TGIF?

"Weekends, he explained, "are a luxury the bottom 30 percent can't afford."

is the debt half full?

The fact that 35% of Americans owe debt that is delinquent, at least 180 days old, has been flying around the internet lately and included in the headline of this Lynn Stuart Parramore article: "Debtor Nation: 35 Percent of Americans Owe Bills to Collections Agencies." 

At the same time, if one acts against the tweeting tendencies of our common era, and actually reads the article, we learn that the median debt of the 35% who owe a debt for more than 180 days is only $1349.

In other words, there are 65% of Americans with no delinquent debt and then another 17.5% with less than $1349. So 82.5% of us, or more than four out of five Americans, have less than $1349 in past-due debt, and frankly that is not so bad.

Among the other fifth, or 17.5%, I imagine, as anyone would who has had significant debt or a close relative with such problems, "the sleepless nights and anxiety that comes from an ability to meet debt obligations" could be very real, though.

millennials, employment, the jobless, and food

A glut of articles on millennials and employment seems to have surfaced soon after graduation:

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/careers/big-chill-millennials-learning-harsh-reality-workplace-n95606

http://mashable.com/2014/05/02/millennials-april-jobs-report/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/05/10/cnbc-millenials-job-market/8914435/

http://www.today.com/money/millennials-lazy-entitled-or-maybe-just-young-2D79664367

Meanwhile Reuters notes that jobless claims are at a 7-year low, but in another article says Americans are now so "frugal" that it's hard for food companies to raise prices and retain customers.

I have no data on which of these writers was paid for their work, but I can assure you I received no compensation for this blog.

Throwaway Americans, 10th Anniversary Edition

In "Throwaway Americans," Stu Bykofsky has the audacity to wave a white race card and get the reader to sympathize with a guy who went to private schools, once owned an airplane, and even has a part-time job, and, alas, maybe because the guy is 54, just as in my 1994, non-airplane-owning, flat-broke father's experience as fictionalized for "My Father's Great Recession," I do, at least somewhat, even as I wonder where I'll be in ten years. In 2024, just as in 1994 and 2014, it seems likely a majority of the folks making the "hiring decision" will be other white men.

At least that was certainly true in my dad's situation 20 years ago when he finally found his way back into the world of employment. I've noted this before at L.U.S.K., that he wound up getting his 15 seconds of fame as "the poet, Jay Roberts" while working at a gas station convenience store off A1A in Ponte Vedra, Florida after his downstairs neighbor in the beach bungalow they split a low rent on was kind enough to bring back an application and help return him to work. My father did about 20 to 30 hours a week at minimum wage, $5.05 at the time, I think, and enjoyed the job because playing cashier reminded him of working in a liquor store thirty-five years previously. He had time to walk on the beach and write his poetry, and he was quite happy for those reasons.

"My Father's Great Recession" is included in the limited edition paperback published in Romania (and available in English, Romanian, and Spanish soon), and we are looking for an American publisher to produce an e-book version of these texts.

2014-15: inequality, unemployment, poverty

One reason Fight for Your Long Day is worth reading is that the novel clearly predicts the direction we are heading in--toward contract work (35% of all U.S. Workers), increased inequality, and global "flattening" for most of us even as the elite prospers. In 2014, from Robert Reich's "Why There's No Outcry" to Stu Byfosky's "Throwaway Americans," inequality, unemployment, and poverty articles remain the easiest ones to find between Miley, Bieber, and Sochi headlines. Apologies again for pasting in URLs, but I'll update this list as I see them, and I'm sure it will prove impossible to capture even "the 1%" of the total. So to speak.

Inequality:

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-state-low-wage-america

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-03/how-401-k-plans-have-fueled-inequality-in-america?campaign_id=yhoo

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-us-income-inequality-is-bad-20141024-column.html

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/24/tale-of-two-cities-new-york-inequality-john-tim-freeman?CMP=fb_gu

http://mashable.com/2014/09/25/this-really-depressing-graph-about-the-u-s-economy-is-turning-heads/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/09/upshot/how-are-american-families-doing-a-guided-tour-of-our-financial-well-being.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMediaHigh&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

http://news.yahoo.com/americas-wealth-gap-unsustainable-may-worsen-harvard-study-110255435--business.html

http://phys.org/news/2014-08-great-recession-americans-unhappy-pessimistic.html

http://www.vox.com/2014/8/25/6063831/two-numbers-that-show-how-badly-america-s-middle-class-is-hurting

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/why-theres-no-outcry_b_4666330.html

http://barrygrahamauthor.com/post/74927339360/guest-blog-post-a-brief-primer-on-inequality-by-larry

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/03/business/the-middle-class-is-steadily-eroding-just-ask-the-business-world.html?action=click&contentCollection=Europe&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&region=Marginalia&src=me&pgtype=article

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/how-inequality-hollows-out-the-soul/?_php=true&_type=blogs&hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

http://www.newstatesman.com/economics/2014/02/gender-inequality-costing-global-economy-trillions-dollars-year

