NY Times/CBS Poll: Unemployed Workers, Families Really, Really Depressed
But hey, it's not as if any of us can afford antidepressants, anyway!
In the meantime, bankers are doing better than ever and Joe Lieberman has decided that insurance companies are more important than you or your family. The Democrats haven't delivered on even one major promise and that light at the end of the tunnel sure does look like an oncoming train. Why wouldn't you be depressed?
More than half of the nation’s unemployed workers have borrowed money from friends or relatives since losing their jobs. An equal number have cut back on doctor visits or medical treatments because they are out of work.
Almost half have suffered from depression or anxiety. About 4 in 10 parents have noticed behavioral changes in their children that they attribute to their difficulties in finding work.
Joblessness has wreaked financial and emotional havoc on the lives of many of those out of work, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll of unemployed adults, causing major life changes, mental health issues and trouble maintaining even basic necessities.
The results of the poll, which surveyed 708 unemployed adults from Dec. 5 to Dec. 10 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points, help to lay bare the depth of the trauma experienced by millions across the country who are out of work as the jobless rate hovers at 10 percent and, in particular, as the ranks of the long-term unemployed soar.
Roughly half of the respondents described the recession as a hardship that had caused fundamental changes in their lives. Generally, those who have been out of work longer reported experiencing more acute financial and emotional effects.
Soon to run out of Unemployment Money. No prospects. Single. Over 60. Not much money for retirement.
Depressed? Me? Naaahhhhh!
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
Every morning ask if it is your turn for the bathroom yet.
A little gallows humor. I'm in the same boat, which is why taking this medicare option off the table is a real kick in the nuts for me.
I've tried to stand up for the Prez, but his lack of boldness on job creation and health care is leaving me underwhelmed.
spent the whole day talking about how the minimum wage is too high and it's killing jobs.......so, we gotta lower it and, Voila! hiring will shoot up! What brilliant strategy! I've got an idea.....we can pay workers $1 a day like they do in China or $5 a day like they do in Mexico, but then we gotta insure everybody on a national healthcare program, like BOTH of them do! Yeah, that'll work!
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
Being unemployed and looking for work for half of the year, this healthcare crap is about to make me really sick. When the GOP owns the whitehouse and the congrwess they get what ever the want. Whne the Democrats own the white house and congress the GOP gets what ever they want. Isn' there something wrong with that or is it just me?
where's a bus?
we need to show lieberman the most prominent
side of one.....under it.
That's where he put Al Gore, progressives, and the state of Connecticut a long time ago!
3 years unemployed, nearing 50, single, no money at all, no prospects, can't even get a crap job, health probs, and living off the charity of others.
But then I'm always depressed, so what the hey.
Probably nearing Clinical Depression. Given the state of the world it's hardly surprising. I'll pass on Big Pharms "drug therapy's" and take my own chances thank you.
Whats the option? Becoming a cut throat hustler or just another disposable slab of human capital for some souless Corporation?
..the poor rich folks whose Bush tax cuts might expire. And don't even consider renewing the estate tax!
It must be hell being in that top 2%.
they aren't even willing to make sure all the lower tiers of society have enough to get by on so they can have at minimum a decent life anymore at this point.
and depression for the have nots. Were not in a recession, if 17% are unemployed and we are not even counting those graduates that are trying to ebter the job market for the first time. We are in a depression.
claiming The Recession is Over!
Talk about diabolically out of touch with reality.
I want to go "no duhhhhh" But some how this story doesn't even deserve that as a response. Was this even a question? what kind of fool thinks that being Unemployed is a happy thing?
My brain hurts.....
home invasions and armed robbery is the latest growth industry to keep an eye on.
My killer 5 year plan ...
*get fully employed!(keep dreaming kiddo)
*learn another language
*marry a european woman and naturalise
*enjoy mild euro-climate while the world burns
I think this article on Alternet shines an interesting light on why the Times might poll on something so obvious --
http://www.alternet.org/politics/144529/are_a...
The author poses the questions:
Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being screwed do not "set them free" but instead further demoralize them? Has such a demoralization happened in the United States?
