Huh. After years of neglect and months of indifference, there seems to be something of a dawning among the High and the Mighty that perhaps the high and still growing unemployment rate is actually retarding "recovery" not enhancing it. Huh. Well, how about that.
Who'd a thunk?
Of course, there's still no inkling of a plan to do anything about it. Heaven forfend.
What has been so striking about the response to the collapse of employment in this country has been the consistency of the "nothing to be done about it" attitude coming from nearly everywhere, from official Washington, to the offerings of many economists, to the general lefty blogosphere. It's all been very Hooverite. And shocking. "Nothing to be done?" We just have to wait until things turn around, maybe years? Are you kidding me? Can you possibly be more Hooverite?
The pervasiveness of this attitude, especially among so-called lefties, is what really shocks and appalls me. Obviously, Reaganism (not to mention Hooverism) has penetrated so deeply into American political and economic thinking that it doesn't even occur to Lefties that chronic high unemployment is not good for the economy, and that something needs to be done about it, NOW.
So. At least there is a dawning of recognition that the current and projected levels of unemployment are a severe drag on economic "recovery." Nothing is yet being proposed as a remedy, but it was interesting the other day that Rush or one of his clones on the radio was saying that next year, you can bet the Obama administration is going to do something about it -- that's what they're supposedly saving all the Stimulus Money for -- to buy votes and stay in office.
Interesting theory.
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