A Tub of Lard and 10% Unemployed

The tub of lard known as Albert Haynesworth began his $100 million dollar career with the Redskins inauspiciously on Sunday, but I’m sure he’ll prove himself well worth the hundred million when all is said and done. And besides only $41 million is guaranteed.

Dan Snyder’s no dummy. Although he has found it probably harder than he expected to buy the Superbowl, he’ll keep shelling out the bucks and eventually he’ll bring home the trophy, and then it will all be worth it.

Anyway, for those of us who aren’t Washington Redskins, or Dan Snyder, things aren’t all that great. Here’s a summary of the devastation.  It’s hard to know where to begin quoting, so here’s a big hunk by Bob Herbert in the New York Times.

Consider this: Some 9.4 million new jobs would have to be created to get us back to the level of employment at the time that the recession began in December 2007. But last month, we lost 216,000 jobs. If the recession technically ends soon and we get to a point where some modest number of jobs are created — say, 100,000 or 150,000 a month — the politicians and the business commentators will celebrate like it’s New Year’s.

And:

But think about how puny that level of job creation really is in an environment that needs nearly 10 million jobs just to get us back to the lean years of the George W. Bush administration.

A national survey of jobless workers by a pair of professors at Rutgers University shows just how traumatized the work force has become in this downturn. Two-thirds of respondents said that they had become depressed. More than half said it was the first time they had ever lost a job, and 80 percent said there was little or no chance that they would be able to get their jobs back when the economy improves.

The 1,200 respondents were jobless at some point over the past year, and most — 894 — are still unemployed. More than half said that they had been forced to borrow money from friends or relatives, and a quarter have missed their mortgage or rent payments.

The survey found that affluent, well-educated workers, who had traditionally been able to withstand a downturn in reasonably good shape, were being hit hard this time around.

The professors, Carl Van Horn and Cliff Zukin, described that phenomenon as “a metric of the recession’s seismic impact.” Of the workers who found themselves unemployed for the first time, more than one in four had been earning $75,000 or more annually.

“This is not your ordinary dip in the business cycle,” said Mr. Van Horn. “Americans believe that this is the Katrina of recessions. Folks are on their rooftops without a boat.”

Stunned by the financial and psychological toll of the recession, and seeing little in the way of hopeful signs on the employment landscape, many of the surveyed workers showed signs of discouragement. Three-fifths said that they had experienced feelings of helplessness.

Said one respondent: “I’ve always worked, so this is very depressing. At age 60, I never believed I would be unemployed unless I chose to be.”

Said another: “I fear for my family and my future. We are about to be evicted, and bills are piling. We have sold everything we possibly can to maintain, and are going under with little hope of anything.”

At some point the unemployment crisis in America will have to be confronted head-on. Poverty rates are increasing. Tax revenues are plunging. State and local governments are in a terrible fiscal bind. Unemployment benefits for many are running out. Families are doubling up, and the number of homeless children is rising.

It’s eerie to me how little attention this crisis is receiving. The poor seem to be completely out of the picture.

Yep, but Albert Haynesworth is doing well, and to be fair, he’s no greedier than any other star professional athlete. They and their sleazy agents live in an alternate reality of pure, pathetic, and shameless greed. And we love them anyway.