It’s time to blog the future of our Great Recession, and it looks just beautiful. What America’s owners are coming to see is that our heavily narcotized population can be persuaded that 10% unemployment is the new normal, and that further concentration of wealth is just the new shape of economic recovery. As long as Goldman Sachs is breaking compensation and bonus records, our nation must be on the mend.
Proof of America’s pathological addiction to fantasy was the transformation of Michael Jackson, an emotionally disturbed sex offender who had been unemployed for 20 years, into “the greatest entertainer who ever lived” in an orgy of television revisionism that proved that the majority of the population will believe anything that is delivered with high TV production values.
Those who are curious about how the recession normalization process will work should look for these magical memes:
1. Unemployment “lags” the recovery, so we can have 20% of the population un- or under-employed for a few more years while the champagne flows on Wall Street. No worries.
2. People will help each other by taking in the children of relatives rather than having them go to homeless shelters. This is a great opportunity to celebrate America’s social conscience.
3. Military service is a wonderful way to earn a living while defending our great nation. Being a paycheck killer puts food on the table and dead insurgents in the ground.
4. Rich people are the best hope for America’s future. Their ability to prosper proves that our economy is strong, and if more people have to sink into poverty to feed money to the rich, then that is our patriotic duty.
5. Our government is doing the best that it can, and our President looks cool on TV. The First Lady is growing organic vegetables in the White House garden while negotiating her book deal. The Obamas share our pain.
6. If you are suffering economically, it is your fault. Working harder is the best way out of economic difficulty. As the Germans say: “Arbeit macht frei!”