The index for March/April 2010 was 33.1, a slight increase from 33.0 in February, representing another new high in the 26 years going back to 1984 analyzed by HuffPost. Though there have been some encouraging signs, from higher housing prices (which have an inverse relationship to the index) to declining home equity delinquencies, the jobless numbers continue to increase the misery. In addition, nearly 40 million Americans were enrolled for food stamps in February, which has been described by anti-hunger groups as the highest share of the population ever in the assistance program.
Though the Real Misery Index has increased 16% from March 2009 to April 2010, the stock market has increased 56% during that period, reflecting an alarming discrepancy between the two metrics.
Among the many wonderful things about houses is that they are such handy metaphors for so many things. We can take it from the top — “In my father’s house are many mansions” — and head straight through a litany that includes houses as metaphors for bodies, for souls, for illness or health, for love or loss, for renewal or collapse. Houses can be sanctuaries or playgrounds. Whatever meaning a house holds for you, one can never get around the hard work it takes to occupy one. And Daum revels in all of it. There are times you want to sob with her, as she bloodies her knuckles and throws out her back, wrenching her reluctant house closer to its best possible self.
We keep posting information and commentary on consumerism and how it shapes our identity and drives our economy, which ultimately led to this global recession. Materialism, embedded in the myth of the American Dream, drives us to want want and have more. In fact, our sense of well-being is so wrapped in what we buy that we have forgotten how to be alright with less, to not think and feel that our mental health is measured by what we own. This may be changing for many of us in these hard economic times where we are not able to afford many things and get easy credit to keep pace with our wants, needs, and desires. Tony Judt has a powerful post at The New York Review of Books titled “Ill Fares the Land” that helps us see where we are at in terms of our pursuit of materialism and our sense of identity and community. Here is an excerpt:
Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today. For thirty years we have made a virtue out of the pursuit of material self-interest: indeed, this very pursuit now constitutes whatever remains of our sense of collective purpose. We know what things cost but have no idea what they are worth. We no longer ask of a judicial ruling or a legislative act: Is it good? Is it fair? Is it just? Is it right? Will it help bring about a better society or a better world? Those used to be the political questions, even if they invited no easy answers. We must learn once again to pose them.
The materialistic and selfish quality of contemporary life is not inherent in the human condition. Much of what appears “natural” today dates from the 1980s: the obsession with wealth creation, the cult of privatization and the private sector, the growing disparities of rich and poor. And above all, the rhetoric that accompanies these: uncritical admiration for unfettered markets, disdain for the public sector, the delusion of endless growth.
A lot of the anger that is surfacing around health care comes from the fact many people believe we are paying for the bad habits, behaviors, irresponsibility, and laziness of others. The myth of the individual where each of us should make it on our own and pay our own way is the guiding force, unleashing this mixture of fury toward others and anxiety about the national debt. Illegal immigrants, minorities, the homeless, poor, mentally ill, criminals, and the unemployed are all considered burdens that weigh the nation down according to this view. In a time of economic anxiety and uncertainty about the future the weakest and sickest among us are the easiest target, of course until it is us who becomes weak and sick. Read more…
Bear in mind the seemingly iron law of human events—new problems always arise to replace the old. Suppose the economic downturn ends, and what comes next is a flowering of productive efficiency and higher material well-being. The same forces likely to bring about these desirable ends also will cause economic tumult to grow more frequent. Job anxiety will be endless. Celebrity inanity, political blather, targeted advertising, scream-and-shout discourse, the paving over of nature—they’re going to get worse. Winner-take-all wealth accumulation at the top, already the worst fault of capitalism and among the least-attractive aspects of American society, may worsen in the West while infecting newly free nations.
Plus, every little thing that goes wrong anywhere in the world will scare us. Now if something explodes in Pakistan or a new product from Malaysia challenges a Midwestern product, we have live television images within minutes. The terrific aspects and the anxiety-inducing aspects will be intertwined, and we’re just going to have to live with this. No matter how crazy and chaotic events become, with each passing year, the world likely will be a better place than at any point in the past. A chaotic, raucous, unpredictable, stress-inducing, free, prosperous, well-informed future is coming. It will be a Sonic Boom. Just remember to cover your ears.
