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You are here: Home / Politics / Poverty / Fuck The Poor / More Suffering is the Obvious Cure

More Suffering is the Obvious Cure

by $8 blue check mistermix|  July 11, 20118:12 am| 37 Comments

This post is in: Fuck The Poor

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This Times graphic and the accompanying story are an interesting contrast to the fantasy world of sacrifice and stimulus denial that characterizes a lot of Republican rhetoric. On average, $2 of every $10 of income is a government payment, and it’s more in the predominantly red states noted above. When that runs out, consumer spending will take another nose dive, since poor people actually have to spend every penny they get from the government. And, by the way, there are no jobs to be had:

In Arizona, where there are 10 job seekers for every opening, 45,000 people could lose benefits by the end of the year, according to estimates from the state Department of Economic Security. Yet employers in the state have added just 4,000 jobs over the last 12 months.

Some other states will also feel a disproportionate loss of income unless hiring revives. In Florida, where nearly 476,000 people are collecting unemployment benefits, employers have added only 11,200 jobs in the last year. In Michigan, employers have added about 40,000 jobs since May 2010, but about 267,000 people are claiming jobless benefits.

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37Comments

  1. 1.

    OzoneR

    July 11, 2011 at 8:20 am

    Funny how most of those states listed where residents have the highest percentage of personal income coming from government payments are red states.

    Land of Hypocrisy.

  2. 2.

    lacp

    July 11, 2011 at 8:28 am

    Beatings will continue until morale improves.

  3. 3.

    Mark S.

    July 11, 2011 at 8:29 am

    Wow, 4,000 jobs added for an entire fucking year. Heckuva job, Brewer. At least beheadings are down.

  4. 4.

    TreeBeard

    July 11, 2011 at 8:33 am

    Well done, America. You deserve Bachmanntshit Crazy Woman as your president.

  5. 5.

    cynosurescence

    July 11, 2011 at 8:33 am

    Ah, the never-ending irony of teabagger states being the ones most dependent on government handouts. The sadistic side of me would love to see the federal government give these ‘baggers what they want: cut off all government spending to their states, then watch the devolution as Newt Gingrich and Haley Barbour fight each other for the conch shell as the spokesman of the Galtian States of America.

    Of course, the reason this doesn’t happen is that none of the baggers’ chosen politicians really believe the anti-spending nonsense they spew. It’s a goddamn shame that no prominent Democrat has stood up and made this an issue in advancement of a new stimulus package. They should hold a press conference every day with a giant blown-up picture of some random ‘bagger congressman holding an oversized check of stimulus funds and ask them why they’re shitting on the memory of Ayn Rand.

    Want to destroy the Republican Party? Don’t call them out on hypocrisy to your friends, call them out on hypocrisy to THEIR friends.

  6. 6.

    bkny

    July 11, 2011 at 8:52 am

    uh, it’s not just spending on goodies … it’s food, shelter… watch for the tent cities sprouting up under the bypasses just like during the time of the great ronnie reagan.

  7. 7.

    John X.

    July 11, 2011 at 9:09 am

    “watch for the tent cities sprouting up under the bypasses just like during the time of the great ronnie reagan.”

    Already here. There are tents on the medians on I-40 in North Carolina. Lots of homeless encampments in the undeveloped urban woods around here, as well.

    One thing different from the 40s is that we are much better at shutting out and separating the down-and-out from the well-off. The poor rot in the woods, because the cops would tear down any visible tent city.

  8. 8.

    cat48

    July 11, 2011 at 9:10 am

    New Iowa Poll:

    Bachmann 25 Romney 21

    Time for Romney to attack Bachman instead of Obama.

  9. 9.

    Linda Featheringill

    July 11, 2011 at 9:17 am

    bkny #6

    it’s not just spending on goodies … it’s food, shelter…

    And the cost of essentials has been rising for some time. The cost of shelter rose as more and more people lost their homes. Gasoline and therefore transportation is high. Food costs have been growing at about 10% a year, even without buying the fancy stuff. Winter heat is much more expense than it used to be just a few years ago.

    The economists say there is very little to almost no inflation, with no rises in anything but food and transportation and heat. But what else can we afford? These three items plus shelter are about all that many people can buy. So their entire “shopping cart” is getting more expensive all the time.

  10. 10.

    Jamie

    July 11, 2011 at 9:18 am

    this is gonna be a whole bunch of fun:-(

  11. 11.

    Dennis SGMM

    July 11, 2011 at 9:19 am

    In Arizona, where there are 10 job seekers for every opening, 45,000 people could lose benefits by the end of the year, according to estimates from the state Department of Economic Security. Yet employers in the state have added just 4,000 jobs over the last 12 months.

