So far this year, 113 people have been killed across Chicago, the same number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined in the same period, Fritchey said.

via 2 Chicago state reps: Bring in the National Guard – Chicago Breaking News.

Wow – every once in a while, a well-framed statistic will put the plight of America into perspective. The poor areas of Chicago are the perfect storm of urban decay, neglect of social services, poverty cycles, and violent sub-cultures. Given how rarely the worlds of the poor and affluent overlap in the States, perhaps a call to action as severe as inviting in a branch of the armed forces is what it takes to galvanize the people with the political and financial resources to effect change.

The message that comes out of it is that were finally paying for the hollowing out of our economies. When many of the decent paying, non-professional jobs have fled to cheaper climes, well how about that – many of the non-professional people – like the article’s Ms. Eisen – no longer have anything to do – much less anything to do that can afford them a lifestyle considered more than impoverished.

Structural unemployment is an economic construct that accounts for the fact that we’ll never have 100% unemployment – there will always be a percentage of people that are unsatisfied with their options and looking for a while; people moving between cities and taking time to get established, etc. I think now that there’s a new component: people without the skills to work in our hollowed out “service” economies. While they may eventually be retrained or whathaveyou, in the meantime, I believe policy-makers need to account for a much higher level of structural unemployment on a permanent basis. That will be reflected in social assistance, food stamp programs, housing, child support, and adult education programs.

Canada, I think, won’t feel it as badly when averaged across the nation – we have a robust resource sector to fall back on, ideally positioned to serve Asia’s growth, and keep Canadians as hewers of wood and water (or whatever the turn of phrase is) for some time. But there’s an important policy implication here anyway: a healthy economy allows productive participation at many skill levels, which depends upon nurturing productive and valuable industries. When we let industries get hollowed out, and rationalize the acceptability of the act by pointing to our “service” sector, were really putting all of our economic eggs in one very vulnerable basket.

Remember: we can’t all deliver pizza to each other.

(Yes,  I know I’ve harped on this before. I am unrepentant in my belief in the “rightness” of using policy-levers to shape long-term trends)

Large companies are increasingly owned by institutional investors who crave swift profits, a feat often achieved by cutting payroll. The declining influence of unions has made it easier for employers to shift work to part-time and temporary employees. Factory work and even white-collar jobs have moved in recent years to low-cost countries in Asia and Latin America. Automation has helped manufacturing cut 5.6 million jobs since 2000 — the sort of jobs that once provided lower-skilled workers with middle-class paychecks.

via The New Poor – Despite Signs of Recovery, Long-Term Unemployment Rises – Series – NYTimes.com.

“Shelters are often euphemized as “emergency shelter”… but the emergency is that you have nowhere else to just be and operate, so being AT a “shelter” is the emergency.” [Change.org]

The comments can be summarized as dangerous company and restrictive rules. Its a good view from the inside, and thought provoking as to what can/should be provided to not just get people off the street, but on their feet – i.e.: what are the success factors for “defeating” homelessness for different categories of homeless individuals? Here in Winnipeg, Siloam Mission has done a lot innovative work with positive results, in a media-friendly, visible fashion – I wonder what their comments on the above would be.