FACE OF AN ECONOMY: Housing in U.S. city

A Journal of People Report

Housing for the common citizens is a chronic problem in capitalist economy. This is a widely discussed and researched issue. Yet the economy fails. In one sense, it is not the economy’s failure. Rather it is one of the characters of the economy.

The following reports from the U.S. tell about the housing reality. This is a face of the economy with huge resources.  

A Hailey, Idaho datelined report by The New York Times (“A Town’s Housing Crisis Exposes a ‘House of Cards’”, July 31, 2022) said:

‘Near the private jets that shuttle billionaires to their opulent Sun Valley getaways, Ana Ramon Bartolome and her family have spent this summer living in the only place available to them: behind a blue tarp in a sweltering two-car garage.

FACE OF AN ECONOMY: The homeless and ‘no sit, no lie’ ordinance near Seattle

FACE OF AN ECONOMY 

A Journal of People report

On March 16, 2021, Everett City Council, Washington, a city 30 miles north of Seattle, passed a local ordinance, which will bar people from sitting or lying down in a ten-block belt of the city. The controversial ordinance passed in 5-1 vote.

The ordinance covers a section of the city’s industrial area. Violators will face either a $500 fine or 90 days imprisonment.

The majority of city council members, Everett’s mayor, and the business community in the 10-block area supported the ordinance.

The ordinance, detractors say, criminalizes and discriminates against homeless individuals.

FACE OF AN ECONOMY: U.S.: Millions of People Face Evictions and Possible Power Cuts

FACE OF AN ECONOMY 

A Journal of People report

In the United States, many people have lost jobs on the pretext of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of them now face evictions from their homes, and possible power cuts. tens of millions may be affected. 

A Time report – “A ‘Tidal Wave’ of Power Cuts May Be Coming as Electric Companies Resume Shutoffs” – said on August 31, 2020:

“For people who lost jobs or income during the pandemic, life has been a series of terrifying deadlines. There was July 24, the end of a federal eviction moratorium from government-backed housing, which had protected about one-third of renters. There was July 30, when a program providing an extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits expired, reducing the incomes of tens of millions of Americans.

FACE OF AN ECONOMY: U.S.: Land: This Land is Not Your Land, This Land is My Land

FACE OF AN ECONOMY

A Journal of People report

By landmass, the U.S. is the third largest country in the world. It spans over 3.5 million square miles – a huge landmass. In size, the U.S. trails behind China and Russia.

The federal government owns over a quarter of all land in the U.S. However, a vast chunk of this landmass is owned by just a handful of individuals and families.

On the basis of The Land Report magazine’s 2018 Land Report, the 50 largest private landholders in the U.S. as mentioned in this report own a huge mass of land.

FACE OF AN ECONOMY: U.S.: Hunger

FACE OF AN ECONOMY

A Journal of People report

The on-going pandemic has worsened food situation in the United States. The fact is repeatedly told by the mainstream media. A report by Market Watch is one such report.

The report – “‘I can’t believe this is America.’ Confronted with unprecedented need, New York food pantries try to fill in the gaps” – published on August 6, 2020 begins by describing a scene:

“The line for meals on a cloudy Thursday curves around the block.

“Standing 6 feet apart, most wearing masks, guests wait for chicken stew, a green salad, fresh fruit, a sandwich, orange juice, and some iced coffee.”

The report by Azure Gilman narrates a citizen:

FACE OF AN ECONOMY: U.S.: Contradictions Press Small Dairy Farms in Wisconsin

FACE OF AN ECONOMY

A Journal of People report  

Representative Image. Unsplash.  
Photographer: Brian Lundquist.

In the past decade, about half of Wisconsin’s small dairy farms have gone out of business. These farms are facing a downward journey as contradictions in a market economy press them to vanishing point. The farmers’ life is turning hard. A New Yorker (August 17, 2020 issue) report – “How Suffering Farmers May Determine Trump’s Fate” – by Dan Kaufman, author of The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics, (2018) tells the story of this part of the capitalist economy in a lively way.

The report in the New Yorker’s Letter from Wisconsin section begins by describing condition of Jerry Volenec, a dairy farmer from southwestern Wisconsin:

“Last October, Jerry Volenec, a dairy farmer from southwestern Wisconsin, took the morning off to go to Madison for the World Dairy Expo, an annual cattle-judging contest and trade show. Volenec wanted to hear a town-hall discussion led by Sonny Perdue, Donald Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture, to learn how the Administration planned to address the economic crisis gripping Wisconsin’s family dairy farmers.

FACE OF AN ECONOMY: U.S.: Debtors’ prison

A Journal of People report

[EDITORIAL NOTE: To Journal of People, information/facts are important than comments appearing sharp, but haphazard. Information/facts help to learn. And, learning about capitalism, and systems and tricks of exploitation helps dissect and discard the systems and tricks. That’s the reason JoP tries to present facts/information.]

Nearly two centuries ago, the U.S. formally abolished the incarceration of people who failed to pay off debts. Yet, recent years have witnessed the rise of modern-day debtors’ prisons — the arrest and jailing of poor people for failure to pay legal debts they can never hope to afford, through criminal justice procedures that violate their most basic rights.

FACE OF AN ECONOMY: U.S. government could run out of money in early-September

A Journal of People report

The U.S. Treasury issued a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to raise the debt limit. Otherwise, the government would run out of money by early-September.

The letter comes after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell highlighted the importance to lawmakers.

A report – “New Projection: Debt Limit “X Date” Could Arrive in September” (July 8, 2019) – by the Bipartisan Policy Center said the U.S. government may need to raise the debt ceiling by early September, a month earlier than previously forecast. Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist for Capital Economics, said the U.S. government was running out of cash but added that the Treasury Deposit Account still had $250 billion at the end of last week.

FACE OF AN ECONOMY: U.K. facing highest risk of recession since 2007

A Journal of People report

The U.K. is facing the highest risk of a recession since the financial crisis and needs urgent plans to combat the next downturn, according to an alarming assessment of the U.K.’s economic health.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research, one of the UK’s leading economic forecasters, said last week that the UK would only “narrowly avoid a technical recession”, with growth of 0.2% in the third quarter following a decline of 0.1% in the second quarter.

A technical recession occurs with two consecutive quarters in which the economy shrinks.

FACE OF AN ECONOMY: U.S. household debt hits $13.6 trillion and national debt climbs above $22 trillion

A Journal of People report

 

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, household debt increased for the 19th consecutive quarter to $13.67 trillion.

It has been “boosted by increases in mortgage, auto and student loan balances,” the report explained.

According to the new report, total U.S. household debt is now $993 billion higher than the peak of $12.68 trillion in the third quarter of 2008.

U.S. household debt hit an all-time high with about $97 trillion in housing debt and about $4 trillion in non-housing debt. (Source: NY Fed)