The calling card of the Great Recession
If there’s one thing I’ve heard from social services providers across the North Country since the Great Recession began, it’s this.
They’re startled and overwhelmed by the number of first-time assistance seekers coming into their offices. Mid-career folks. People who have held jobs most of their adult lives. People who thought they’d be retired by now.
Today we aired an interview with staff at the One Stop Career Center in Canton, where the mood is, quite frankly, pretty grim. Counselor Klauss Proem told me stories about men and women who are 58, 59 years old, just a hair below 60, when you no longer have to take mandatory training classes if you receive temporary assistance.
So there they are sitting in their classroom desks with young people a third their age who have never held a job, learning the basics of writing a resume. Men and women who are used to waking up every morning, checking into work, and earning a paycheck.
They’re shocked to be jumping through the hoops of public assistance, their time no longer completely their own. “It can be an intrusive process,” Proem admits, “because the taxpayer wanted that accountability.” Disclosing everything you own, documenting hours spent job searching.
I wonder if this widespread, long-term disruption in the reality of work – chronic joblessness, training for training’s sake – will be what we remember most from the Great Recession.
Have a story to tell? We want to hear it. Comment below, or if you want to do it more quietly, e-mail me at <david-at-ncpr-dot-org>.
David, the tone of your post gives me the feeling you think this is coming to a close or that this is a temporary thing. My fear is that it’s just the start, that a depression that will easily surpass the Great Depression is just around the corner. True, we have many benefits today that our ancestors didn’t have- far better and cheaper communication, better tools, easier access to finished products. But what we don’t have- knowledge of how to make do, a work or die ethic, the sheer determination to survive on our own effort- that worries me greatly. A website I frequent often has posts detailing the unwillingness and inability of people to utilize unprepared foods, to garden, to actually go and harvest vegetables, much less to prepare them for storage or even to use a clothes line to dry laundry.
Things like that give me real cause for concern. It’s not just the suffering those people and their families will go through, it’s the burden they place on the rest of us that are willing to get our hands and knees dirty. Maybe that’s a non-PC, heartless and cruel way to look at things but after hearing my grandmothers stories of the Depression and seeing people in my own family that can’t grasp the concept that all food doesn’t magically appear from a micro wave… I don’t see much sunshine and lollypops headed our way.
I think Bret’s post falls broadly into a conservative narrative that’s shaping up around this recession — that the unemployed are somehow unwilling to do what it takes to work and that they therefore will become an unnecessary burden on the rest of us.
The facts contradict this idea. Americans as a whole outwork and outproduce the vast majority of workers in the world. We are more productive now than we were a generation ago.
Americans take fewer vacations and spend more hours at work than any other work force in the developed world.
Finally, our social safety net provides nothing like the kind of benefits that would allow an individual or a family to avoid work for any significant period of time.
The fact is that in many communities, including the North Country, jobs that pay a living wage are very scarce.
Indeed, even before this recession the problem in our region wasn’t bums sucking on the public — it was working poor and elderly needing expensive government services.
Again, it’s not that Bret’s opinions are non-PC, it’s that his views don’t reflect the facts.
-Brian, NCPR
Do you think it’s some part of a conservative narrative? Ben Stein says
In other words, if these Northern NYers are out of work it’s likely their own fault. Let them start growing vegetables. If that doesn’t work, let them eat brioche.
Finally, there is always “dumpster diving”. NCPR is broadcasting dumpster diving techniques at this very moment.
I suppose it’s like anything else, there’s two sides to every story. I know a great number of people that cannot find work, at least work that they are willing to do. But, I know just as many people who have been very clear in the statement that they are not going to look for work until the benefits run out.
Was this Ben Stein character talking about our elected officials? I think he would be right on if he was.
I do agree with Bret on one point. I think the worst is not over.
Here in Hamilton County, the jobless rate for June was lower than the jobless rate for May.
Wow! What a big surprise. This happens every year up here. As summer approaches, the rate goes down. As winter approaches, the rate goes up. But a closer look shows the jobless rate in Hamilton County is higher this June than it was last June – when energy prices were lower.
