Monday, September 07, 2009

Food for Thought

Despite the cheerleaders, read Economists' use of number crunching to show that the recession is over, other numbers show the opposite.Toronto’s jobless rate rose to 11.5% from 8.5% one year ago, and welfare cases rose 12 000 to 87 450 over the same period. For the 18-24 age group, unemployment is up to 20%, leaving many students to face more debt to be paid off after graduation. Great system!
- Then there are the effects of capitalism. The Brighton Independent reported that 19%, or 1 000 soldiers and police serving in Afghanistan have been discharged for psychological strain, a jump of 50% over the last year.
- Imagine this – you buy a condominium in Florida for $430 000 forRetirement. Then the market crashes and all other buyers walk away. You are left as the sole tenant in a 32 -storey building! Of course, there are plenty of homeless people who could fill it up, but they don’t count without the cash. Only in capitalism could you encounter something this stupid!
John Ayers

1 comment:

JimN said...

When capitalist economists say that the recession is over they mean that the rate of profit has been 'normalised' so that growth levels (read capital accumulation) are restored.
Unemployment (read throwing workers on the scrapheap) is part of the means of restoring the capitalists' rate of profit, along with attacks on pay and conditions of employment.
Of course, the human effects of this process are purely academic to economists.