The stock market is climbing. Major financial institutions are reporting strong earnings. Television analysts declare that the recession is ending. You hear these reports, then you check your wallet – and find it nearly empty. College graduates among your children are searching for employment, yet positions remain scarce. Meanwhile, younger students still in school or preparing to enter college face mounting education debt, with employment prospects looking bleak upon graduation. Consider your other children who would have entered the job market two years ago – those who might have found work back then. Today, positions are hard to come by while hundreds of applicants compete for each opening. If you lost your job and are over 50, the reality is grim: another position seems unlikely. Whether you were laid off or your employer shut down entirely, you face unemployment lines, worry that won’t stop, and fear about what comes next. The stock market is up. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has surpassed 10,000. The recession is supposedly ending. Wall Street banks are posting impressive profits that should make us celebrate – yet we’re not celebrating. That’s where the disconnect appears. Wall Street operates in its own world. Its triumphs bear little relation to the struggles residents of Chelsea and thousands of other American cities are enduring. The Dow Jones breaking 10,000 means nothing to millions of homeowners underwater on their mortgages. For those facing foreclosure – and Chelsea has many – it’s just another headline. This community is full of foreclosures and people desperately needing work. I’m relieved the economy didn’t completely fall apart around this time last year. It nearly did. It erased trillions in assets, destroyed the real estate market, shuttered companies, and transformed us into a profit-obsessed economy that creates jobs by eliminating them – generating larger profits through more layoffs. How does this resolve? When will employment return? When will the economy thrive again? America’s automobile industry is done. Credit card companies face no growth ahead. People lack the money to purchase as they once did before last year changed everything. Even if they had money, they wouldn’t spend it. The core problem remains: jobs aren’t being created while more people need them. Businesses continue closing. Most can’t find buyers. Banks refuse to lend (despite their talent for losing billions) and now … Christmas is almost here.
The big disconnect or the joke is on us
