The parking lot is jammed, no room for even a motorcycle. Cars are parked and, in some cases, double parked, for several blocks around. Old cars new cars beaters held together with duct tape and wire in some cases, new looking SUVs whose small dents and scratches and scars belie the truth.
The congregants are queued up out the door across the lot and around the block. Some in business suits some in jeans or sweats some in their work clothes. Some heavy coats some not quite tatters some windbreakers.
Some have their heads high, others stare almost morosely at the ground. They chat quietly among themselves, restless small children tuing at their parents' hands.
All are waiting. Under the grey skies in the cold and wind.
Not for the service to begin.
This isn't Sunday.
There is no special pastor or local luminary about to speak.
There is no wedding or funeral service on this day.
This is three o'clock in the afternoon the Friday before Thanksgiving 2014.
The people are lined up here under the grey skies in the cold and wind in heavy coats and light windbreakers because they are waiting for the monthly food pantry to open, hosted at the local Reformed Lutheran Church by the local Area Food Bank. Staffed solely by volunteers.
The Church isn't in the inner city, not in a rundown neglected neighborhood slowly succumbing to urban blight, sliding into decrepitude.
It is in what is considered a well off middle class suburb/township to the city. A bedroom community to Philly (an hour's drive with a good tailwind) and to the Allentown Bethlehem Easton area.
But the middle class folks here today are no longer nearly as well off as they used to be. To be in this line they must qualify financially (the less you have etc.) Once inside the food is metered out by men and women like my 76 year old mother, based on income and family size. By degree of need if you will.
They bring their children along or come with their neighbors or on their own, pick up things for their own elderly parents who can't get out and around any longer.
And the volunteers always ALWAYS wish their was more to give.
They walk or drive in their beaters or new looking cars whose scratches and dents belie the truth of their situation.
Downsized. Outsourced. Plant closed. Going out of business.
Through no fault of their own they can no longer afford to feed their families properly.
And yet many look embarrassed or ashamed when they leave.
But they shouldn't. This is not a government handout. This is food donated by friends and neighbors and businesses -- like the Big Box Retailer I just left -- from the community to the community. Neighbors helping neighbors. Fittingly in a local house of worship.
As you'll read below they're telling us about the falling unemployment rate and things are turning around and maybe the middle class will start to come back.
But you can't prove that by the men and women, young and old, small children who have walked or ridden along tugging at their parents' hands, standing under the grey skies in the cold and wind in good coats and not quite tatters queued up to hopefully be able to put food on their table for the next month. That it's the Friday before Thanksgiving 2014 means little to many of them. They have no hope for a big feast. At least not of their own. Most are barely getting by. Some are barely surviving.
So as I've been telling you for a number of years now don't believe the crap about "the recovery".
Anyone who believes it and certainly anyone who sells it hasn't been to The Church lately.
Because if they did they'd understand how Great a Sin their Lie really is.
Gallup:
The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment
Here's something that many Americans -- including some of the smartest and most educated among us -- don't know: The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading.
Right now, we're hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is "down" to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.
None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job -- if you are so hopelessly out of work that you've stopped looking over the past four weeks -- the Department of Labor doesn't count you as unemployed. That's right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news -- currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren't throwing parties to toast "falling" unemployment.
There's another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you're an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 -- maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn -- you're not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. Few Americans know this.
Yet another figure of importance that doesn't get much press: those working part time but wanting full-time work. If you have a degree in chemistry or math and are working 10 hours part time because it is all you can find -- in other words, you are severely underemployed -- the government doesn't count you in the 5.6%. Few Americans know this.
There's no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie.
And it's a lie that has consequences, because the great American dream is to have a good job, and in recent years, America has failed to deliver that dream more than it has at any time in recent memory. A good job is an individual's primary identity, their very self-worth, their dignity -- it establishes the relationship they have with their friends, community and country. When we fail to deliver a good job that fits a citizen's talents, training and experience, we are failing the great American dream.
Gallup defines a good job as 30+ hours per week for an organization that provides a regular paycheck. Right now, the U.S. is delivering at a staggeringly low rate of 44%, which is the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the adult population, 18 years and older. We need that to be 50% and a bare minimum of 10 million new, good jobs to replenish America's middle class.
I hear all the time that "unemployment is greatly reduced, but the people aren't feeling it." When the media, talking heads, the White House and Wall Street start reporting the truth -- the percent of Americans in good jobs; jobs that are full time and real -- then we will quit wondering why Americans aren't "feeling" something that doesn't remotely reflect the reality in their lives. And we will also quit wondering what hollowed out the middle class.
Right now, we're hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is "down" to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.
None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job -- if you are so hopelessly out of work that you've stopped looking over the past four weeks -- the Department of Labor doesn't count you as unemployed. That's right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news -- currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren't throwing parties to toast "falling" unemployment.
There's another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you're an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 -- maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn -- you're not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. Few Americans know this.
Yet another figure of importance that doesn't get much press: those working part time but wanting full-time work. If you have a degree in chemistry or math and are working 10 hours part time because it is all you can find -- in other words, you are severely underemployed -- the government doesn't count you in the 5.6%. Few Americans know this.
There's no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie.
And it's a lie that has consequences, because the great American dream is to have a good job, and in recent years, America has failed to deliver that dream more than it has at any time in recent memory. A good job is an individual's primary identity, their very self-worth, their dignity -- it establishes the relationship they have with their friends, community and country. When we fail to deliver a good job that fits a citizen's talents, training and experience, we are failing the great American dream.
Gallup defines a good job as 30+ hours per week for an organization that provides a regular paycheck. Right now, the U.S. is delivering at a staggeringly low rate of 44%, which is the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the adult population, 18 years and older. We need that to be 50% and a bare minimum of 10 million new, good jobs to replenish America's middle class.
I hear all the time that "unemployment is greatly reduced, but the people aren't feeling it." When the media, talking heads, the White House and Wall Street start reporting the truth -- the percent of Americans in good jobs; jobs that are full time and real -- then we will quit wondering why Americans aren't "feeling" something that doesn't remotely reflect the reality in their lives. And we will also quit wondering what hollowed out the middle class.
1 comment:
Look at what Obama does to the least of these.
Telling the nation the unemployment rate is 5.6% is rubbing salt in their wounds, and making it appear as if they are responsible for their situation.
This is a kind of slander against the newly disenfranchised poor of the Obama era.
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