Also, one thing we need to keep in mind, it costs much more to be poor now than it did during the Great Depression.
I wanna be clear. In no way do I think the economic problems are over. Ben Bernenke said as much to Congress today, saying the economic future is “unusually uncertain”. That’s why I’m blogging about the grim picture at One Stop.
In fact, you could easily argue this is the new normal – chronic joblessness and insecurity, which bodes very ill for already struggling places like the North Country.
— David, NCPR
We need unemployment benefits the question is for how long and for what purpose? The rational used to be that it served as a bridge for those in between jobs during economic downturns and this made some amount of sense. However how long do we go, do we go three four or five years? Right now we go 99 weeks almost two years. At some point people have to realize that the skills they have are not ever going to provide them with the work that they want and they are going to have to change skills or change expectations. North Country farmers still have to bring in migrant labor to milk cows for example because the local labor market does not fill the bill.
The fact is in St. Lawrence County we have had between a 7-10% unemployment rate for the past decade!
Brian M, no, you misread what I meant. I’m not talking about the unemployed at all. I’m talking about people in general and the possibility that hard or harder times might befall us all. I’ve read blogs and narratives on websites by people that lost their jobs. Most are actively looking, some so hard it really makes you hurt for them. The ones I’m speaking of are the ones that have work or food offered to them in exchange for a little effort. The ones that refuse to apply themselves, whether unemployed, under employed or working and allegedly looking to save a few dollars. The ones that won’t use a clothesline because, “…it looks trailer park…”. The ones that won’t help dig potatoes on shares or pick berries on halves because, “…nobody should have to work that hard for food…”. The people that can’t wrap their heads around the idea that at some point it might become either bend over and WORK or don’t eat or have shelter.
It’s not the current unemployed that worries me. It’s the possibility that at some point our current middle class might have to actually live frugally and engage in a lifestyle reminiscent of something from the late 30’s or worse. I can’t see a lot of people I know doing that. So what happens to those that won’t when the social safety net is overwhelmed? What happens if the Fed and Bernenke continue on and we end up with runaway inflation? $ 3.00 bread might cost $9.00 a loaf. You can still bake a loaf of bread for about 1/12 of what it costs at the store, but many people simply won’t accept that they have to go that route. Some will just refuse to provide for themselves and other will be overwhelmed and unable. That’s the burden I speak of.
I have to disagree with the color you paint “conservatives” with in this post. My impression is most conservatives feel about like I do, you need a hand up or something terrible happens to you? Then we should help you as long as you are willing to stand up and get to work and move past whatever has happened. OTH if you want a living on the backs of your fellow citizens while putting forth no effort on your part? Buzz off. If that’s harsh then so be it. Helping someone is one thing. Letting them take advantage of you is another.
The other issue you are going to have in my opinion Bret is that unlike in the last depression you will have even more inequality. There will indeed be many of us who sink and have to move to survival mode I am somewhat ready for that. But at the same time we see very wealthy people and a great number of wealthy people doing more than just fine. This will cause social unrest.
Just look at the North Country. We have some of the poorest areas in NYS and some of the poorest families in the state living right next to these mansions which are second homes essentially for some of these people who are the very ones who profited from the practices which got us into this depression.
Hmmm, I hadn’t even thought of that. I suppose it’s another possibility that may come to pass.
One of the problems I think we have is the divide between urban/suburban and rural. The country is urban centered, no doubt. But what happens should the day come when our mega cities are unsustainable and when suburbia is no longer heaven on earth? Lets say that inflation speeds up, fuel rises and cap and trade passes and electricity costs triple over night. Local ordinances, HOA rules, even State law may prevent the suburban resident from doing simple money saving things like the clothes line or utilizing an existing well or establishing a garden. There are those who will cling to the idea that the old staus quo will return, that their McMansion will be worth the $875K they paid for it in 2006 again. They will block people from using common sense ideas till doomsday. That problem is widespread. Look at the ridiculous State wide burn ban we have now. It’s just an urban reaction that doesn’t take the realities of rural life into account.
There are a multitude of possibilities. I hope none of it comes to pass, but as my Grandmother said, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”