The Human Costs of Extending the Recession

For each day that implementation of the stimulus package is delayed, and the longer the deep recession lasts -- the greater the human and social cost. Much has been made of the devastating economic costs we are facing. Decade of research show that other costs are equally high.

For example, an increase in the unemployment rate of one percentage point that is sustained, and not reversed, for five years, is brings about an increase in homicides of 5.7 percent, in suicides of 4.1 percent, in state mental hospital admissions of 3.4 percent, in state prison admissions of 4.0 percent, according to an often cited 1976 study by Harvey Brenner which was presented to the US Congress' Joint Economic Committee. The relation between recession and homicide was again affirmed in a 1984 Report to the Joint Economic Committee.

Additionally, unemployment is the single strongest predictor in cases where men murder their wives. An abuser's lack of a job increases the risk of femicide fourfold, says a 2003 study reported in the American Journal of Public Health and led by Jacquelyn Campbell at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.

True, in recent months the number of divorce filings in courts across the country has dropped. Marriage counselors and divorce lawyers say that many unhappy couples are putting off divorce because the cost of splitting up is just too much in a time of stagnant salaries, falling home values and rising unemployment. People are "putting off the decision to divorce until the economy gets better... That's been my experience over the last 35 years. When you have an economic downturn people are not so quick to change their situation," states Gary Nickelson, President of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. You may consider this a silver lining in a nation in which all other measures of social problems are rising, or consider it one reason spousal abuse is increasing. In any case, the longer we allow the recession to drag on, the greater the human and social price people are made to pay, above and beyond the economic costs.

Amitai Etzioni is Professor of International Relations at The George Washington University and author of The Moral Dimension: Toward a New Economics.
Email: [e-mail]

Comments

[KillTheMessenger]

While I understand the sentiment, I fear that the idea that we have a lot of control over how long this depression will last and how many it will affect is based on false optimism. One can not simply turn these phenomena off, although there are certainly ways to start and to fuel them. Japan is a great example of an economy that hasn't been able to shake their recession off for decades. The European Union suffers from long term structural unemployment which it manages like an incurable skin disease: it tries to ease the itch and the pain with topical medications.

Americans will have to learn that what took 30 years to design can easily take 30 years to repair. More, if we make the wrong choices based on the same ideology that got us here.

[dfwcarpentry]

To Mr. Etzioni and all others who like this man believe the outcome of our nation rests on statistics.

Let me compare without numbers but with tangible actuals an instance which the state of our nation rests. Take a spot of rust on a metal car panel. If we only prime and paint over it, it will grow undetected for a little while till it shows up much larger and with more damage.

But, if we remove the rust, and treat the area before making a quality fix, then the panel will not only
resemble the before, but also be fixed without fear of reprise.

I make this comparison to the bailouts for both the banks and the 'porker package' with concern for any funds given to anyone who will in turn use the money to pay wages. Not one dollar should go to an exisiting company who will use the money to pay wages.

Free enterprise will be the rust removal.
Ambition will be the materials used to make repair.
And, a healthy economy along with a stronger nation in 20 years will be the final product.

Does anyone believe we as a nation are stronger than a few crying bankers?

If they want to stay in business, then let then sell their assets to finance a pheonix as opposed to letting them remain rich on a lesser salary.

No actuaries required.

Only common sense.

[KillTheMessenger]

The problem with your suggestion is that nobody wants to buy these bank assets for a very simple reason: they are worthless and everybody knows it.

But I do agree with the nicely painted picture about the rust. Sadly, that rust can be found in real life on many bridges. It's not an illusion but a sign of a slow, programed decay that we have been painting over for decades.