![\"cork\"](\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2009\/04\/cork.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This PostSecret<\/a> secret offers me an excuse to go on a rant:<\/p>\n Instead of an opportunity to start a national discussion about class, the recession appears to\u00a0be stimulating a bunch of nationalist, and obfuscatory,\u00a0rhetoric about our common\u00a0condition.<\/p>\n If you listen to most media outlets they say that “America” is in recession.\u00a0 But not everyone in America is feeling the pain of this economic downturn equally.\u00a0 I, for example, have not lost my job, have not seen my pay cut, have not lost any benefits, and however much 401k money I’ve lost is\u00a0rather irrelevant as I’m in my 30s and have no need for it right now.\u00a0 I am not suffering in this economic depression.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, I’m taking a junior sabattical next year and\u00a0going half pay BY CHOICE.<\/p>\n Further, I keep hearing things like: “This is a great time to buy a house!” and “Stocks are cheap!\u00a0 You should invest in [insert random company here]!”\u00a0\u00a0(This advice is lost on a person who comes from\u00a0humble beginnings and\u00a0is voluntarily going half pay next year, but I digress.)<\/p>\n So, for many people, this economic downturn is kind of fantastic.\u00a0 Houses are cheap, stocks are cheap, and companies are offering great deals just to stay afloat.\u00a0 Plenty of people I know who are upper middle and upper class are considering this a great time to invest (see here<\/a> for an example).\u00a0 They look forward to ultimately benefitting from this economic disaster.<\/p>\n Lots of other people around me are suffering.\u00a0 If you’re already poor or working-class,\u00a0out-of-work, near retirement or retired, struggling under an adjustable rate mortgage, (and I’m sure there are others I’m forgetting), you may be screwed.<\/p>\n So I wish we would stop talking about how “America” is in recession.\u00a0 This recession is hurting some kinds of people more than others.\u00a0\u00a0On the whole, those people who were underprivileged before the downturn are taking the brunt of it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For more on the economy, visit these posts: increases in household debt<\/a>, job loss and unemployment (here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and\u00a0here<\/a>), cessna responds to the attack on private jet travel<\/a>, Walmart encourages moms to make the difference<\/a>, an animated explanation of the credit crisis<\/a>, images of\u00a0 the economic depression in Las Vegas (here<\/a> and here<\/a>), slumping car sales and overstocked lots<\/a>, measuring the recession with beer sales<\/a>, and changes in immigration<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This PostSecret secret offers me an excuse to go on a rant: Instead of an opportunity to start a national discussion about class, the recession appears to\u00a0be stimulating a bunch of nationalist, and obfuscatory,\u00a0rhetoric about our common\u00a0condition. If you listen to most media outlets they say that “America” is in recession.\u00a0 But not everyone in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,36,12498,276,76],"class_list":["post-8338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-class","tag-economics","tag-economics-great-recession","tag-nationalismpatriotism","tag-work"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8338"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45200,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8338\/revisions\/45200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}