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Hallelujah Jesus! That 'dar mean ol' recession has been over for a year
This entry was posted on 9/22/2010 2:04 AM and is filed under 1970s economy redux, Misery recession, Bowling Ball Economics, Wrecking American life for no good reason, Middle Class The death of, Incremental tyranny, Part time job paradise, Sovietization of American culture, Obfuscation, Economic Hell, Crappy Economy Redux, Perpetual Optimism, Enablers of misery, Meritless job culture, New Normal, Are we really inept, College redux canard, Shitty Work Schedule Culture, Second World Anew, Shake hands with the unemployed, Under employed, That Darn Orwell, Jobless Recovery, Outposts of paradise, Great recession, Economic misery The facilitators of, Unemployment Hell.
The National Bureau of Economic Research, a group of economists based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts says, and to paraphrase, "no worries you angst ridden, hand-ringing rabble. That 'dar mean 'ol recession has been done and over since June 2009."
The arm of the "Bureau" that speaks from on high in regards to our new economic awakening is The Business Cycle Dating Committee . I don't know, but when I see the word "Dating" on the Internet I think of sleazy sex Web sites with creepy overtones.
That lost 15 months between now and June 2009 must have been what them economic hacks meant a while back by the phrase "jobless recovery."
Of course, fuzzy-head perpetual optimist idiots like these folks are the motherlode for a cynical, smart alec writer like myself who buys Chinese ink by the super-tanker load. Where do I start?
And for sure, I've been preaching this inevitable paradox to deaf ears for years, "Any economic problems you perceive are just in your imagination; and, if you do have a couple economic dents in your life, it's your own fault."
If you think otherwise you are a dissident; a scofflaw; and, a malcontent.
Wasn't the main character's job in the book 1984, to banally, mundanely, and methodically alter historical articles to fit a "new normal" (my term) defined by the needs of the regime?
Good God! Orwell is rolling over in his grave! "Going backward," the recession ended 15 months ago. Therefore, any reference in the last 15 months to economic hell must be removed from all publications.
The new norm: "No pay increases in the foreseeable future (assuming you are lucky enough to even have a job any more); less hours; non-benefit; minimum wage; seven day a week work week at four hours a day wrecking the whole week for 28 hours of pay; and finally, relentlessly buying Chinese junk products probably for the rest of our lives."
And, I guess if the economy never gets better for us working suckers, perhaps the fuzzy-heads are right. The damage is done, the recession is indeed over. The ruining of the many states is complete. Mission accomplished - the country has been destroyed. No need to call the new norm a recession any more. The new norm is now simply...the new norm.
The game is over for an old male mook like myself. It has been over...for over five years. And yet media still sings the praises of studies that say women are paid less than men. Poetically, I am guessing few men over 45 years old have been hired in this Great Recession for years. And I am guessing then, the women in the studies actually have real jobs? After graduating from college in 2003 (you know I was drawn back to school by that "retool" mantra) I was offered a part-time job cutting lettuce. I lasted a month. When I got out of grad school in 2005 I was offered a part-time job lifting tons of boxes for a parcel delivery service. I lasted two weeks. In the mean time, I have been lifting tons of paper products all night at a job that fits in the "New Norm" category - at 55 fucking years old. I make the same 145 Bucks a week that I made in 1978. And in 1978, I actually got benefits to-boot.
Self fulfilling prophecy. I now have exactly the kind of job I went back to college to try and avoid ending up with in older life.
It should go without saying that I am one of millions of Americans languishing in this hell. But, none-the-less, some pundits still need to hear their economic news from fuzzy-heads rather than the workers with the wrecked lives.
The news that the perceived economic hell of the last 15 months has all been a big misunderstanding has even rattled perpetual optimist President Barack Obama.
"The hole was so deep that a lot of people out there are still hurting," says The Prez.
Still hurting, dear Prez? As we rabble collectively scream during this crash that ripped off our economic arms and legs, others seem to be showing the "affect" response of the slowly boiling frog. Many of the boiled ones just keep adapting every time something else is extorted from their lives. An entire young generation that has never known of better economic times is rapidly encroaching on our foreseeable infinite lame job market future. And, they have never remembered anything being made anywhere but...China.
There is no where to hide like back in the 1970s and '80's economic hell. Join the Army now and you will have your real arms and legs blown off in Iraq or Afghanistan. In the late '70s and early '80s you could at least hide in the Cold War military at some "outpost of paradise." The Middle Class is now all but gone. Incremental tyranny of a society totally immersed in punitive and social government systems permeates through every aspect of our lives. A beleaguered culture of under-employed play cat and mouse games to survive with the facilitators of the economic misery.
The beleaguered many lose their houses, move into apartments in groups, or move into their mom's basements. They quit paying bills, drop insurance, and basically slide into the underclass, underground economy. A creepy sub-economy that exacerbates the society already descending into economic hell.
American life has been wrecked for no good reason; at least if it was wrecked for a good reason, no one can remember what it was; or, who the enablers of the misery actually where or are. The very criminalization of every aspect of daily life in the many states has wafted a type of Sovietization to the American culture over the entire nation. We have become the Second World Orwellian hell so many of us served in the military during the Cold War to prevent. Are we really so inept as to not understand what has happened to us? Are we just boiled frogs - one day before we die completely in the pot of boiling water will the last thing we see be no country left at all? This crappy economy redux of meritless jobs and shitty work schedules hangs over the country like the poison gas Saddam Hussein fired off in 1988 Kurdistan. Soon it will immerse us all in economic death.
Shake hands with the unemployed; join the obfuscated world of the new norm Great Recession; oh, wait, I mean that Great Recession that has just been in our imagination - at least since June 2009.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Marine Lance Corporal Jesse Daniel Tillery, 19, Vesper, Wisconsin died Saturday, December 2, 2006 during combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Tillery was assigned to the 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He was driving an amphibious assault vehicle when it was struck by an improvised explosive device. Tillery's home of Vesper is in the center of Wisconsin northwest of the city of Wisconsin Rapids. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted Tillery was the youngest of three brothers who had served in the military in Iraq. Tillery's brother Jim served as an Army Specialist in a medical unit and had spent two tours in Iraq; brother Jared also served as an Army Specialist in supply. The paper also mentioned Jesse did play Little League baseball when younger, but was not necessarily remembered for playing high school sports. Instead, he was remembered for taking great joy in simple things like family and friends. He was also a very well liked guy. When young he enjoyed playing with military figurines. He was also remembered for his great imagination, not being boring, and being very respectful and polite. Tillery graduated from Wisconsin Rapid's Lincoln High School in June 2005. He had signed up for the Marines during his senior year. Wisconsin 2007 Senate Joint Resolution 15 notes Jesse was born on May 18, 1987, in Vesper, Wisconsin. At the time of his death Tillery was survived by his parents, Martin and Kathy Tillery; his sister, Joelle Mayers; and his brothers, Jared and James Tillery. Lance Corporal Jesse Tillery was the 64th Wisconsin military service person to die in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
97,994 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,681 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,423 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1278 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
794 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,951 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
8,041 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
22 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
142 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
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