But besides that, everything is fine as the GOP tells us. The fact remains that everyone can hear about someone they know who is being impacted whether it's themselves, their kid who is graduating from college to pre-retirees and retirees. What bubble are Republicans living in this time? Bush was infamous for his own bubble but it seems to have overtaken the entire party who thinks it's going well. Republicans have never bothered to care about minorities - anyone other than white, male and straight is one too many for them - so it's hardly a surprise that minority males are suffering during this recession. Many never recovered from the last one.
Because of our over-reliance on Wall Street for our retirement programs, retirees have been clobbered without the chance for most to recover quickly or easily. Those workers who are starting to close in on retirement age are now struggling to find work if they have been a casualty in this recession.
Workers ages 45 and over form a disproportionate share of the hard-luck recession category, the long-term unemployed — those who have been out of work for six months or longer, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.Who are Republicans talking with out there that say "all is well" because it's not?
On average, laid-off workers in this age group were out of work 22.2 weeks in 2008, compared with 16.2 weeks for younger workers. Even when they finally land jobs, they typically experience a much steeper drop in earnings than their younger counterparts.