    But, but, but, I thought that when Arizona drove away them job-stealin’ Messicans the Good Folk would all be able to find work.

  12. 12.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    July 11, 2011 at 9:47 am

    @Dennis SGMM #12:

    Obviously, there’s too much gubment involved still. Best to dissolve the whole state. Once that’s done, infinite monies.

  13. 13.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    July 11, 2011 at 10:02 am

    Tax cuts for the Producer Class would solve this.

  14. 14.

    ruemara

    July 11, 2011 at 10:03 am

    Love, love, love the fact that the only economist quoted in this article is a CATO mouthpiece. Even the liberal NYT…

  15. 15.

    RalfW

    July 11, 2011 at 10:07 am

    FYI, the NYT headlined the article on Boehner-fail thusly at about 7:45 am CDT:

    John Boehner’s Budget Vision Crashes Into Divided Congress

    By 8:30 they had cravenly retitled the article:

    For Boehner, Lofty Budget Goals Checked by Reality

    Oh, how the truth enrages and requires swift editing.

  16. 16.

    Viva BrisVegas

    July 11, 2011 at 10:07 am

    Time for Romney to attack Bachman instead of Obama.

    It would make life easier for him. He won’t have to make up crazy shit anymore, Bachmann will do it for him.

  17. 17.

    Zifnab

    July 11, 2011 at 10:08 am

    @efgoldman:

    Funny how the low-information voters in those very states will blame it on the n——- in the White House.

    They weren’t exactly voting Democrat en mass to begin with.

    The real question is how they respond to this drop in their incomes. Will they double down on the GOP? Will they revolt? Will they just slink off and not care? How far can you push the people in the red states before they start demanding the kind of social defenses and civil rights available in the blue states?

  18. 18.

    El Cid

    July 11, 2011 at 10:09 am

    In some magic way we should ask these poor right wing states to vote locality by locality whether or not to accept big gubmit munees. Those places in which a majority say no, cut it off. That way poorer areas not consisting of rural whites could continue aid, we’d save a lot of money, and those others could recognize soon the cruelty and stupidity they’ve brought upon themselves. In reality this would be too mean, and mostly should involve allowing them to go back in time and if desired reverse their decision. But it’s tempting.

  19. 19.

    RalfW

    July 11, 2011 at 10:16 am

    John X @ 8.

    This is one of the things I’ve been reflecting on…that as we’ve moved much more to income-stratified communities compared to the 1930s-40s, it’s incredibly easy for the wealthy – and more importantly for middle-to-upper middle Teabagger types – to never see or meet people at the low end of the economic scale.

    Even within family systems, it seems to me (speculating here) that in the 1930s, in part because families were larger then, but also because the great economic sorting hadn’t really gotten rolling yet, back then it was easy to know a sister or a cousin who was in dire straights, and see that they were decent, hardworking people screwed by businessmen and hard times – not shiftless welfare queens.

    As we’ve “they’d” the needy, we can cut the safety net with no emotional impact.

  20. 20.

    Bulworth

    July 11, 2011 at 10:20 am

    John Boehner’s Budget Vision Crashes Into Divided Congress

    I would actually take exception to the idea of Boner having a budget “vision” or of having “lofty” budget goals.

    But I guess for our media villagers, socking it to the poor and middle class constitutes “vision”.

  21. 21.

    RalfW

    July 11, 2011 at 10:20 am

    To expand a bit on my last – yes, the rich have always had their Crocus Hill or Pelham Manor manses, but the doctor used to live within a few blocks of the maid, and the shopkeeper probably had a cousin who was hard-scrabbling for a living.

    Now, suburbs are by design built with single price-point neighborhoods, offices are populated with similarly educated and incomed people, and you just don’t meet people not like yourselves unless you try.

    I have no solution. I think the modern urban planing models of mixed-income housing is a good idea, but has been undertaken at such a small scale as to be an iota in a sea of sameness.

  22. 22.

    Chris

    July 11, 2011 at 10:25 am

    Of course, the reason this doesn’t happen is that none of the baggers’ chosen politicians really believe the anti-spending nonsense they spew.

    I keep coming back to Taibbi’s quote:

    “The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending – with the exception of the money spent on them. In fact, their lack of embarrassment when it comes to collecting government largesse is key to understanding what this movement is all about.”

  23. 23.

    RalfW

    July 11, 2011 at 10:26 am

    But, but, but, I thought that when Arizona drove away them job-stealin’ Messicans the Good Folk would all be able to find work.

    Whocouldaknowed that illegals paid legal, local money for rent, food, cars and (maybe, if there were a few dollars left) entertainment.

    I recall reading a few articles not that long ago about landlords of low-end appt complexes being hard0hit by the exodus.

    Meanwhile, farm labor is having real issues in many ag states.

    Of course, the evidence-challenged winger community will plug their ears and not hear that undocumenteds were a net plus to society. Only white euro-immigrants were ever good for this nation, dothchaknow.

  24. 24.

    Berial

    July 11, 2011 at 10:33 am

    Chris at 23 has the right of it.

    I know state workers in MS that seem to honestly think state workers are useless and lazy so whole swaths of other departments should be shut down, but not them (or interestingly their co-workers). No they are the exception, hard workers that deserve to keep their job because they aren’t lazy or inefficient or whatever else the right wing radio has told them state workers are this week.

    It’s truly a wonder to behold the thought process that is a conservative.

  25. 25.

    Corner Stone

    July 11, 2011 at 10:34 am

    Unless hiring picks up sharply to compensate, economists fear that the lost income will further crimp consumer spending and act as a drag on a recovery that is still quite fragile.

    Or we could focus on cutting spending, and pulling more money out of the economy.
    Either way, I guess.

  26. 26.

    Davis X. Machina

    July 11, 2011 at 10:35 am

    There’s no graph in that Times piece showing virtue.

    If our austerity measures are just austere enough, if our fasting, penance and mortification of the flesh are impressive enough, God, whose face is now set against us like flint for our wickedness — transfer payments to the wrong people, graduated income tax, death duties, colored presidents — will cause the ewes to lamb again, the cows to calve, wheat to be heavy in the ear once more. And the jobs will come back, and U6 will drop like a stone.

    But we’re still too wicked…

    Prophecies to this effect can be found in the Book of Hayek, among the minor Prophets

  27. 27.

    Dennis SGMM

    July 11, 2011 at 10:36 am

    @John X.

    One thing different from the 40s is that we are much better at shutting out and separating the down-and-out from the well-off.

    Ten years ago I was commuting via Metrolink train into downtown Los Angeles. There were small tent cities nearly everywhere along the route. Many of them were along the RR right of way, others were built beneath the overpasses where urban streets crossed the tracks. None of them would be visible to a motorist. The camps were never broken up during the two years that I made that commute. Out of sight is out of mind so just keep your nasty poverty and homelessness where it won’t disturb anyone and society won’t take what little you have left.

  28. 28.

    Bruce S

    July 11, 2011 at 10:50 am

    Secretary Geithner: “For a lot of people…it’s going to feel very hard, harder than anything they’ve experienced in their lifetime”

    Reassuring…especially when the current “plan” is to restore “confidence” to a corporate sector that has record profits and to find enough ways to cut spending to allow Cryin’ John to save face with the crazy people he reports to. State budgets are also shrinking – and we’ve lost over half million public employees. Everything looks like the demand side of the economic equation is stalled, at best.

    I don’t know the political answer to the current impasse, but what I’m seeing and hearing from the White House on the jobs front doesn’t seem like leadership. Mostly an affirmation that the crazy folks aren’t talking crazy. I’m terrified that we’re going into a double-dip and there’s no Plan “B”.

    Incidentally, we need 90,000 new jobs a month just to keep up with population growth – never mind bringing down the unemployment rate. And corporations are doing fine, so the capital for investing in jobs is there. It needs a kick start. But…look over there! Deficits!

  29. 29.

    FlipYrWhig

    July 11, 2011 at 10:52 am

    The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending – with the exception of the money spent on them.

    That’s because, in their minds, they either (a) earned it, or (b) really need it. The “government spending” that needs to be drastically cut, they think, is the kind doled out to people who don’t qualify under either (a) or (b). That’s the key to “Tea Party” conservatism.

  30. 30.

    Nemesis

    July 11, 2011 at 10:59 am

    Disaster Capitalism 101.

    “Oh, we cant afford to pay those outta work bums ’cause, well, our country is broke.” (which is a lie).

    So now, those who orgasmically soil themselves over inflicting righteous pain on the undeserving poor can indulge in their $350 a bottle vino in celebration.

  31. 31.

    Corner Stone

    July 11, 2011 at 11:22 am

    @Bruce S:

    State budgets are also shrinking – and we’ve lost over half million public employees. Everything looks like the demand side of the economic equation is stalled, at best.

