Desperation, Part I – Allan Levene

I have been reading today about how the long term unemployed will be losing their average of $1,200 a month in federal unemployment benefits. That’s 1.3 million Americans who are about to become desperate. So first the problem, and in Part II, the fix.

If the unemployed are under forty they have a better chance of employment than those over forty, diminishing as they get older until the over sixty group who, in many instances, just hang on until they get Social Security. Social Security is just enough money to live close to poverty, warehousing yourself in a life of quiet desperation until you die.

We live in the richest country on the planet, yet Americans are scared about losing their homes, living on the street and worse. What went wrong with Washington, that it comes down to this?

I hope that most of these people planned for the future and didn’t live paycheck to paycheck. Unfortunately I don’t think that many did any planning at all. As I used to be in the financial planning business, and was a Certified Financial Planner, they didn’t then, and I doubt they do now.

When you’re young, you think that you’ll live forever. You eventually realize that you won’t, and hope that there is enough time to save for retirement. For many people there isn’t so it brings me back to Social Security, just paying enough to barely live on.

As expected, the unemployment statistics will likely show a significant drop next month, as once you are not on the unemployment roles you aren’t counted. The fraudulent job statistics, more accurately reported by Shadowstats.com, will show a decline that President Obama will tout as a major success.

President Obama, complete with his entourage of human props behind him, will give a speech and proudly announce the drop as an illustration of what a good job he is doing. Many ill informed people will believe him.

Most Americans are spoon fed their news and information; they don’t bother to think about what the talking heads, or news readers, are not saying… and just nod if they are Democrats or moan if they are Republicans.

The actual unemployed who have dropped off the roles will know better, but they will be invisible. Their voting block is too fractured to make a difference, so will be ignored in the 2014 election cycle. President Obama will blame the Republicans as the answer to any questions raised by the fawning press corp about the unemployment rate and desperate citizens. They have learned that if their questions are too hard, they won’t be invited back. Softball only.

Politics as usual.

Sad to say, the unemployed are in for a rough ride. But, there is a solution. See Part II here.