NY Times: “A Different Kind of Great Depression is Still Going On” in America

In homes across this country that subscribe to the New York Times, Americans will                                                   wake up on Thanksgiving morning to be told that the land they love is still in some kind of Great Depression. Of course, unemployment is at 5 percent, more Americans own their own homes than ever in history, and the average citizen has a higher net worth – meaning assets minus debt – than ever before, including during the supposed boom years of the late ’90s. Alas, none of that is important to the Times editorial staff...not even on Thanksgiving.

To be sure, this kind of economic mischaracterization is certainly nothing new to the mainstream media. However, stuck in the middle of an editorial about one of the nation’s most cherished holidays, on the very day in question, does make it a little more distasteful than usual:

“It is too easy to forget, amid this abundance, that all across America a different kind of Great Depression is still going on. The old stories would have been told very differently - if they were told at all - if they had been tales of growing up poor in the midst of wealth. There was no shame in the collective poverty of the Great Depression. There is no shame in the poverty Americans suffer today. The shame adheres to those who do nothing to change it.”

Now, go back to your families, watch some football, eat some turkey, and be sure to take a couple of Prozac to drown out that sinking feeling your house is not worth the ink the deed was printed with, there’s going to be a pink slip waiting for you on your desk when you go back to work on Friday, and gasoline will be a gazillion dollars a gallon by Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving.