It's Still the Economy, Stupid

The blogosphere is talking up the New York Times article which reveals the shocking fact that women are getting slammed by the economy as badly as men. Any student of history knows that women are usually even more affected by a bad economy than men. As a larger percentage of single parents, lower wage earners, the poor and fixed-income elderly, rising prices and falling employment rates hit women hard. The real story is how the facts are showing the the much vaunted "Opt-out revolution" of a few years back was actually about women being priced and forced out of the workplace, not about a return to "traditional" motherhood (an idea which ignores the reality of lower-income women, who have always combined paid employment and motherhood).

The labor market is flooded with new graduates and displaced workers, and surprise, surprise, older workers aren't choosing early retirement now the way they have in earlier periods of economic downturn.

Of course people aren't choosing early retirement, they can't afford to!

In the other periods of economic trouble, many workers were still covered by pension plans, veterans' benefits, Social Security that kept up with the cost of living, or other financial support networks that made retirement a viable possibility. Now the only people with pension plans work for the government, everyone's IRA has taken a nose-dive, Republicans keep threatening to destroy Social Security, and I know I'm not the only woman in her 30's wondering what I'm going to live on in 40 years.

The much-discussed housing bubble crash (now complicated by bailouts) has only made this problem more evident, as seniors (the population with the highest rate of home ownership) saw their investment tank while food and gas prices are soaring. Oh, and as a side-note, the financial services and real estate industries gave the most money to candidates in this 2007-08 federal election cycle- $250 million. The situation is looking bleaker, with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke predicting inflation and recession on their way. The California Legislature has taken a step in the right direction, but it won't be enough to save a lot of working families. And unfortunately, the people with the most need for financial literacy often have the lowest levels of knowledge.

And John McCain thinks we should continue Bush's economic policies, including the tax cuts that have bankrupted our nation? Maybe once he learns to use "the Google" he can try a search on "Voodoo Economics."