The weight of this recession has fallen most heavily upon men, who’ve suffered roughly three-quarters of the 8 million job losses since the beginning of 2008. Male-dominated industries (construction, finance, manufacturing) have been particularly hard-hit, while sectors that disproportionately employ women (education, health care) have held up relatively well. In November, 19.4 percent of all men in their prime working years, 25 to 54, did not have jobs, the highest figure since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the statistic in 1948. At the time of this writing, it looks possible that within the next few months, for the first time in U.S. history, women will hold a majority of the country’s jobs.
In this respect, the recession has merely intensified a long-standing trend. Broadly speaking, the service sector, which employs relatively more women, is growing, while manufacturing, which employs relatively more men, is shrinking. The net result is that men have been contributing a smaller and smaller share of family income.
Cost-effectiveness is going to be a hard sell to the American public, not only because of the great value placed on each life in the Judeo-Christian tradition, but because the federal government has devoted many hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out Wall Street. To perform mammograms for all American women in their forties costs some $3 billion a year, a pittance compared to the money put into the bank rescue. The Wall Street debacle also made many Americans suspicious of “quants,” the math whizzes who developed computer models that in theory accurately assessed value in complex monetary instruments but in fact nearly brought down the worldwide financial system. When a medical statistician says that imposing a limit on mammography is a “no-brainer,” people may recall George Tenet’s claim that the case for invading Iraq was a “slam-dunk.”
Surprised at the cost of your health care? Remember that if you or your health insurance company pays in full, you’re subsidizing all the people who don’t have health insurance, or whose insurance (like mine, or like MediCare) doesn’t pay the full cost of the services provided.
This is just one of the many ways that the insurance system divorces the health care system from the competitive forces of the free market.
Here’s another one to wrap your brain around: Basic market principles imply a cost for a product or service. The better your product or service, the more you can charge for it and (in a perfect world) the more money you make. Right? Not down the rabbit hole of health insurance. Insurance companies make money by *refusing* the service they ostensibly provide – payment for health care. The more claims they deny, the bigger their profit margin. This completely subverts the competition principles of the free market. It also results in insurance companies spending a lot of money to pay people who figure out how to deny claims. Hence (among other, more complex reasons) why private insurers in the US have three times the overhead of MediCare, which doesn’t waste effort figuring out how to deny people’s claims.
Creditcardrevolt.com is a grassroots campaign for ethical reform of the credit card companies and another sign of the times we are living in. Hopefully we are wising up to how we got ourselves in this mess. Here are their five basic demands for reform:
• Print the interest rate on each credit card-forcing real interest rate competition among cards.
• Limitcontracts to standardized one page agreements-less room for tricks, traps & fees.
• Cap all credit card interest rates at 15%. Bring back tough usury laws.
• Show transaction fees on sales receipts. Ethically, cash payers should pay 2% less.
• Require online calculators – so consumers can easily check statements for accuracy.
The goal of this site and our work is to identify the many ways we name and treat ourselves, others, and the world around us. On our home page you can find interesting commentary and research about what is going on in homes, schools, consulting rooms, courtrooms, laboratories, workplaces and the culture. As consultants through our agency we help individuals, couples, children and families (re)claim a more stable and sustainable path forward in their lives.
Our dedication is to finding what we call realistic hope and establishing accountability whenever and wherever possible. We look forward to hearing back from you in an effort to build awareness and community around the challenges we must face together and for our children. It is in the spirit of healing that we welcome you.
Katy Gaddess PI, MFT
Investigator, Therapist, Social Worker
Jeff Gaddess PhD, MA
Consultant, Case Analyst, Cultural Mythologist
The content of this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be and should not be used in place of the advice of your therapist, psychiatrist, attorney, physician or other medical professional. K and J Investigations and Case Management does not provide clinical advice on this blog, nor should its contents be considered clinical advice. Should you have any healthcare-related questions, please call or see your physician or other healthcare provider promptly. For additional information please read our terms of service and privacy policy.
