Jobless Recovery

good for tent makers

Impoverished people live in tents when they are unemployed, underemployed, underpaid and/or ill. People live in tents when they have been priced out of affordable housing units during an economic boom referred, post 2008, as a “jobless recovery.”

If the boom amounts to a “recovery” for only those at the top of the economic pyramid, I don’t identify that as a recovery. It’s obvious that people living in tents haven’t “recovered” anything at all.

The problem of homelessness starts at the top of the economic pyramid. The United States’ deregulated financial markets system encourages leisure speculation in useless stock market products (derivatives/hedge funds) — an activity equivalent to casino style gambling. In addition, capital gains tax rates are lower than earned income and corporate tax rates, so, of course, lucky streak investors with money to burn, will sometimes bet for thrills rather than seek loftier multi-purpose uses of their capital — you know — like building safe efficient low income housing or investing in income generating projects that employ living breathing human “resources” earning livable wages.

Hint: America’s infrastructure isn’t going to rebuild itself.

Financial sector “sporting opportunities” — much like aristocratic horse racing at the Derby — have no “recovery value” in a “jobless recovery” society. Expect the number of tents to multiply accordingly.

Marge Brando

Copalis Crossing