Do some totalitarians actually want us to hear how we have been screwed because they know that humiliating passivity in the face of obvious oppression will demoralize us even further?
Have consumerism, suburbanization and a malevolent corporate-government partnership so beaten us down that we no longer have the will to save ourselves?
It is a very interesting article.
Scary times. I know many out of work, or just barely making it from paycheck to paycheck. out of business stores are everywhere in my city. No savings for retirement (ha ha, like that will happen!) just trying to make it through each month.
Of course people are depressed. Who wouldn't be?
Back in July, when a scheduled increase in the minimum wage from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour was about to take place, Fox News ran a segment examining how “the hike will hurt,” joining a media chorus about the supposed detrimental effect the increase would have on business hiring.
Now, with its Republican-inspired “Where are the jobs?” campaign in full swing, Fox has gone “on the job hunt” with a “new” idea for increasing employment: cutting the minimum wage. Jumping off from an op-ed by Washington Post editorial board member Charles Lane, Fox yesterday ran a handful of segments on the same basic premise — cutting the minimum wage may be the answer to the jobs dilemma. Watch a compilation:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/15/fox-min-w...
If you watch Fox, or anything related to it, you'll be ready for shock therapy
The GOPers believe that all minimum wage jobs are 'temporary' entry-level jobs. What they ignore is the rising number of people who earn within +50% of the minimum wage. If you lower the minimum wage, you will fairly quickly lower the standard of living for tens of millions of over-skilled, underpaid workers.
The corporations and their tiny handful of owners are already enjoying increased profits due to the lowered wages and greatly increased 'productivity' of the new depression-slave class of workers; people with no other option but to take what is available.
We've reached the beginning of the end of a decent living for at least one-third of the population. The 'globalization' that both parties supported has finally begun spreading the pain beyond the bottom rung of workers, and now that people are finally waking up, it's too damn late.
Enjoy your cheap Chinese shit from Walmart, you're paying for it with your McPaycheck.
Ever notice it is always the "middle class" they are talking about as if in America you are either rich or middle class. Now there is some concern the middle class is shrinking. Where they going? Not joining the rich, so I GUESS THERE IS A GROWING CLASS OF WORKING POOR IN AMERICA! Say it politicians. Say "working poor". It is the first step in adrressing the problem.
My unemployment runs out in a month after a year on the teet. Only one interview in the past year. You know things are bad when the local crisis center won't call you back or reply to your emails.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
a super-quick delete!
Not sure what the offense was?
[Just off topic. This isn't a thread about that guy, or breaking news. Nothing serious, as in 'not a serious transgression of the rules here.' Now please drop it-Sitemonitor]
out of a job, get off your butt and find one. You don't expect us to put you on the dole. No friend its all in your mind. You are just lazy. If I were a rational person I would say to you friend I feel your pain and I wish you the best. Hopefully things will get better. They just have to for the sake of the people. In the mean time try to be positive. I have found when things are really, really bad I go to church by myself and pray everyday. I ask god to help me carry the burden and sometimes I ask him to take the burden off my shoulders. I sit by myself and have a good cry and when I am finished I feel much better. Once when things got so really really really bad I sat down and wrote a letter to god. I poured my heart out and told him things that I wouldn't tell anyone, not even my husband or family. I folded it and then put it in an envelop. About 2 weeks later things turned around. I pulled out that letter to god that was 4 pages long and reread it twice. I cried and after I reread it I ripped it up. I never looked back. God really is there in your worst moments in life. You have to believe. I am not a bible thumper. I don't go to church every week but I do know god is there at our worse moments.
Southern Yankee
If that works for you, more power to you. That's really how "god" and spirituality should work anyways. You use it to find the power and hope within yourself, not try to use it to control others. Me, it's not something that works for me, but I've suffered through years of religious abuse, that's turned me off any kind of belief system. But good for you, I'm glad it works.
