Homelessness grows as more live check-to-check

USA Today ^ | 8/12/03 | Stephanie Armour

[Gothmog]

Homelessness in major cities is escalating as more laid-off workers already living paycheck-to-paycheck wind up on the streets or in shelters.

As Americans file for bankruptcy in record numbers and credit card debt explodes, more workers are a paycheck away from losing their homes. Now the frail economy is pushing them over the edge. With 9 million unemployed workers in July, the face of homelessness is changing to include more families shaken by joblessness.

[new cruelty]

You seem easily wowed.

[DugwayDuke]

"But despite this Hebry Ford pioneered paying awage to his employees sufficient that they could buy his products. that was perhaps his true genius."

Depends on your product doesn't it? One wonders what Boeing would have to pay for each employee to buy his own 747.

[Conservative til I die]

I guess that means you just cried "uncle" right? Loser.

[holdmuhbeer]

What do you suggest our government do about the current trade deficit?

[holdmuhbeer]

Hey dude, I'm on your side.

[RightWhale]

The first thing a Chinese friend of mine looked for when he first stepped foot on the ground here was the homeless, which in Beijing everyone had been told was rampant in America. Instead he had to learn the classes of recreational vehicles and to not stare at fat Americans.

[Tokhtamish]

The solution is to face the fact that no certification or training will protect you from the fact that someone in Bangalore with precisely the same qualifications as you will do your job for a tenth of your pay unless the US government takes your side and sets in place some tariff protection. This applies to each and every job that does not require face to face contact and every factory job. All the Dale Carnegie peptalk in the world is meaningless in the face of this hard economic reality. There is nothing you can do to compete with this kind of wage differential all by yourself and imagining that you can get "training" in "some other kind of software programming" where India and China and outsourcing do not exist is wishful thinking.

[Gothmog]

In post #87 you said:

"...things are worse than they have been since the Great Depression." (I can't believe you said this, you really are quite amusing, like the town fool)

The New York Time's lib columnist Bob Herbert reports that at Al Gore's recent speech, Gore said:

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/abs_news_body.asp?section=Opinion&oid=30486

"Instead of creating jobs, for example, we are losing millions of jobs -- net losses for three years in a row,' said Gore. 'That hasn’t happened since the Great Depression.'"

Yes, you add so much to this forum mindlessly parroting Gore's nonsense. Thank you for 'contributing' so much.

It takes a real manly man (like you and your hero Gore) to so proudly display your ignorance. But don't go away mad, just go away.

[subterfuge]

"Jobs hard to find"

Me skeptical.

[Conservative til I die]

But there *are* plenty of jobs that are being done with computers and are still staying in the US. Basically *every* office job requires some basic computer skills (MS Word, eMail at the least).

Remember, this lady is a clerical worker, not an HTML programmer. And she stated that she has found plenty of places that said they would hire but for her lack of PC skills. Now, she may exaggerated the amount of places that would hire her out of embarassment at being on unemployment, but you get the point nonetheless.

Also, I would say it's kind of silly to look for jobs that are being exported or have already been exported, don't you think???? I mean, what do you say to a kid in Flint Michigan who says "When I get out of high school I plan to work in an automobile plant!"

[samuel_adams_us]

Let's see, how about a bill for fair trade as well as open trade, how about no taxes for corporations.

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

Being underemployed at 2 jobs does not leave you much time, but if you are not acquainted with these websites, they do make activism easy and keep one updated.

http://www.numbersusa.com/index
http://www.fairus.org
http://www.techsunite.org

Before you give up on the Republican Party, think about the kind of judges that the Dims would appoint and how they would have mishandled 9/11.

[samuel_adams_us]

Just remember in the world of stuff, I am standing on your shoulders.

[BMiles2112]

But despite this Hebry Ford pioneered paying awage to his employees sufficient that they could buy his products. that was perhaps his true genius.
I don't really buy this, either. I don't know what the standard rate was compared to what Ford payed his employees, but it would inevitably raise the cost of the car. So now x number of employees could afford the cars, which raises the cost of the cars to $y, which would then make x number of other people unable to afford the cars. Sure, it was good for publicity, but if there were other competitors out there who could sell for the same price, it would not have been possible.

