[Peace-discuss] Re: [UCIMC-print] You Don't Need A Weatherman....

[John W.]

On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 10:44 AM, Niloofar Shambayati <
niloofar.peace at gmail.com> wrote:

Dave,
>
> Thanks for all the good economic news you've been sending my way!  The
> cynic in me says, not too bad; time for America to wake up and work hard for
> a restructuring of our politics and economic institutions.  Enough of the
> illusion of being a super power with a super ego. Loans to auto industry?
> May be good for the workers and the economy in the short run but wouldn't it
> be great to have the whole industry go down the drain?  May be then we would
> be able to restructure our collective life around communities, public
> transportation (the public work projects they've been talking about to
> stimulate the economy), neighborhood groceries, vegetable gardens, etc. The
> last sentence comes from the idealist me.
>
> Niloofar
>

I get just a bit tired of hearing about public transportation.  Not only is
it terribly inconvenient for someone who is disabled, has to carry heavy
grocery bags, etc., but it's expensive like everything else.  In Chicago,
the price of the CTA has now increased to the point where a round trip
somewhere costs $5.00.  Poor people simply can't afford it.  Unless public
transportation is only a small part of a much larger restructuring of every
aspect of American society, it's practically worthless for a significant
segment of the population.  The segment, of course, that needs it the most.
And good luck with that total restructuring of American society.

Incidentally, when our automakers finally start cranking out all those shiny
new electric and hybrid cars, only 35 or 40 years later than they should
have and could have, guess who's going to have to buy the old used gas
guzzlers that the rich folks are discarding?  Yeah, that's right...the poor
folks who can least afford the high price of gasoline.  I wonder what the
Limousine Liberals will do about THAT.  No, actually, I don't wonder at all.

John Wason




> On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 8:51 AM, <pengdust at aol.com> wrote:
>

> Economy bad all over — even before current crisis
>> By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
>> ,
>> AP
>>
>> WASHINGTON -Things really are bad all over — and they had gone bad even
>> before the housing and finance industries crashed and sent the economy into
>> a tailspin.
>>
>> New census data shows that throughout the first half of the decade, the
>> slumping economy touched nearly every community in the country. Incomes
>> dropped while poverty and unemployment rose in the vast majority of the
>> nation's cities and towns.
>>
>> Small and medium-sized cities in the Midwest, already suffering from an
>> ailing auto industry, were hit the hardest, with unemployment rates doubling
>> or tripling in communities throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
>>
>> The numbers weren't as bad in other parts of country, but no region was
>> spared, with incomes dropping as home prices escalated. The result: an
>> unsustainable housing market that ultimately fueled the current economic
>> crisis.
>>
>> "For a while we were on a binge of living beyond our means," said David
>> Wyss, chief economist at Standard and Poor's, the credit rating service. "We
>> were financing our spending habits by treating houses like giant ATMs."
>>
>> The data, which is being released Tuesday, is the first detailed economic,
>> social and demographic information for small- and medium-sized cities since
>> the 2000 census. It was collected over three years, from 2005 through 2007,
>> providing a mid-decade snapshot of every community with at least=2 020,000
>> residents.
>>
>> The data comes from the American Community Survey. Census takers interview
>> 3 million households a year for the survey, which produces annual data for
>> geographical areas with populations of 65,000 or more. For areas with at
>> least 20,000 people, the survey produces three-year averages.
>>
>> The new numbers explain why the housing bubble burst and why the economy
>> was such a big issue in this year's presidential campaign. They also explain
>> why voters soured so much on President George W. Bush 's handling of the
>> economy, even before the current financial crisis.
>>
>> The years covered by the report include the housing market at its peak.
>> Incomes had started to rise while poverty and unemployment rates had begun
>> to fall, following the recession earlier in the decade.
>> But in the vast majority of America's cities and towns, economic
>> conditions never fully reached the prosperity that marked the beginning of
>> the decade.
>>
>> The Associated Press analyzed economic data from the 2,000 or so cities
>> and towns across the nation with populations of 20,000 or more, comparing
>> the 2005-2007 data to figures from the 2000 census.
>> Among the findings:
>>
>> _Median household income dropped in 79 percent of the cities and towns.
>> Incomes dropped in the wealthiest communities as well as the poorest.
>> Charleston, Ill., home to Eastern Illinois University, saw the biggest drop
>> — 31 percent — to a median household income of just under $21,000.
>>
>> Nationally, incomes dropped by 4.3 percent20during the period, to $50,007.
>>
>> _The poverty rate increased in 70 percent of the cities and towns. Athens,
>> Ohio, home to Ohio University, had the highest poverty rate, at 52.3
>> percent, in the 2005-2007 period.
>>
>> Nationally, the poverty rate increased from 12.4 percent to 13.3 percent
>> since the start of the decade.
>> _The unemployment rate increased in 71 percent of the cities and towns.
>> Muskegon, Mich., a city of about 40,000 near Lake Michigan, had the highest
>> unemployment rate, at 22.1 percent.
>>
>> Nationally, the unemployment rate increased from about 4 percent in 2000
>> to 6.6 percent in the 2005-2007 period.
>>
>> _Median home values increased in 92 percent of the cities and towns
>> studied — doubling and tripling in many cities, mainly in California.
>> Nationally, the median home value increased 26 percent, to $181,800.
>> It's not surprising that many communities were doing better in 2000 than
>> they were mid-decade, said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics
>> at Moody's  Economy.com.
>>
>> "The year 2000 was at the end of an incredible boom that lasted a decade,"
>> Hoyt said.
>> Incomes were up, unemployment was down and the dot-com bubble had not yet
>> burst on Wall Street.
>> "We just didn't have enough years of expansion" this decade, he said.
>>
>
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