Long-Term Unemployment, the Shrinking Social Safety Net, and the Mass Strike

February 22, 2010 (LPAC)—As the U.S. and global economies continue to evaporate, the problems of Americans who have lost their jobs and have little to no prospect of landing new ones, grows by the day. Even the official unemployment statistics, which dramatically understate the problem, are horrible: Some 6.3 million Americans have been unemployed for six months or longer, the largest amount since the Labor Department began tracking that figure in 1948. Roughly 2.7 million people will lose their unemployment compensation before the end of April, unless Congress once again extends the benefit program.

Already, one-third of the unemployed receive no unemployment benefits at all, either because they have already run out of benefits, they never even applied, or because they didn't "qualify." For example, starting in 2006, benefits were denied in 44 states to anyone with a household income of 75% or higher of the official—and artificially low—poverty rate.

In New York City, there are 450,000 unemployed people and only 21,500 jobs available, according to the state labor department. That's one job for every 20 people who need work. In the city, some 51,000 people are facing the loss of unemployment benefits March 28 and, statewide, some 356,000 are expected to lose those benefits by June.

Some one in six of all Americans now live in poverty, and nearly 50 million people—including one child in four—had trouble getting enough to eat in 2009. At least 15 million Americans who do have jobs, still fall below the poverty line.

The National Governors Association, which began its winter meeting in Washington, DC, on February 20, reports that plunging revenues led 43 states to cut $31 billion from their budgets in fiscal 2009, and that for fiscal 2010, even with $30 billion in additional revenue from tax and fee increases, 36 states have cut another $56 billion. A study of 45 states showed that, despite $87 billion in closed budget gaps in fiscal 2010, they still face $19 billion in deficits, with a deficit total of $134 billion projected for 2010. These revised projections of deficits will prove optimistic, as the bottom continues to fall out of their revenue base. The states also face large increases in new Medicaid costs under the healthcare bills passed by the House and the Senate.

In short, in 2010 what little remains of the U.S. social safety net will rapidly run out, with the funding ending this year for most programs—and meanwhile, the economy keeps falling, meaning that the money really isn't there to extend these programs, and protect an increasingly vulnerable population.

This disintegration of the economy, and the standards of living of the American population, are fueling the mass strike process, as more and more of our citizens reject the fascist, financier-directed policies which are destroying them. The Obama Administration is under growing political pressure to act, but refuses to do so, since the only policy that could turn things around is the LaRouche Plan, and that plan would destroy the power of Obama's masters in the British Empire. But unless and until that shift is made, there is no possibility of fixing our economy, and the situation will only get worse, at an accelerating rate.