Unemployment in America: No Economic Recovery for the Working Class

The government keeps coming out with numbers and figures that are trying to show that the recession is over and recovery in the job market has begun. In March President Obama came out with a report saying that the net jobs went up by 162,000. A deeper look into the numbers showed that 88,000 of those jobs were temporary. On top of that the long-term unemployed shot up 414,00 to reach a staggering 6.5 million. As long unemployment numbers keep going down we are not going to see the end of this recession for a long time.

What companies don't seem to realize is that while they are letting go of more and more people to cut costs that means people are making less money and therefore have less money to spend on the companies goods. Therefore demand is going to keep taking hits so companies will have to start lowering prices or they will go out of business. Companies need to take a short term risk by employing more people. Sure there costs will go up but in the long term it is going to mean that the unemployed percentage is going to go down and people have more money to spend on goods meaning that although there costs went up there revenue is now going up as well. Creating more success not only for companies but also for the whole economy.

While companies are taking hits and revenues are going down the CEO's of many companies are still receiving ridiculously high pay checks, increasing from years past as there revenues are going down and more workers are being laid off. Spreading the wealth is something that needs to happen in America but the people who have all the wealth are not willing and prepared to spread it throughout there companies. If they used some of there millions of dollars to hire new employees they would ultimately be able to produce more and therefore make even more money.

Consumers marginal utility for products changes when they have little or no money to spend due to unemployment. Any companies selling luxury goods are sure to go out of business if things are not changed soon. Almost all facets of economics and what we know (supply and demand charts, utility, elasticity etc) will mean almost nothing if unemployment rates keep going up and people only have enough money for the bare necessities.

The government can keep publishing documents that tries to make people believe that the recession is over and employment is on the rise but in the end the only thing that is going to save our economy is action by both the government and companies.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18552
Richard Lachlan