Nobody gives a shit about Wall Street and whether it is doing any good:
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that private sector payrolls in the US are lower than they were at the end of 1999. Since the recession began, 7.2 million jobs have been lost—bringing the total number of workers officially unemployed to over 15 million.
The Journal noted, “Even if the job market were to return to the rapid pace of the 1990s—adding 2.15 million private-sector jobs a year, double the 2001-2007 pace—the US wouldn’t get back to a 5 percent unemployment rate until late 2017, Rutgers University economist Joseph Seneca estimated. And that assumes no recession between now and then.”
While the official unemployment rate is 9.8 percent, the US Labor Department’s broader measure, including those who have stopped looking for work and temporary employees who cannot find full-time work, has reached a record level of 17 percent.
The depth of the social crisis was put on display last week, when nearly 50,000 people lined up in downtown Detroit seeking assistance in paying their utility bills and preventing eviction or foreclosure from their homes. The paltry $15 million provided by the stimulus package will be able to serve no more than 3,400 households.
With 6.3 job searchers for every opening, it has become commonplace for thousands to apply every time an employer advertises for a few positions. Last week, 10,000 unemployed workers applied for 90 jobs over the course of three days at a Louisville, Kentucky, General Electric (GE) plant.
Nobody in Washington gives a crap if people starve. They have theirs, after all.
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