Suicide Bid

Posted in Dub Artists by admin on September 4, 2008

SUICIDE BID – THIS IS THE GENERATION – 12″ L.P.

$16.73

1974 Press Photo Suicide Bid by Tina’s daughter

$21.88

Suicide Bid – This Is The Generation New CD

$19.00

Suicide Bid – The Rot Stops Here NEW CD

$19.00

Suicide+Bid

Running Short on Hope and Unemployed

The new face of joblessness

Today, the unemployed sector cuts through a very broad cross-section of the country. Since late 2007, some 8 million jobs have vanished, and the end is not yet in sight. The ranks of the unemployed have now swelled to nearly 16 million people.

In the past, recessions have resulted primarily in blue-collar and low-level retail job losses, with white-collar layoffs accounting for only about 30 percent of total losses. By contrast, the current recession has seen 50% of the lost jobs be from managerial, professional, and skilled white collar positions. Workers in the upper echelons that are scrambling for cash now, the current recession has changed the world overnight.

Who has been hardest hit?

In past recessions, minorities have been the hardest hit group, and that hasnt changed. According to current Labor Department statistics, the nationwide unemployment rate in November was 10%, but joblessness among African-Americans, for example, was 15.5%. Interestingly enough, the unemployment rate for men is 11.9%, compared to 8.1% for women, the widest unemployment gender gap in more than half a century. Older workers are being laid off faster than younger ones.

Are unemployed persons finding new jobs?

The unemployed are staying that way for longer than they had previously. Nearly 25% of jobless persons have been unemployed for more than six months, the highest long-term unemployment level since the Great Depression. And that 25% long-term unemployment figure doesnt include discouraged workers people who have given up looking for work and people who have settled for part-time work. Harder hit regions see long stretches of joblessness along with higher suicide rates, along with depression and family conflicts.

But aren’t layoffs cyclical in a recession?

In most recessions, job losses result from temporary contractions of businesses that are producing more than the economy can absorb. The losses are therefore cyclical. Typically, businesses lay off employees until demand picks back up, and then start hiring again. The current downturn goes from bottom to top, some industries may have permanently shrunk, like home construction, vehicle manufacturing, and newsprint publishing.

New-home construction busts along with the housing crisis has shifted constriction families from affluence to poverty, or survival mode at best. It’s hard to think that housing construction as an industry will see a boom again. For that matter, theres no reason to suspect that vehicle manufacturing will ever return to a glorious era of unthinking tunnel vision, or that two-inch-thick newspapers will ever again grace the breakfast table of every American home.

How do long term unemployment sufferers get by?

They sell off cars, get rid of extra phones, cancel health club memberships, and bid vacations farewell. They scrounge for any income they can find. Most workers who qualify for unemployment pay receive about 60% of their former wages, but unless Congress extends their benefits, they expire after 26 weeks. But even unemployment benefit extensions eventually expire, at which point people may become eligible for welfare benefits and food stamps. A family of four might get $ 900 monthly, which can’t cover even basic costs like food, housing, and health care. From there, without family or friends to help, it’s a short jump to soup kitchens and private charities. For many long-term unemployed persons, the prospects are little better than grim.

Will new jobs ever be created?

Its a question without an answer. Some politicians are anxious to spend more to salvage shrinking industries, but that’s more of a stop-gap than anything. There is talk of replacing shrinking industries, like auto manufacturing, with “green” industries that will create a new economic boom, but to make this into reality would require bilions in private and government investment, and time that today’s unemployed population may not have. Not all displaced workers can learn new skills with expediency. And even for those who can, chances are good that they wont be returning to any semblance of their former pay. This is especially true for older workers, or those workers which are highly specialized in a specific field.

Will job losses be permanent?

It is a sad thing to admit that many people who have lost jobs in the past year or two may never return to their former occupations or ever again reach their former income levels, but there seems to be no immediate way to avoid such a conclusion. Barring something truly unforeseeable, such as the creation of a whole new economy, we are likely to see an unprecedented recessionary shift toward permanent job losses.

Suicide bid – Like a lion.wmv