 PM:
I'm afraid I agree with Michael. We are literally just too far gone. We have reached what I call the critical mass of ignorance. The United States, and Western civilization for that matter have died, we just haven't fallen over yet. The good news is in the chaos that comes it is the same self reliant, freedom loving patriots that carried us this far that will survive and thrive. I am quite sure the folks used to living on handouts won't fare well in a TRUE economic meltdown. Abandoning the constitution 60+ years ago was the beginning of the end. God bless us all!
By jono39, at
Sat Apr 25, 06:46:00 PM:
A permanently lower standard of living will require these turkeys to actually work. Tenure will be an early casualty, long overdue; the sleazy foundation world most of this claptrap comes from will implode too.A certain amount of sanity might be introduced into the global warming threnody which would be nice. Possibly, we may move back into houses that are fit for human dignity which would be outstanding and possibly even stop building on flood plains, below sea level and in forests requiring the public to pay the freight for the fools who do this.
By , at
Sat Apr 25, 06:47:00 PM:
Yes, it is absolutely deliberate. The "transnational progressives", aka Tranzis, have long wanted to take America down a peg or two and see America as just one nation among many.
Environmental Marxists blame capitalism for "destroying the planet". They have long complained that Americans use more than our "share" of resources.
It was capitalism and our tradition of limited government that created a large, robust, and prosperous middle class. Collectivists who wish to rule see this self-assured middle class as an impediment in their path.
So no question about it, the ultimate objective is the complete destruction and impoverishment of the American middle class. Each and every policy that is now being put into place brings that day closer.
Just look at what Stalin did to the "kulaks" (small independent landowners).
By , at
Sat Apr 25, 07:21:00 PM:
So for you folks who think this is the end of all things, do you just lie back and wait for the end? Any ideas on an island paradise that might ride out the coming collapse? Is there any stable country capable of defending itself that is moving in the right direction? Or is this the beginning of a new dark ages period?
By Hucbald, at
Sat Apr 25, 07:37:00 PM:
The Germans - and many other Europeans - are just trying to keep their minds off of the looming massive civil unrest which will likely break out into gargantuan riots in their own countries this summer.
I'd rather be in the US than in ANY European country right now.
By , at
Sat Apr 25, 07:55:00 PM:
Reagan said, "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours."
And recovery is when Obama loses his.
By , at
Sun Apr 26, 06:06:00 AM:
Hey look everyone I can say nasty off-topic racial things on the internet too!
CC, at least those suicidal white males aren't murdering their fellow citizens like black males do.
By , at
Sun Apr 26, 06:13:00 AM:
Hey CC, what exactly does a professor of journalism contribute to the econamy anyway?
By , at
Sun Apr 26, 06:23:00 AM:
Good old Europeans define the US by California and New York/New England. Yes these very socially liberal tax and spend states are in big trouble. What about Texas, Kansas, Tennessee, etc. I don't see tent cities there; we don't need them. Yes there is unemployment, but nothing more that a typical rescession. I live in Kansas, 6% unemployment, state has a balanced budget and Obama took our discraceful Governor. No suffering in Kanses... yet. If the federal goverment turns this into a country wide depression, then things could go as the Europeans want; a fallen American. Funny how our federal goverment looks to Europe as the model to follow.
By EU-Digest, at
Sun Apr 26, 07:34:00 AM:
Everyone is to blame for the financial problems around the world!
*The US consumers, for not understanding that $2+$2=4 not 24. *Wall Street and the banks for lending and speculating with money that was basically monopoly money and keeping the real money for themselves. *The government for being either asleep at the wheel or participating in some of the financial scams. *And for most of us in the rest of the world? ... believing that uncontrolled and unregulated capitalism works. It does not! Fortunately one thing is certain today, the "good old times" will never come back. At least not in the form some of us were used to.
By Brian Macker, at
Sun Apr 26, 08:06:00 AM:
Don't forget that Chris Chambers is an idiot for another reason. The guy who killed his family was not "plunged into poverty". He was a scam artist running a ponzi scheme who got caught, like Madoff.
This is not the story of a family having to pull in the purse strings due to a worsening economy. It's the story of a crook who couldn't live with the embarrassment of his own criminality and didn't think his family could either.