[mil-vet]

Actually, the statistics are liberal fecal matter. Get the gov't out of the "welfare" business and give concern for our "fellow man" back to local organizations (primarily, but not limited to, religious) and the salvation army, et.al., and watch things change, however slowly. It's gonna take a long time to undo damage and manure-like thinking created by 40+ years of failed gov't welfare programs!

This data is from a bunch of mayors who, no doubt, are trying to shift blame to conservatives when it is their own, demonstrated, liberal lack of fiscal accountability regarding a problem which far predates Bush!

"The poor" are documented throughout the history of man; Bush didn't create them and, if he's smart, he won't aid and abet the problem by increasing spending for so-called "welfare" programs which are proven failures!

[Conservative til I die]

Then find another career. I say this seriously. It sounds cold, but this is a fact. Tell me which is going to get you a job quicker: Protesting at a Bush rally about how it's not fair or bitching on an internet political board, or going to take some classes or new training????

[harpseal]

Please understand I have had my own bisiness for over ten years now. I know the overhead costs you are talking about. I pay them. I have to pay for FUTA that I will never get a penny from. When I stopped hiring new peopel a few years back I was able to keep everyone employed that I had employed until they either found new jobs or had retired (one person was retiring). Now I do not liek all teh regulations and all the other taxes taht an employer must pay but that is the cost of having employees in the USA. I sold what I sold in the USA so I did not object to those costs. I have lived in the USA my entire life. I am a loyal conservative and I realize that the currtent trade envirornment is destroying too many Americans's lives. It is also destroying a whole lot of economic activity in thsi nation. I ahve a real problem with people who think they have a right to shop the world for the lowest price for anything and then bring that into the USA. They have to pay what duties are imposed by Congress ande signed into law by teh President.

I also have a real problem with Republicans who do not recognize theeconomy is in a "jobless recovery" it has list jobs constitently this year. This will bite GWB if he does not make it his issue.

[samuel_adams_us]

I agree with you, but he might help those unemployed from the upper middle class whose jobs are being shipped overseas. You know those who make more than most, the 80 to 100k a year engineers. Unless you lump them in with the uneducated poor.

[dfwgator]

Geez, what are PC Skills?? To learn how to do Word, Excel or e-mail should take a half and hour at the most to learn even if somebody has never used a computer before. It's all a scam in order to sell computer training to people. Software should adapt to people, not the other way around. (I used to work in the usability area, can't you tell?)

[ought-six]

"No, but it is the job of the president to look after the best interest of the citizens of this country and employing chinese and indians is not. Even Alexander Hamilton knew about tariffs and fair and free trade."

Excuse me, but the president can't dictate whom a company hires. Busineses are in business to (gasp!) make a profit. Unfortunately, Americans are pricing themselves out of the market. I don't like it, but that's a fact. We have the government to thank for that, with its overbearing and oppressive laws, as well as the trial lawyers, who have bankrupted entire industries, costing literally hundreds of thousands of direct jobs, and likely twice that number in ancillary jobs. Moreover, the economic "boom" of the Clinton years was based on fictitious wealth (even Alan Greenspan admits that), fueled mostly by the .com companies. The 1990s' economy was based on a wealth that was created -- literally -- mostly out of thin air; there was very little of substance to it; there was little if anything tangible about it. America has ceased to be the great manufacturer and industrial giant it once was, mainly because the Democrats and the liberals have made it difficult or impossible to stay competitive and make a profit. The Dems and the liberals have filled the books with laws that prevent or forbid businesses from doing what they do best: provide a product or a service for a fair price. The unions have a lot of the blame for this, as well (but I repeat myself, since they are overwhelmingly Democrats, at least their leadership is). The enviro laws, the high cost of defensive measures (high insurance rates, processes and programs that do nothing other than try and insulate companies from the greed of voracious lawyers, but to no avail; costs that must necessarily be passed on to consumers), are just a couple examples of what is wrong with American business today. Until we rid ourselves of the scourge of big govvernment, bureaucratic oversight, and the unlimited lust for money that consumes the trial lawyers, we will continue our economic collapse. We either change direction now, or in ten years we will be a socialist republic.