Local Factory to Layoff 300, Shutter One Division
Two Factories To Shutter in January
Car Lot Trims Sales Staff from Nine to Three
Textile Mill No Longer Accepting Applications, Considering Layoffs
Why no links? Because these stories, all of which have occured in the past week within 20 miles of my home, can only be found by word-of-mouth or in the local print-only newspapers.
While we all debate bank bailouts and auto industry bailouts and market crashes and the severity/length of the depression/recession, these are seen as abstractions. Lehman Bros, GM, AIG, etc are making headlines while real workers in real towns are losing their jobs by the assload.
Therefore I challenge the cable news networks to stop talking about how hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost and get personal. For a hypothetical example, they say that the state of Michigan has lost 50,000 jobs, that may not resonate with me. After all, I don't live in Michigan nor do I know anyone who lives in Michigan.
On the other hand, if they said 300 factory workers lost their jobs at Factory X, 1,000 were laid off at Plant Y, the empathy factor would rise significantly. I know people who work at factories. I know people who have been laid off.
Maybe I'm nitpicking here. Maybe I'm totally wrong and that by making this meltdown real to people will make things worse. But I don't think so.
Things are really bad on the frontlines. Legislators tend to move further and faster when constituents are riding their asses. So the longer it takes for a "that could happen to me" moment to hit the electorate, the more cover we give our elected officials across the country to drag their feet.
The crisis is real. The crisis is urgent. The crisis is widespread. Wall Street and Detroit require immediate attention, sure. But let's not delude ourselves or allow ourselves to be deluded by the prospect that merely saving the financial and auto industries will magically solve our economic problems. Let's not miss the forest for the trees.