Robert Reich: The Jobs Report and Why the Recovery has Stalled

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/jobs-report-and-why-recovery-has-stalled-1359816774

What’s ahead? More of the same. So what possible reason do we have to suspect the recovery will pick up speed? None.

Don’t count on consumer spending. Wages and benefits continue to drop for most people, adjusted for inflation. States are hiking sales taxes, which will hit the middle class and the poor hardest. Deficit hawks in Washington are contemplating additional tax hikes on the middle class.

Housing prices are stabilizing, thankfully. But one out of five homeowners is still underwater, and the ranks of people renting rather than owning are rising. Health-care costs are also rising for most people in the form of higher co-payments, deductibles, and premiums.

Don’t count on government, either. Government spending continues to head downward. The White House has already agreed to major spending cuts, some to go into effect this year. Coming showdowns over the next fiscal cliff, appropriations to fund government operations, and the debt ceiling will likely result in more cuts.

More jobs and faster growth should be the most important objectives now. With them, everything else will be easier to achieve – protection against climate change, immigration reform, long-term budget reform. Without them, everything will be harder.

Yet we’re moving in the opposite direction — following Europe’s sorry example of failed austerity economics.

[woo me with science]

1. K&R

[hfojvt]

2. meh "faster growth" is the answer to everything?

including climate change?

I think that is nonsense.

I am not against job creation necessarily, but some day it would be nice to have an economy and a society which are not based so much around "work, work, work" and "faster growth".

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/124

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/74

[LiberalEsto]

3. try being without a job for more than 4 years, like I have nt

[Dustlawyer]

4. The whole game is rigged! When will they screw us enough to get people to realize that

the root of the problem is that most of our politicians are bought off. We no longer have REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT! We root for Dems or Repugs like they are OUR TEAM, blindly following our leader's edicts, or believe we are powerless to change it, so that they do nothing! Fight the apathy! The ONLY ISSUE that we should be concerned with is COMPLETE CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM (CCFR)!!! Until politicians are forced to be answerable to we the people, instead of special interest, we will continue to lose more money, rights, and power. I keep posting this rant in an attempt to get others to spread the word and organize. It will take a big uprising and massive protests. I see fellow DU'ers get upset (rightfully so) about the Mortgage Foreclosure crisis, taxes, deficit, guns, jobs... when the solution to a fair resolution of each of these issues lies with our politicians being answerable to the people, instead of big business and the 1%!!! Do you really want to be heard? I cannot understand why more of us here are not calling for this! Just look at the stories on DU on any given day and ask yourself, if you think that if we had a truly representative democracy, would the outcomes be different? Come on people! If you truly care about the direction our country is heading then join me in calling for CCFR!