“Good Times”? For Whom?!

Feb 27, 2006

Business Week reports that the economy is doing well.

Sure, things are going great for those slime balls at the top. Corporate profits were up by more than 10 per cent for the 10th consecutive quarter. The wealthy are making money hand over fist.

But for the rest of us? We’re spending more than we make, going deeper in debt. And even official figures show it. Last year, for the first time since 1933, all of us together spent more than we made.

Average housing values may be skyrocketing, but so are the sizes of mortgages. Meanwhile, wages have been stagnating – or going backward. When the housing bubble bursts and values drop, millions of people will be left with a debt that they can’t possibly pay off.

Today, more and more retirees are using their houses to live. As retirement accounts and pensions dry up, they’re taking out “reverse mortgages,” in effect selling their homes to the bank piece by piece. Or, they’re outright selling their homes and living off the proceeds – until those run out.

The number of hungry people relying on soup kitchens and food banks keeps rising – by 8 per cent from 2001 to 2005.

The corporate world wants to tell us things are good? They may be making money by the bucketful, but they’re filling those buckets with what they gouge out of our hide.