Misery loves company

And boy is there a lot of company these days. . .

According to the latest Pew Research Center survey, “The Great Recession at 30 Months,” over half of the U.S. population has taken a direct hit from the capitalist crises:

More than half (55%) of all adults in the labor force say that since the Great Recession began 30 months ago, they have suffered a spell of unemployment, a cut in pay, a reduction in hours or have become involuntary part-time workers.

The numbers are extraordinary.

• The work-related impact of this recession extends far beyond the 9.7 percent who are unemployed or the 16.6 percent who (according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) are either out of work or underemployed. The Pew Research survey finds that about a third (32 percent) of adults in the labor force have been unemployed for a period of time during the recession.
• Most Americans (54 percent) say the U.S. economy is still in a recession.
• More than six-in-ten Americans (62 percent) say they have cut back on their spending since the recession began in December 2007; just 6 percent say they have increased their spending.
• About half the public (48 percent) say they are in worse financial shape now than before the recession began; one-in-five (21 percent) say they are in better shape.
• A third (32 percent) of adults now say they are not confident that they will have enough income and assets to finance their retirement, up from 25 percent who said that in February 2009.
• More than a quarter (26 percent) of Americans say that when their children become the age they are now, their children will have a worse standard of living than they now have.

Clearly, the vast majority of Americans are aware they are being made to pay in the current crises, and their sense of their prospects for the future is bleak.

Having company doesn’t make their misery any easier to accept.