There is an old saying: "It's hard to see the forest for the trees."
Especially when the woods are on fire.
In the flailing efforts to forestall economic collapse, and the long fight to right an economy that still can't find its way, there is long-term danger lurking in the forest -- particularly how the worst downturn since the Depression is shaping a generation of children and young adults.
A 2010 Federal Reserve survey -- done every three years -- found a staggering 40 percent drop in household net worth. With the economy continuing to struggle in the areas that hit people hardest -- home and jobs -- the next survey is unlikely to show an appreciable drop in pain, possibly not for years to come.
The Foundation's Child and Youth Well-Being Index Project at Duke University reports that virtually all the progress made in family economic well-being since 1975 has wiped out by 2010.
Compounding the pain is Clinton administration reforms -- pledging to "end welfare as we know it." It was a pledge that could not have factored in the financial devastation that would follow a little more than a decade later. A system that was hailed as a milestone for public policy when times were good turned into a millstone around the neck of families -- particularly single mothers -- when times turned bad.
As families struggle financially, they often change.
Anxiety and depression take seats at the dinner table. Children -- with their receptors to parental mood always running wide open -- will sense the change in household tone. They will pick up on even the subtle shifts in the rhythms of daily routines.
Worse, they may see the loss of homes, changes in schools and friends, even verbal and physical abuse as the family fault lines crack under the unrelenting stress of getting through the month.
It will be years before we'll know how fear and uncertainty are shaping the futures of children caught in the crossfire of changed lives and anxious parents. A Brookings Institution report, "Families of Recession -- Unemployed Parents & Their Children" sees cause for concern. Children pushed into poverty by a recession, the report says, are three times more likely to be poor themselves than those who managed to stay more affluent. "In short, "say the authors, "the conditions of today will give rise to the next generation of poor Americans.
A big part of that is the impact of poverty on education -- children of families that are driven into poverty by the recession are 15 percent less likely to finish high school and 20 percent less likely to finish college than the non-poor.
The recession has also had its way with the trust and expectations of young adults -- particularly the younger end of the Millennials.
Quoted in a USA Today article on the changing expectations of young adults, author Morley Winograd, who writes extensively about the Millennials, said their economic situation is "completely analogous" to the depression-era generation. "They were raised in relative affluence, and just as they are about to start in that affluent world, it all comes crashing down."
They are forced to assume that "everything that came before them was a mirage -- that it was built on unsafe foundations."
This prolonged downturn will end. They always do. People will find their way back to confidence. But especially for those growing up under the weight of its fearsome uncertainties, it will be with us for generations to come.
Follow Dr. Peggy Drexler on Twitter: www.twitter.com/drpeggydrexler
This quote describes myself. In 1974 when I graduated from H.S with a decent grade point average I was encouraged to go to college. It took me six yars to graduate because I had to work to help pay costs. When I graduated in 1980 ..the year President Reagan was elected it took close to 16 months August 1981 to find a career jobs. Prior to that I was doing odd job to bring in money.
My career in banking was going good until the early 90"s when banks started to consolidate which forced out people like myself who was in their late 30's and early 40's. Found another position in financial services. That was going good until companies started to eliminate ther pension plans in place of 401(k) plans. Then in 2000 there was the dot.com collaspe and 2002 the tech collaspe and 2008-9 the financial collaspe which wipe out a good portion of my 401(k) savings.
Now today college graduates are face with crushing college debt and few prospects of well paying jobs. We [american people..at least the majority} played by the rules and in the middle of our lives the rules changed. Today we are left with poorer americans and no immediate hope that things will get better in the near future.
Those corporate profits, which essentially are huge amounts of dollars that are removed from the economic engine, no longer produce the continuing multiplying effects. They sit, by and large stagnant except in financial "innovations" that produce nothing except more profits being removed from the economic engine.
I fear for America. We don't have the means to restart the economy. Despite limited, very limited upticks in jobs, we get farther behind every day. This is going to mean as much to our generation and future generations as the great depression did to our parents and their parents. The corporations and our government have decided through policy and greed to shut down America.
We won't be the free spending consumers we once were, we've lost our faith in America's economy. Not America, we still know it could be great again, but we don't think it will be, for a very long time. Take THAT you corporate criminals. Your "winnings" will prove to be very illusory. The damage will last much longer than the profits.
The crazy thing is that I've ALWAYS felt that it was a mirage. For me, a healthy economy is based on a dependable land base and a supportive community. I've never been interested in money, even though I feel somewhat guilty not to have made more of it. The price of things just keep going up. I remember when the average loaf of bread cost 25 cents, compared with the $3 it does today. This constant escalation seems ugly, vicious, greedy, mindless and unsustainable. So, even if the mirage returns, I doubt that it will persevere. Meanwhile, I keep hoping we'll figure out how to employ everyone who wants a job, at MINIMUM wages along with MAXIMUM safety-net protection. Food, shelter, health care, education, justice for all. No working-age person who can work will sit a home and wait for a check. But no one will be dying on the street either.
Those who struggled thru the Depression developed habits of saving. My dad was nicknamed Scotch, but not for his preference in liquor. My husband's dad, once the kids were all out on their own and with jobs, spent any extra money laying in more food. He bought another freezer and started stocking it. He built an extra pantry in the kitchen and filled it with canned goods. For him, the Depression was truly going without. Dinner was often gravy made from an onion on day old bread.
There will be NO recovery for millions of Americans.
Welcome to the New Normal.
Sadly, we are all expendable.
BTW, I'm descended, on both sides from "poor dirt farmers". It never seemed to have effected either side all that much. I do tend to believe it's more sociological than psychological. And By the gods, look at a bigger time slice, I know my family's history back to 1700, and the state of the union at the time too. As a nation we are doing pretty good right now. Compared to what has gone before, today is pretty frigging nice. Try stepping back to the north side of Chicago in 1965, or Detroit down town, 1985, or rural Indiana, ANYTIME! they all suck, they all where/are poor, but everybody suffers together, one big unhappy community.....wait, thats the point.
Sooo, now Poorness like the depression (1930's) will result in ??? oh, ya, fighting (WWII, 1940's) and lack of education ???? Postwar production boom (195's-60's) ?????? Nixon (1970's) ....
I see your point........ ???? ; ? }
All the trinkets and playthings, the bigger houses, newer cars and fast foods of the last 3 or 4 decades haven't made us a happier people or a smarter people or a friendlier people or a wiser people. Maybe not having "more stuff" won't kill us. Maybe, as we were all told growing up, "adversity" really does "build chacter". Maybe less will actually be more. Maybe our kids will be an even greater generation! Maybe they'll reform our corrupt government and end unbridled corporate greed.
I know one thing...fat, dumb, lazy, complacent, dependent people (like what we've become) don't move mountains...don't do great things. "Greatness" may not be comfortable. But when I talk to survivors of that greatest generation they wouldn't change it for the world.
I also know another thing, PhDs can be wrong...and often are.