    Every time someone mentions private sector job growth, the question should be asked – “At what cost?”
    We’ve traded out hundreds of thousands of relatively stable middle class salary jobs in the public sector for private sector jobs you can’t pay the rent on.

  32. 32.

    ML

    July 11, 2011 at 11:28 am

    When George Patton was paymaster at a recently established pre-WW2 army base, the local townspeople began criticizing its presence (and the behavior of its soldiers) as having degraded their quality of lifestyle.

    Patton stifled the criticism by arranging to pay the soldiers in $2.00 bills. The town was soon awash with the bills, prompting the community to quit their bitching, and count their blessings.

  33. 33.

    daveNYC

    July 11, 2011 at 11:34 am

    New Iowa Poll:
    __
    Bachmann 25 Romney 21
    __
    Time for Romney to attack Bachman instead of Obama.

    Probably even worse than that in reality since I suspect that the motivation of Bachmann’s supporters is greater than that of Romney’s.

  34. 34.

    Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen

    July 11, 2011 at 11:45 am

    Eat. The. Rich.

    That is all.

    How far can you push the people in the red states before they start demanding the kind of social defenses and civil rights available in the blue states ^forming mobs and attacking brown people because when times get really tough, the reaLAMErican can be relied to turn on people who have NOTHING to do with his situation?

    Fxd to reflect History’s habit of repeating herself.

  35. 35.

    TK-421

    July 11, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    This Times graphic and the accompanying story are an interesting contrast to the fantasy world of sacrifice and stimulus denial that characterizes a lot of Republican and Administration rhetoric.

    Fixed. I’m not looking to pick on Team Obama, and I fully agree that the Republicans are primarily responsible for this up-is-down approach to the Recession.

    But, and IMO this is important, it’s awfully hard to make a change to the game when all the players are in agreement. A competing Democratic economic vision will never be advocated for if the de facto leader of Democrats doesn’t even believe in it.

    Unless and until the Obama Administration changes their approach, it doesn’t matter how bad the Republicans are. As long as everyone, including President Obama, believes “sacrifice and stimulus denial” is the way to go, then nothing will change. IMO it will be far more important and effective to work on the players who could change their tune (but right now aren’t), rather than continue to point out the insanity of those who will never change their tune.

    This is very closely related to my spittle-flecked rage at any Dem or liberal who continues to insist that there’s nothing President Obama can do. The change has to happen with the Obama Administration first, before any other change can be hoped for. We should all stop ignoring/excusing the Obama Administration’s role in this mess.

  36. 36.

    rickstersherpa

    July 11, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    1. It is not just Americans, it is a human (or perhaps a mammalian) phenomena that when times are tough and your betters are kicking the blank out of you to turn around and kick the next fellow lower down the social scale. Hence, Arizona, in which illegal immmigration was not even a shadow of an issue in the 1990s when folks were walking across the border in droves to help build houses, became more and more obsessed with the “border” problem as economic situation for most people deteriorated during the Oughts. And meanwhile, people had either stopped coming in or were going back as housing industray in Arizona crashed and burn with the worst declines this side of Las Vegas. You late middle age, white, mad, scared, and angry and someone on the radio says it is all the Brown people’s fault. Throughout the world in the 1920s and 30s, except the U.S., right-wingers took power in varoius post WWI economic catastrophes. Italy, Spain, Japan, Poland, and of course most famously Germany. Authoritarian and right wing movements thrive in bad times.

    2. The Village (and I am afraid to this extent the President is part of the Village) has continually been unable to comprehend the current economic crisis as a Minsky crisis (also known as balance sheet crisis) created by a period of Ponzi finance. They still find it hard to believe that a huge bubble blew up around housing, that loans made on those inflated asset prices are, after the 40% collapse of those asset prices, either bad loans or loans that will constrain consumption for years until they are paid off. They somehow think if they clap hard enough, the confidence fairy will come and people will start spending again.

    2. Anoter false meme that the Village and I am afraid the President (and for that matter the Clinton-Gore Presidency that preceded them) is that there is some zero-sum game between Government employees and private sector employees. It does not work out when you are in the zero-bound with interest rates. A Government employee made unemployed will just be another person (or family) defaulting on a mortgage, moving back in with other family (if lucky), and who will be definitely not going to the malls or restaurants anymore. And this lost of demand will mean less private sector employes and more debt-deflation. But somehow everyone in D.C. thinks this is the 1970s again when we had inflation ranging from 6% to 15% and interest rates peaked in the high teens.

  37. 37.

    Common Sense

    July 11, 2011 at 3:35 pm

    How is Alaska so low? I thought they lived on government money?

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