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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Tue Jun 3, 2014, 01:25 PM Jun 2014

"Why Don’t the Unemployed Get Off Their Couches?" and Eight Other Critical Questions for Americans

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/06/03-4



1) What does Thomas Piketty have to do with the 99%?

French economist Thomas Piketty’s surprise bestseller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, is an unlikely beach read, though it’s selling like one. A careful parsing of massive amounts of data distilled into “only” 700 pages, it outlines the economic basis for the 1%-99% divide in the United States. (Conservative critics, of course, disagree.)

***SNIP


2) So why don't the unemployed/underemployed simply find better jobs?

Another way of phrasing this question is: Why don't we just blame the poor for their plight? Mention unemployment or underemployment and someone will inevitably invoke the old "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" line. If workers don't like retail or minimum-wage jobs, or if they can't find good paying jobs in their area, why don’t they just move? Quit retail or quit Pittsburgh (Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis) and...


***SNIP

3) But aren't there small-scale versions of economic “rebirths” occurring all over America?

Travel through some of the old Rust Belt towns of this country and you’ll quickly notice that “economic rebirth” seems to mean repurposing buildings that once housed factories and shipping depots as bars and boutiques. Abandoned warehouses are now trendy restaurants; a former radiator factory is an artisanal coffee shop. In other words, in a place where a manufacturing plant once employed hundreds of skilled workers at union wages, a handful of part-timers are now serving tapas at minimum wage plus tips.

***SNIP

4) Can't people just get off their couches and get back to work?

There are 3.8 million Americans who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more. These are the country’s long-term unemployed, as defined by the Department of Labor. Statistically, the longer you are unemployed, the less likely it is that you'll ever find work again. Between 2008 and 2012, only 11% of those unemployed 15 months or more found a full-time job, and research shows that those who do find a job are less likely to retain it. Think of it as a snowball effect: more unemployment creates more unemployable people.
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"Why Don’t the Unemployed Get Off Their Couches?" and Eight Other Critical Questions for Americans (Original Post) xchrom Jun 2014 OP
the feds could give H1B visas to US citizens instead of importing people :-) nt msongs Jun 2014 #1
Another problem: many of the new jobs are minimum-wage jobs. If you're older, not only do you winter is coming Jun 2014 #2
None of this is really new. Brigid Jun 2014 #3

winter is coming

(11,785 posts)
2. Another problem: many of the new jobs are minimum-wage jobs. If you're older, not only do you
Tue Jun 3, 2014, 01:56 PM
Jun 2014

have to deal with age discrimination, you get hit with the "overqualified" club: people won't hire you because they're afraid you'll leave when something better comes along.

Brigid

(17,621 posts)
3. None of this is really new.
Tue Jun 3, 2014, 03:38 PM
Jun 2014

Not around DU anyway. But nothing is being done to address any of these issues.

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