[Peace-discuss] Change We Didn't Expect?

[John W.]

On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 4:08 PM, LAURIE SOLOMON <LAURIE at advancenet.net>wrote:

>  *An interesting and telling article.  It appears that the current
> economic downturn is good because it has brought change to the way of
> American Middle and upper class white collar lives, they are now forced to
> take time to smell the roses.  Unfortunately, they always could have taken
> time to smell the roses; it is just now they have no choice.  But unlike the
> poor, who have always been forced to have time to smell the roses but could
> not afford to smell the roses because their spending time working at their
>  jobs and their income was survival and not discretionary, have not really
> experienced any change for the good – or any change at all.  They were out
> of work in the good times and they are out of work now.  If they did get
> work, it was low pay, dead end, and often part-time temporary work which
> forced them to use any down time searching for their next paycheck or way of
> surviving; and things are no different now.*
>
> **
>
> *A key difference as I see it is that the poor are accustomed to that life
> style and have learned to adapt to it for better or worse; the downward
> mobile middle class and working class folks who are not accustomed to a life
> with no work or income available have not learned to adapt to it and how to
> survive without either quilt or remorse about the way things use to be and
> how they should continue to be, how they were deprived and now entitled to
> assistance and relief, etc.  They now feel the need to justify their current
> economic and social situation by telling us how it is a blessing that they
> now have time to take it easy, smell the roses, enjoy life – albeit on a
> more limited budget and scale than previously.  Ironically, despite the
> increasing number  unemployed, underemployed, homeless, and anxious people,
> most of those who have had to change their life style have had the resources
> and supports available to them to make the change in life style and even
> find some good in it.  This is and has not been the case for the poor, who
> never had those resources and supports available to them but somehow managed
> to survive despite that and are not given any free time to smell the roses
> due to the economic downturn.*
>
> **
>
> *The real questions are:  When the conditions do not change and the
> resources and supports disappear, will the middle and working classes as
> well as the upper class executives and white collar workers be able to cope
> and adapt when they no longer have discretionary free time to smell the
> roses but have to engage in a daily hand to mouth existence?  Should such a
> time come about, will that produce any radical significant long lasting
> transformations and changes not only in life styles but in the very
> structure and operation of society?*
>

The answer to the latter question is "no".



> **
>
> **
>
> *Florentin Collomp | Change We Didn't Expect? *
> http://www.truthout.org/050409E?n
> Writing for Le Figaro, Florentin Collomp considers "The New American Way of
> Life in the Obama Era," while Alain Dubuc writes for Quebec's La Presse:
> "Ever since this crisis started, people have often wondered whether it would
> change anything. Whether, beyond its obvious economic impact, the shock
> would be sufficient to provoke lasting transformations in our societies, to
> result in our learning from our own mistakes."
>

And the answer to M. Dubec's implied question is an emphatic "no".
Remember, you heard it here first.
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