Friday, March 06, 2009
The Sub-Proletarianization of America (Part 4)
Not surprisingly, this New York Times article, written in the paper's time honored method of recourse to authority, ignores the more serious social implications of the economic restructuring that it describes. The reporters, Peter Goodman and Jack Healy, walk up to the edge of the water by recognizing that many of the jobs lost during this recession, particularly within manufacturing, finance and retail, are never going to return, but, fearful of getting their feet wet, they shrink away from the troubling consequences. Curiously, they also fail to recognize the extent to which job growth in recent years was driven by ancillary goods and services associated with the housing bubble. Here in Northern California, contractors are experiencing the economic equivalent of a nuclear winter. It is hard to imagine how all of them will survive, given that they are outside the system of unemployment compensation. For those of you interested in the serious, profound social dimensions of this recession evaded by Goodman and Healy, go here.
Labels: American Empire, Credit Crunch, Housing Bubble, Neoliberalism, Sacramento, Sub-Proletarianization of America
