The gateway to help is understanding. It’s hard to appreciate the depth of this recession, especially if you are still spared in the downturn. This is not just another recession this is a structural depression that is affecting this country in most fundamental ways. As I wrote the majority of the Americans in the last decades succumbed to a three-pronged attack. They have been attacked by the organized labor that made their overpriced skills uncompetitive on the global market. They have been attacked by the relentless waves of the undocumented and unorganized immigrant labor. They have been attacked by the slave labor in the post communist Asia.
So what can one do? Let’s be perfectly clear, if the trillion dollars stimulus or the Federal reserve machinations did nothing to straighten the course of the economy, no collective initiative would help. But there has to be the awareness about the dire situation.
- Speak up about this plague, especially if you holding on to a pulpit.
- People might be able to help on a person level. There is a hurricane, a 120 degree heat in your own town. Knock on your neighbors door see if they have an immediate need.
- Adjust your charity accordingly, focus on your own community.
- People who are still in business, perhaps even themselves the beneficiaries of the offshored jobs, can think of using many highly skilled unemployed who are ready to work at a great discount.
- Host a support group.
- Specifically lobby for the extension of the 99 weeks of unemployment insurance with the local politicians.
- Learn how to talk to the offshored and the unemployed: Dos and Don’ts of Talking to a Person who is Looking for a Job.
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I just want to add to Mr. Atlas’ very nice post, that when Maimonides said getting someone a job was the highest form of tzedaka (charity/social justice), he wasn’t kidding.