We Are Not In This Together

摘要

More than 4 million americans have been fired sincelast fall, and the job losses are far from over. April began with yet another stunningly bad report-663,000 jobs lost. The unemployment rate, now 8.5 percent, is likely to hit double digits over the coming months. Some economists say that even if the economy begins to recover later this year, it may not pick up enough steam to bring down unemployment until well into 2010. Few regions of the county have been spared, and the headlines have been dire. In epidemic of layoffs, no one is immune, blared The Philadelphia Inquirer, silicon valley unemployment rate jumpsTo a frightening 9.4 percent, wrotethe San Jose Mercury News. Nearly everyone seems to know a horror story-the Wall Street banker abruptly escorted from his office; the small-business owner forced to close her shop on Main Street; the auto worker who spent decades on the same factory floor where his father once worked.