Brother Can You Spare A Dime

The double digit unemployment rate in this country does not bode well for our future. The repercussions of joblessness will affect all of us. That there is no relief in sight is a tragedy. Neither the government nor corporations have come up with a viable plan to put people to work.

I can't think of anything more frustrating than suddenly finding yourself with the prospect of no means to adequately support yourself or provide for your family. I consider myself fortunate that in my forty year working career I was never unemployed. I can however feel the pain of those unemployed as I look back at my childhood and remember the difficult days my father went through trying to put food on the table and a roof over our heads as we endured the fallout from the Great Depression.

One can attempt to put the blame for today's unemployment problems on one political party or another but that is conversation for political campaigns. What matters is, anyone out of work, with no prospects of getting work in the near future , is going to be very, very angry. Much as a wounded animal , he  will  lash out at someone and that someone is the government. He does not care which political party is the blame, as far as he is concerned the government is the blame and he wants something done about it.

I believe that the Obama team has not given the proper priority to programs designed to create jobs. They did not  cause the problem but the problem is theirs to deal with. They asked for the opportunity to deal with it in 2008 and we gave it to them. It is now their problem. The unemployed are not concerned with who caused the problem, they only want someone to solve it. The Democrats will pay the price in November as their unemployed supporters desert the party in desperation. Not that they will fare any better with the Republicans, but at least for a day, they will have taken a swing at a government that has not been responsive enough to their needs.

Democrats and Republicans must come together to resurrect the American Dream which gives everyone a fighting chance to earn a living. I'm cynical enough to feel that this will never happen. Bipartisanship has been relegated to the junk heap. As a result  we are stuck with the excesses of the Tea Party and hopefully not something more violent. Until those of us with a paycheck and a roof over our heads force government and yes, corporations, to come to the aid of our unemployed, we are faced with a volatile future which unfortunately may get violent.