Friday’s economic news was abuzz with the announcement that Gross Domestic Product grew by 5.7% in the previous quarter of 2009. Now, have the economic wizards in Washington/Wall Street figured out how to keep the economy growing with only 80% of the population participating in it–I’m subtracting the 20% of us who live in what I call the “OtherAmerica.” Can they actually keep it limping along as each week, another 400,000+ workers are added to unemployment rolls? Can you run an eight-cylinder economy on just six cylinders this way? For how long?
Is my outlook too negative? Why don’t I publish more “good news?”
The answer is, I’m trying to accurately reflect the reality that I see facing the 20% of US population now living in the “OtherAmerica.” Who are these? It’s the people now permanently unemployed. The people living on part-time incomes who really can’t afford to live on part-time incomes. The 40 million (or whatever the real number is) who are living without health insurance. Or enough health insurance–just one major accident or illness away from full bankruptcy. The people living at or below the federal poverty line. That’s our “OtherAmerica.”
And for us, the economic news is unrelentingly bad. Day after day, week after week, month after month. There is no recovery out here in OtherAmerica, sorry to report.
I don’t believe the good news on the GDP.
B.G.