More than a century ago, journalist and photographer Jacob Riis detailed the squalid conditions of those who lived in New York City's slums in a landmark study entitled How the Other Half Lives.
Since then, interestingly enough, the words have come to mean something altogether different. When people talk about how "the other half" lives, it reflects a sense of curiousity, perhaps envy, about the charmed lives of the rich and famous.
Regardless, I wonder how the meaning of the expression might change when, as Agence France-Presse details in the following report, "More than Half Americans Say They Are 'Struggling': Poll," a sizeable majority finds itself in the same boat.
The number of Americans who say their lives are a struggle climbed steeply last year from less than half the population to nearly six in 10 people, a vast Gallup poll showed Friday.
"In January of 2008, 49 percent of Americans were thriving, 47 percent struggling and four percent were suffering. In November and December, 38 percent were thriving, 58 percent struggling and four percent suffering," Gallup scientist Jim Harter commented on findings of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
"The 11-point swing in struggling Americans represents more than 22 million people," Harter said on Gallup's website.
To compile the Index, Gallup surveyed at least 1,000 US adults each day last year, starting in January.
Respondents were asked to score six aspects of their lives, including how they rate their current lives and where they think they will be in five years -- the so-called life evaluation index.
That saw a "major drop off" in November and December, as the US economy plunged deeper into crisis, Gallup said.
The increase in percent struggling is a function both of how people feel about their present situation, and also how they view the next five years. The changes have been particularly felt among those working full-time, over age 35 with children. And the changes have affected people at most income levels.
"Economics, good health, and a good job are consistent predictors of life evaluation," said Harter.
"Having a good job in America will continue to be one of the most important well-being determinants in 2009," he said.
US unemployment jumped to a 16-year high of 7.2 percent as a deepening recession pushed employers to shed a massive 524,000 jobs in December, capping the worst annual performance since 1945.
Americans' evaluations of their physical health, emotional health, healthy behavior and work environment also went down last year, the study showed.
I know FA has reported this, but it bears repeating:
US unemployment jumped to a 16-year high of 7.2 percent as a deepening recession pushed employers to shed a massive 524,000 jobs in December, capping the worst annual performance since 1945.
Unemployment is really at 17.5% aggregate, according to James Turk and shadowstats:
"...total unemployed, actual unemployment, as estimated by the SGS-Alternate Unemployment Measure, rose to 17.5% in December from 16.6% in November.”
Another Great Depression
James Turk
http://www.kitco.com/ind/Turk/turk_jan152009.html
Posted by: mountaineer | January 18, 2009 at 11:07 AM
Why doesn't the government tell us the number of people who are reporting income? Wouldn't that be an easier way to see how many people are out of work? If everyone is supposed to have a SSN, surely these identifiers are linked with tax reporting as well as age info, and from that you could easily calculate the number of unemployed, of age workers. You could also see which ones had dependents. This information exists and is available to the government. Withholding it says something!
Posted by: KL | January 18, 2009 at 07:33 PM
Government Regulators Aided IndyMac Cover-Up, Maybe Others
Darrel Dochow May Not Be the Only Official Who Helped Banks Hide Financial Problems
By BRIAN ROSS, JUSTIN ROOD, and JOSEPH RHEE
Jan. 16, 2009 (ABC News)
A brewing fraud scandal at the Treasury Department may be worse than officials originally thought.
Investigators probing how Treasury regulators allowed a bank to falsify financial records hiding its ill health have found at least three other instances of similar apparent fraud, sources tell ABC News.
In at least one instance, investigators say, banking regulators actually approached the bank with the suggestion of falsifying deposit dates to satisfy banking rules -- even if it disguised the bank's health to the public.
Treasury Department Inspector General Eric Thorson announced in November his office would probe how a Savings and Loan overseer allowed the IndyMac bank to essentially cook its books, making it appear in government filings that the bank had more deposits than it really did. But Thorson's aides now say IndyMac wasn't the only institution to get such cozy assistance from the official who should have been the cop on the beat.
The federal government took over IndyMac in July, after the bank's stock price plummeted to just pennies a share when it was revealed the bank had financial troubles due to defaulted mortgages and subprime loans, costing taxpayers over $9 billion.
Darrel Dochow, the West Coast regional director at the Office of Thrift Supervision who allowed IndyMac to backdate its deposits, has been removed from his position but he remains on the government payroll while the Inspector General's Office investigates the allegations against him. Investigators say Dochow, who reportedly earns $230,000 a year, allowed IndyMac to register an $18 million capital injection it received in May in a report describing the bank's financial condition in the end of March.
"They [IndyMac] were able to maintain their well-capitalized threshold and continue to use broker deposits to make loans," said Marla Freedman, an assistant Inspector General at Treasury. "Basically, while the institution was having financial difficulty, it kept the public from knowing earlier than it otherwise should have or would have."
In order to backdate the filings, IndyMac sought and received permission from Dochow, according to Freedman. "That struck us as very unusual," said Freedman. "Typically transactions are to be recorded in the period in which they occur, not afterwards. So it was very unusual."
One former regulator says Dochow's actions illustrate the cozy relationship between banks and government regulators.
"He did nothing to protect taxpayers in losses," former federal bank regulator William Black told ABC News. "Instead of correcting it [Dochow] made it worse by increasing the accounting fraud."
Meanwhile, IndyMac customers who lost their savings are demanding answers and are further infuriated after learning Dochow was also the regulator in 1989 who oversaw the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan, a scandal that sent its CEO Charles Keating to prison.
"He's the person that claimed that he looked into Charles Keating's eyes and knew that Charles Keating was a good guy and therefore ignored all of the professional staff that told him that Keating was a fraud, and he produced the worst failure of the Savings and Loan Crisis at $3.4 billion. Now he's managed more than triple that," said Black, now an economics professor at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, Missouri.
Following the Lincoln scandal, Dochow was demoted and placed into a relatively obscure office, but later, inexplicably was brought back into the Office of Thrift Supervision.
Dochow declined to answer questions from ABC News. A group of angry investors has started a website, demanding answers on the extent of Dochow's actions.
"It's just the strife and anger," said IndyMac customer Lisa Marshall. "That this Dochow person is still employed, it's unbelievable, it's shocking."
While Dochow could end up losing his job, neither he nor his colleagues are expected to go to prison.
"This is criminal with the small 'c'," said Black. "No one within the regulatory ranks may go to jail, but they have done the worst possible disservice to the taxpayers of America."
Maddy Sauer contributed to this report.
Posted by: treelover | January 19, 2009 at 01:01 AM