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/opinion/krugman-inequality-dignity-and-freedom.html?_r=0

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/21841-paul-krugman-redefining-the-middle-class

Unemployment:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/31/america-unemployment-map_n_5744656.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

http://news.yahoo.com/30-percent-retirees-return-labor-093000852.html

http://news.yahoo.com/long-term-unemployed-improving-us-economy-39-hope-155005064.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140214_Throwaway_Americans.html

http://www.ibtimes.com/us-january-jobs-report-2014-unemployment-rate-falls-66-nonfarm-payrolls-rise-113k-1553925

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/business/20140213_ap_97aa78f9a8514fc2a176869f28786b75.html

Poverty:

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/majority-children-us-public-schools-are-low-income

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-child-poverty-20141021-story.html

http://qz.com/282841/who-and-where-americas-poor-people-are-in-charts/

http://news.yahoo.com/us-losing-generation-poverty-094500940--politics.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/nation-jan-june14-povertysuburb_01-11/

http://www.freep.com/comments/article/20140818/NEWS07/308180088/Hunger-America-1-7-rely-food-banks

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-hunger-crisis-americas-universities#

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20140822_Hunger_survey_shows_46_5_million_Americans_hungry.html

food shortage in America?

According to a Slate article, New York City food banks are even turning people away due to shortages this winter. Here's an excerpt:

Well, the results are in: Turns out that people actually do need the food that they aren't getting and no, charity is not making up for the shortfall. Bryce Covert at ThinkProgress reports on how the cuts to SNAP have created a surge in demand on food banks, causing the food banks to run short on food and even turn people away. Food Bank NYC surveyed the food charities of New York City and found that 85 percent of food pantries and soup kitchens are reporting a surge in visitors asking for food. In fact, the number of people turning to food banks is higher now than it was in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Nearly half of food pantries and soup kitchens don't have enough food to assemble proper meals. More than a quarter have run so low on food that they've had to turn people away.

But on another side of the internet, Professor Barry Eichengreen of U.C. Berkeley, an economist interviewed at Davos, predicts 300,000 new American jobs per month in 2014 and 3% economic growth. He does express caution and note that the headline unemployment rate is deceptively low (the interviewer clarifies that this is due to the low worker-participation rate).

the 28 percent

According to a January 2014 Gallup poll, only 28 percent of us are satisfied with the economy.

united states of contingency

Beyond academia, it's in the news, too, and increasingly common among millennials. (I've no statistics on how the writers of all the latter hyperlink's articles were paid, if in fact it was by "exposure," cold hard direct deposit, or any other means.)

american hunger

Is it possible we live in a broken country where children go hungry, and there is no political will to fight this or merely a state in which the two major "sides" have no ability, interest, or need to do so?

Of course, the DJIA has continued to improve upon its record close of yesterday, and in national newspapers we're joking about the "snowquester," so it's possible everything will be fine.

Or, near fine, at the very least. I suppose we should note that James Joyce's children also lived in poverty. Quite often, I think.

under 40 in america

According to this article, less than a third of adult Americans under age 35 earn enough money to be fully self-supporting and a third live with their parents.

When Ben Bernanke says the recession is "very likely over," it is just another perfect example of how a technical term like "recession" fails to explain anything real about the "real economy" or about life in America. By many criteria--including increased student loan obligations and fierce global competition--the average 20 or 30 something in our country has it worse than previous generations, and yet for some inexplicable reason, it seems as if this same generation has been exposed to higher expectations in regard to careers and life choices.

Where do these expectations come from? Can we blame it all on Hollywood film and TV advertising? Could it be that even the parents, teachers, coaches, and other "leaders" of our young adults are getting their information from the same flimsy sources or televised news? Are political leaders participating in this national ignorance by recognizing that pessimistic expression is rarely a vote getter? To what extent does our cultural rite and obligation of "optimism" obfuscate reality? If we tell our children to become nurses and engineers are we solving the problem of generational underemployment? What should we say to anyone under 40? Do the parents of these grown children owe them an apology or at least a place to sleep? The above article also reports that 60 percent of grandparents provide some financial support to their children with children. What will happen if and when these wells run dry?

When I graduated from college in 1991, the unemployment rate was around nine percent, about a point lower than it is today, and I met a lot of college grads with good degrees (Swathmore, UPenn, solid state schools, and other competitive universities) feeling fortunate to be employed with full health benefits at $6.25 per hour for a national bookstore chain. Return to the same bookstore today, and I can't tell you if the workers are commonly in possession of a four-year college degree, but I can tell you that very few of the new hires receive full-time hours or health benefits. The wage itself is higher but has not kept up with the rate of inflation.

The push for health coverage is an important one, but the push for jobs is more immediate and more critical. Although the goal is to insure more Americans, a real success of any legislation that passes will be that it creates jobs for Americans. If it creates jobs... and, of course, if it passes.