Open Thread on Personal Stories of the Great Recession
by Linda Beale
crossposted with Ataxingmatter
Naked Capitalism’s Open Thread on Personal Stories of the Great Recession
Yves Smith opened a great comment thread on naked capitalism that anyone interested in the way this Great Recession has hit people across the US (and world) should read. It was triggered by the NBER analysis that the recession is over. Her question opens a thread for readers to comment on the recession from their own personal perspectives.
The comments address a range of perspectives, and consider whether the recession is over, what it has meant for them personnally or for their communities and what they see for the future. There are reports from Lansing (like Detroit, hit by white flight to the suburbs –I’ll add that in Detroit, it does gall to see all the suburbanites driving into Detroit to earn their pay at their jobs, then driving out again to spend it in their comfortable, mostly white, middle-class or above suburban communities, so that the dollars created because of Detroit don’t get spent to benefit Detroit at all), from Ohio with its loss of manufacturing, from upstate New York, where are more gradual and longer term slowdown meant that housing prices didn’t inflate as much and the economy stayed more stable, and from all other the country and abroad.
Politicians in Washington who don’t understand the impact of foreclosures, joblessness, and the sheer stress of worries about job security and the future should read the entire string, word for word. People whose job it is to apply economic theory to policy proposals should read it to help them understand how far divorced the mere fact of increasing GDP is from the well-being of ordinary Americans. Everybody should read these comments to better understand the variety of pain and distress that are affecting millions of our fellow Americans. And we all should start demanding more transparent and fact-based discussions of the economy and of processes that create jobs, so that the propaganda sound bites that are being used to determine the votes in this November’s election are at least modified to be closer to the truth and more relevant to the daily lives of ordinary Americans.
Readers, please jump in here or at Naked Capitalism and share your own views on this issue. What bothers you most about the way we as communities have dealt with the incredible impact on middle-class America? What has the recession meant for you personally, in terms of lifestyle and hopes for the future? Do you think it is “over” or do you think that we must adjust to a “new normal”?
Linda,
I’ll jump over there. But Detroit needs to make the city livable if they wish to reverse the white middle class flight. That means get tough on crime, really tough, and get the schools up to par with the ones in the suburbs. That’s just a start. But the Dems have been running Detroit for decades and its not going to happen.
Ohio is a basket case also. Its about as anti-business friendly as it comes. The loss of manufacturing is becuase of this. Since 1980, when I left, not one car plant or facility has opened up even though there was plenty of labor available. These plants have opened in business friendly stses (TX, TN, MS, SC etc). And its all becuase of the unfriendly business climate.
Both Ohio and Detroit would advance a lot by just making them right-to-work states. It would at least be a start.
Islam will change
I am still the same lazy-assed bum I was before the recession.
Get real, Linda. Probably 95% of the suburbanites driving into Detroit to work would be delighted if their jobs moved to the suburbs also. And once leases expire or property is fully depreciated they may well be…if they stay in Michigan at all. Go talk to suburbanites and ask them what it would take to get them to move to Detroit and tell us what they say. It is incredibly unlikely that many folks think that living in the suburbs is a neat way to mess with Detroit.
Buff
Buff:
Detroit does not have the same tax base as Gross Point, Rochester Hills, Ann Arbor, Bloomfield Hills, etc. The DEms have not been running Detroit, special interests have been running Detroit. Detroit deperately needs a Mayor Dailey.
Eric:
Suburbs would not exist if Detroit did not exist.
What does “Mostly White” have to do with anything?
“we all should start demanding more transparent and fact-based discussions of the economy and of processes that create jobs”
Oh…you mean like how Bush Tax cuts were for everybody, and not just for the rich?
I think that I have previously mentioned that I sell very expensive cars for a living. I can assure all of you that the wealthy are still wealthy and living well.
Jack,
I think that I have previously mentioned that I sell very expensive cars for a living. I can assure all of you that the wealthy are still wealthy and living well.
This is good for you then, isn’t it?
It only means that I have not been as adversely effected by the economic malaise as some. My 401K resembles a yoyo since 2000, and for that reason I am well; aware of the value of a stable retirement system. That I have not been so adversely effected is not my personal measure of what is good for the country and the economy. You may not be able to understand that perspective. I know only too well that hard times are just a congressional election away. I have three sons who may at some point be adversely effected. I have a sister and two brothers that have been effected, but to varying extents and fortunately not too badly. But we are all at the top of the scale when it comes to personal abilities, so we weather the situation better than most. Again, that is not my measure of economic equity. My situation is just of one person. Add my family and we’re still well shy of three dozen. Add friends and we’re still counting fewer than a hundred or two. is that an appropriate measure of good times and how things should work.
I know first hand from day to day personal interactions that one cannot know the full potential of human greed until one has experienced those with significant wealth. That is not to say that they are all suffering the character flaw of avaricious greed, but they provide the base for that archetype. And they vote cohesively, and their best political interests are not ours.