The Unfairness of Recessions

The unemployed take the brunt of a recession. They are left to fend for themselves and this recession is the Great Recession. The following chart from the Calculated Risk blog makes that clear:


On the other hand, if you managed to hang onto a job, then you are better off this year than last according to an article by David Leonhardt in the NY Times:

The added wrinkle in this recession is that inflation has dropped below zero, thanks largely to a sharp fall in energy prices. In most recessions, inflation remains positive — indeed, higher than wage growth, which means that inflation-adjusted pay declines. In this recession, average prices have fallen 2 percent over the past year, while weekly pay has either been flat or risen 1 percent, depending on which data you believe.

So inflation-adjusted pay is up 2 to 3 percent. Amazingly enough, that’s almost as big as the peak increases during the late 1990s boom.

In short, life is unfair. Some pay the price for the greed and folly of Wall Street along with the incompetence of lax regulation by the government. Others see their lifestyle improve at a rate usually only seen during boom times.

If there were a God, he would be having a nice chuckle at this little "joke" he has played on people. But then, maybe this is just the fulfillment of that curious passage saying of Jesus in Mathew 13:12:

Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

I can't think of a better way to rub salt into a wound. (Actually the Biblical passage is an example of the "wisdom" saying of Jesus meant to only be understood by "insiders". I'm an outsider and it sure sounds unfair to me. I have no love for living in a society which lives by this maxim: to he who has much more will be given and to he who has little even that will be taken away. But that's the US economy right now.)