If the middle class and elderly (who pay the vast majority of taxes and services) become poor and homeless who can turn the economy around and how?Yes, 'the wealthy are recovering' as pensions and 401k's were emptied and shifted... putting Grandma on the street and securing a relentless future of tax increases and inflation on our middles class whose only tangible investments were all but lost to the market 'winners'.
Lets not kid anyone that money just disappears like a juvenile would like mom to believe happened to the $20 missing from her purse.
Economics facts: In tough economic times rich typically stay rich. Poor can not get poorer, yet continue to suffer beyond monetary measure. What does 'change' is the stability of our working class and elderly. They are the first and hardest hit and last to recovery.
Huffington post breaks down the fall of the middle class , while Sharon Astyk's has to kick me in the soul with what our economy is doing to the care and future of our elderly while embracing the relentless financial and social burden we are bestowing upon our children. Summary of Sharon's post:
Most of us, if we envision something other than wholly independent old age, probably hope for something like an affluent person's assisted living community or a senior residence. The reality is that these places are available only to those with substantial savings or income, or high value housing to trade. And it is also the case that when your savings are gone, you are removed from such places – it is not at all uncommon for someone to enter assisted living and outlive their income or housing value, and have to move either back in with family or into a nursing home.
Affluent assisted living, funded by a rising housing market and stock market growth is simply not something most of us will be able to count on. Which leaves one of two choices - the care of loved ones or nursing homes.
And the nursing home option is about to get a lot worse:
Yahoo News "The nation's nursing homes are perilously close to laying off workers, cutting services — possibly even closing — because of a perfect storm wallop from the recession and deep federal and state government spending cuts, industry experts say.
A Medicare rate adjustment that cuts an estimated $16 billion in nursing home funding over the next 10 years was enacted at week's end by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — on top of state-level cuts or flat-funding that already had the industry reeling.
And Congress is debating slashing billions more in Medicare funding as part of health care reform.
Add it all up, and the nursing home industry is headed for a crisis, industry officials say.
"We can foresee the possibility of nursing homes having to close their doors," said David Hebert, a senior vice president at the American Health Care Association. "I certainly foresee that we'll have to let staff go."
The funding crisis comes as the nation's baby boomers age ever closer toward needing nursing home care. The nation's 16,000 nursing homes housed 1.85 million people last year, up from 1.79 million in 2007, U.S. Census Bureau figures show.
Already this year, 24 states have cut funding for nursing home care and other health services needed by low-income people who are elderly or disabled, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit research firm based in Washington, D.C."
As our population ages, the choices for caring for them are about to get much narrower – fewer options, fewer people with enough wealth to pay for all the amenities, and much worse public care for the elderly. We were always facing this crisis – the baby boomer's aging was always going to put a massive strain on our financial resources and ability to do elder care. The situation is rendered more acute, however, by our collective crisis, and we must, quite rapidly, begin making plans for how we will care for aging parents and grandparents. If before it was marginally possible to imagine putting them in a "home" fairly soon, it will not be.
I know many people who will say that they'd rather endure anything than be dependent on their children. But the truth is this – that for most people, times will come in their lives when they are dependent – on spouses, and then, perhaps, on children.
There are no easy and good choices here – read more by Sharon
While steron keeps promoting that they have the next 'perpetual motion machine', I do not have much faith in these 'hope machines that break the laws of thermal dynamics'... I am however, the perpetual optimist who knows we can free our nation and future generations of hunger, harm and this fiscal burden.
When we fix the MONTHLY $2.5 trillion dollar energy blackhole imploding the prosperity and fabric of our nation, then the rest is obtainable...otherwise ALL continues to be unsustainable
Happy Energy Month!