Reply #4: The Silent Depression

[KharmaTrain]

Our selfish corporate culture has determined that if you're not employed, you're a deadbeat. Forget the fact that millions of jobs have been outsourced or "consolidated" to keep the bottom line high...if you aren't employed you obviously are worthless. Millions have seen jobs vanish as well as savings and hope...and its done silently since if you complain or ask for help, you're painted as some loser and that you deserved what happened. The answer isn't the social safety net..."pull yourself up by the bootstraps"...being on the dole only makes you lazy.

This meme is so inbred...especially through the media it shames many from speaking out or, even worse, internalize their plight that results in broken homes and lives. The unions have become so invisible to most they offer little help or hope as they once did and incomes and the quality of life has deteriorated for the past 30 years. The "legacy" of Raygun.

The economy will remain depressed as long as the remnants of the middle class are forced to spend whatever money they do have on the basics...and with little to no credit that ended up driving the consumer economy. Just like the real estate bubble, the credit card one put a lot of people underwater and until this problem is addressed the economy won't fully recover.

I dread what lays ahead for those whose benefits have run out and have little to no prospects of finding work. Many are in their 40s and 50s who have families to take care of but corporates would prefer someone younger who will take less money and benefits. I honestly don't know what it will take to break this silence as those who have exploited it...the teabaggers...have been corrupted and manipulated by the very powers they claim to be revolting against.

2011 is shaping up to be a very difficult year...