Article: The Invisible Class

(Image by Google Images) Details DMCA

by Google Images

We have reached a point in our lives, where from the summit of a high hill we can look back at the road which has delivered us here. Tis a tale of woe in a fairyland dream, sugar-coated pabulum, televised non-sense and unrealized dreams. It is hard to look back, almost painful, as yesterday weighs heavy in your pockets, so you try not to bring it along.

I have come full circle in this new reality, this new duality. This new America, where if we say we can't see you, then you're not there. Behind the faÃ �ade you can see the shadows of agenda, a war on the post office, a war on public employees and educators. It is a complete and total deconstruction of society and of the world, which we once knew. As a young man, I'd wondered what it must have been like to have lived in the third Reich. Trapped as just some plain Joe, watching madness coming into season, what would your consciousness say when there was real money on the line?

Five years ago, I was of the middle class; today I'm of the missing class. There are fewer Americans working today than there were in December. During the same time period, the civilian labor force has fallen by over half a million workers. The official numbers of those unemployed also fell. But strangely, the numbers of persons in the Civilian Non-institutional Population rose by almost 600,000 since December. Do you see it; do you understand what it really means?

Not in Labor Force

Mar. 2012 -- 88,288,000
Feb. 2013 -- 90,100,000
Mar. 2013 -- 90,483,000

The number of men 20 years and over, not in the labor force has grown by almost one million. One million American men, not just unemployed or discouraged workers, but men no longer counted as in the labor force in a single year. Rather than fix the economy, they just said they fixed the economy and the media aped along.

The average number of hours worked from March 2012 to March 2013 is virtually unchanged; there is no improvement anywhere to be seen. Retail trade employment lost 24,000 jobs in 31 days of March; clothing accessories stores lost 500 employees per day in March. Building materials and garden supply stores lost 10,000 people or 322 workers per day, for everyday of the month. It would seem reasonable to assume that if there were any and I do emphasize, any growth, to be seen in this economy, it would be reflected in garden supply store sales in the spring.

Appliance stores lost 6,000 employees last month, I guess we're all buying our washers, driers and refrigerators on the Internet these days, but more likely, it's Craigslist. But employment also fell in mining, manufacturing, wholesale trade, transportation, warehousing, information and financial services. Employment fell from the mine to the check-out line, in this all mighty consumer economy of ours. At a time when legitimate government would be trying to bolster the economy, this government terminated 3,000 Postal employees per week in March.

The unemployed are pushed through the sausage factory, where you don't ask where it came from unless you want to go there yourself. Through the steam pipes, through the valves and dials, finally poured down the drain pipe of untreated effluent, the waste product of a collapsing economy, deposited into the invisible sea of the missing class.

Through years of electric propaganda Americans have reached a point where it is now patriotic to hate Americans. This is not to say we haven't hated each other before, but in the past they were at least selective about it. In times past, we hated groups by race or creed, based on grandpa's hatreds. Clownish playschool Neo-Nazis or robed Klansman, scary only in the way an unchained pit bull is scary. Today our enemies are school teachers, municipal workers, postal workers, Union workers or the poor. All to be disparaged in the press round the clock by the Corporate News Networks.

The city of Detroit is now in the hands of an unelected Overseer, appointed by the governor to institute policies the electorate find unpalatable. Who is to blame for this American city's descent into ruins? Who is to blame for this catastrophe? According to the blogosphere it was caused by unions, blacks and decades of democratic politicians. Collective amnesia, plug and play racism, as the paid horde shouts for Barabbas.

It is a strange psychosis where a people profess a love for their country and its Democratic processes, while despising its citizens. Call it cardboard cut-out patriotism or flag waving from behind the bars.

Consumer Price Index

Food at Home -- Feb 2012 to February 2013, up 1.2 % (Not seasonally adjusted)
Motor Fuels -- Feb 2012 to February 2013, up 3.3%
Electricity - Feb 2012 to February 2013, up .8%
Apparel -- Feb 2012 to February 2013, up 2.4%
Shelter -- Feb 2012 to February 2013, up 2.3%
Medical Care-- Feb 2012 to February 2013, up 3.9%

Official Consumer Price Index rate of inflation -- 2.07%

Average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory employees on non-farm payrolls

March 2012- $ 19.68
March 2013- $ 20.03

The average wage increase was .35 cents an hour, that's average, now for retail workers it was .14 cents an hour and with an average work week of 33 hours their wages grew just $ 4.62 before taxes and maybe $2.50 after. There is no wage growth in this economy for anyone, regardless of what you do or who you are.

If you take the numbers listed by the bureau of Labor Statistics for duration of unemployment and add the numbers up, currently they stand at 15.68 million. If you do the same with last years numbers they total 15.9 million.

Part-time for economic reasons:

March 2012 -- 18,530,000
March 2013 -- 18,745,000

Marginally attached to the Labor Force:

March 2012 -- 2,352,000
March 2013 -- 2,326,000

Discouraged workers:

March 2012 -- 865,000
March 2013 -- 803,000

Total unemployed, marginally attached, discouraged workers and Part-time for
Economic reasons

March 2012 -- 37,647,000
March 2013 -- 37,554,000

Where have they gone to? They've gone to the invisible class and as far as their government is concerned, they simply do not exist. Their government refuses to recognize them, so they are simply discarded as no longer there. To be sent along down that weary path joining the others who've gone before them.

Total not in the Labor Force

March 2012 -- 88,288,000
March 2013 -- 90,483,000

Participation Rate:

March 2012 -- 63.8
March 2013 -- 63.3

And so I understand now, that childhood wonderment has turned real. It isn't the clicking jack boots, brass bands or flag waving displays which make up a Fascist state. It isn't their pointless wars of aggrandizement or the corruption of its basic legal and ethical systems. It is abandonment, as government no longer cares for its citizens but only for itself, it no longer protects its citizens, but protects itself from its citizens. It is a jagged edge of a broken bottle job market which demands your silence. A prison without walls or sentence, a life without place or existence, where to truly love your country, you must truly hate your government.

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group of course that believes you can do these things. Among them are a few other Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower