Many reasons to be pessimistic on economy

Our economy lost another 85,000 jobs in December. Just to keep up with population growth, the economy needs to add 127,000 new jobs a month. Economist Paul Krugman says that we'd have to gain 300,000 jobs a month for the next five years to return to where we were before the recession began. We are in for a long period of suffering.

There are many reasons I remain pessimistic about economic recovery:

1) Outsourcing has changed everything. Economist Nouriel Roubini recently said that he expects 20 percent of jobs that exist today to be outsourced to low-wage countries by 2020.

2) There is no movement toward serious regulation of the financial industry. The same guys are still in charge, more or less. All they have managed to do so far is turn their private losses into public debts.

3) Our political system is corrupted by money.

4) The federal deficit is high and rising.

5) Politicians have been bullied into thinking taxes can only be cut.

6) State and local budgets are a shambles.

7) Infrastructure is still deteriorating.

8) We still import much more than we export.

9) Inequalities in income and wealth continue to rise. The Bush administration helped concentrate wealth.

10) Social mobility is declining and we are creating an ever-larger social underclass.

11) Environmental damage costs will come home to roost if we insist on ignoring the issue.

Joyce Deboy

Marion