Let’s see, now. Unemployment is above 9 percent and shows no indication of descending anytime soon. The share of working-age Americans who are even in the workforce is lower than at any time since the early 1980s, when far fewer women worked outside the home. American multinational corporations are increasingly doing their hiring overseas, where labor is cheap and markets are expanding. The wages and benefits of those Americans who do have jobs are at their lowest level, as a share of corporate revenues, than at any time in half a century. American families are more deeply mired in debt than at any time since the nation’s founding. All of which means that American consumers aren’t doing much consuming, and they won’t be for the foreseeable future.
Sounds like there might be a role for government in perking up the economy, no?
In September, 2009 Atlantic Monthly named 