Liberalicious, I hate people being taken advantaged of like you were. To many people who have been abused by religious crazy are the ones to blame. Believe me I am so disgusted by religious leaders today. But not my church. My relationship with god is between me and god. No one has a right to judge anyones relationship with god that is for sure. I feel bad you had some terrible experiences. I know that is out there. But I tell you on a personal bases is all that matters. I stopped going to organized churchs long ago. Just because I have stop doesn't mean I don't believe. I do. I try to live like god would want me to live. I am no saint. But these people who go to church all the time aren't either. Your relationship with god is what you make it. Don't let these idiots out in the country change you.
Southern Yankee
Duh!
"Trust no one, Mr. Mulder." - Well-Manicured Man
Somebody did a poll to determine that? I'd like to propose that the next poll canvas opinion as to whether or not bears do crap in the woods.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I have been out of work for a little over two years. I needed my anti-depressants as I couldn't even get out of bed in the morning.
Needless to say, the price is outrageous! A 30 script was $260/month. So, I had to cut my dosage in half. Now they are $130/month. Still no job and more depressed than ever. If it weren't for the Internet, I would have no contact with the outside world at all.
After unemployment runs out (my husband still gets his, I missed the extensions by a few weeks) how do they expect us to even continue to look for a job when you cannot even afford food never mind gas for the car?
Something must be done.
Why can't they provide us a safety net? We've worked all of our lives and paid taxes. Why can't they give us a little help instead of bailing out greedy ass bankers who are uber wealthy? What are they gonna do when there are many more homeless families?
yeahp I am there too , unemployed first time in my life and I'm 58 , am completely SOL it appears . Lost all insurance . Worry worry worry almost every moment I am awake , it's really wearing me down but I try not let it show to my wife and family . I am so pissed off observing what's going on that I am about to blow the circuits . I wish I had the means to permanently leave this country . Am not alone I know .
There seems to be an abundance of job opportunities for people willing to record the responses to inane questions.
Yes.
But, the Niners won last night, and, I'm back in the water.
That's a good start. More surf would be nice tho.:)
What is your conceptual, continuity?
if we continue to let conservatives run the country. The impact of chronic poverty and the depression it produces see the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Tribal government has declared a suicide emergency. 96 suicides last year and the rate is increasing.
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_...
The Repug and conservative Dem vision of America.
Over my way I've been saying for some time that people in the US are going to start to crack soon and when that happens the bastards who have been screwing y'all over had better watch out. When the unemployment runs out and state's welfare funds are exhausted and no jobs are on the horizon, normally fine upstanding members of the working community will begin to crack and go "postal". You hear about G&S brokers arming themselves - well I suspect they and the bankers, the politicians and everyone else that made this happen through deliberate actions are going to need one hell of a lot more than a few pistols to protect their lives. There's a revolution brewing and it ain't the teabaggers.
Copenhagen is a dismal failure. Canada and the US have shown a total failure to address the reality of global climate change but have instead set targets that won't make a flea's bite of a fly's ass of positive difference to climate change. At some point in the not so distant future it will occur to the vast majority of those living today and under 30 that they are not going to have a very good or very long life due to the effects of GCC. Further they will realize that the lives of their children and grandchildren will be very much worse, if even possible. Do those who are the cause of this problem not being addressed properly at this time think that those inheritors of the problem are just going to wag their fingers at them in shame? Not bloody likely, more like blood will run in the streets and more of it will be Wall street than Main Street.
I know that it is extreme, not nice, not polite, not politic, to say those things. Tough, it is reality and today's reality is very extreme. Life, as we know it, on this planet is dying. It may already be too late to stop the process as GCC is progressing much faster than anyone in the IPCC thought it would. People who deliberately try to subvert the only chance we have to save our descendant's future will, when the time comes, be thought of as guilty of a capital crime and treated as such. It will be purely self-defense.
http://www.thealders.net/blogs
Just call me Dazed & Confused
Jack sh*t for the unemployed, the hungry, the homeless and the medically desperate. What's wrong with this picture?
Why are we still spending money on the drugwar when that money could be spent for better uses than chasing pot-heads? Why?
'Progressives' need to ask that and keep asking that until the rest of the population starts asking it, too. Then we won't hear any talk about how we can't afford Universal Health Care a a living wage, etc. because we already know we do have enough money. Right now, it's just being p*ssed away chasing Cheech and Chong.
Jeez, how dumb can this country get?
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