The New Math

There's been a lot of talk lately of the economic signs and what it suggests for our immediate and long term future. 

So many Americans alive today were raised with comfort and pride. On our shoulders were pinned the shiny bright future that began after World War II and sped through the population bubble of the 40's and 50's. We were the proteges of Superman and Kennedy: college, imagination, space, the presidency. I rode the wave in:   justice-for-all, women's rights, in full technicolor. 

The boomers were raised in the best of both worlds ~ a watered down version of a strong ethic that helped sustain our parents through the first Depression, the daily lessons about waste and earning your way via good old fashioned hard work, and a heap of moderate corporal punishment when needed. We had chores, earned our first car, worked through college. Coming from nothing imbeds many great economic truths which they tried to instill in us: earn before you spend; make your way one step at a time; there are no shortcuts; save and plan.

But have we learned it?

Statistics lie. Take our 14% unemployment rate and factor in the underemployed, the discouraged-and-not-looking, the $30-an-hour now working for $10.75, and the drop-offs from unemployment, and you come up with a figure more like 22%. How many more have dropped below the poverty line in the last two years? I personally know 3 in foreclosure and 8 unemployed.

The real math going on at my table is that with a modest unemployment check, I bring home more than any of the jobs I apply for. We have trimmed spending in every conceiveable way, but it won't be enough. Houses are liabilities that we cannot sell. This is the economic new math.

The underlying and more dangerous catastrophe is what put us here, the moral and ethical crisis of 30 years of dwindling integrity and lack of national sacrifice by our leaders. They have allowed its people to secede from the union and form billions of individual country states that are out for themselves.

As small businesses scratch for work, what shortcuts are they compelled to take to undercut the competition? Their desperation will impact the integrity and ethics of our workforce trying not to become an unemployment statistic. Because once you've compromised your integrity, it's easier to do it again. When we regain our national footing, and the second Depression subsides, what will be left of the hard working, ethical and industrious legacy to pass on?